Do you mulch? Ah, the cocktail-party conversations of the gardener.
What is mulch? Basically, it’s a layer of rough and useful material that you place on your garden. Mulch can be used to protect the soil, to enrich the soil, and to add air pockets to the soil.
A green mulch or a green manure is the name for plants that not only provide winter cover for the garden, they also provide nutrients come spring. Clover, winter rye and legumes are excellent green mulches. Fava beans can be planted in the fall and then turned over into the garden in the spring. Plants that take nitrogen from the air and bring it into the soil are especially useful green mulches, since they keep the soil stable and protected over the winter and act as a fertilizer for your vegetable garden too!
This spring and summer, you may be looking at moving an area of your garden into production as a flower or vegetable garden. Often, this involves removing grass or suppressing weeds. Mulch is perfect for this task as well. Use large, rough mulches like cardboard or old wool carpet to kill off the grass before you try to dig it up.
As spring and summer roll around, you can use mulches to enrich your soil as well. Use mulch to add bulk and aerate the soil. These mulches can be as diverse as coffee grounds, shredded paper, or rough compost from the backyard bin.
In the fall, use the products of autumn to your advantage. At a fall fair, angle for some straw after the fair is done. Leaves and straw can act as a winter blanket on the garden and protect it from the ravages of the rain and the snow.
Mulch is a fabulous tool for the lazy gardener. It bulks up the soil, helping air enter. It reduces competition from weeds, which means that there are fewer weeds for you to pull come spring. It also acts as a blanket for plants and soil. As the winter and spring winds blow and the rain falls, mulch helps keep the soil on the ground.