Mulch and more mulch is the mantra of organic gardeners. Mulch can be many things – from the purely decorative and aesthetic to highly functional weed suppressing, soil fertilizing – material. Organic gardeners use mulch to avoid having to use synthetic herbicides on weeds and to reduce the use of pesticides. By protecting the soil, maintaining moisture levels,improving soil structure and increasing the micro flora and fauna in the soil, mulches help plants grow more strongly making them more able to resist pest and disease. Manures, hay, peat, woodchips, and grass clippings are some of the types of mulches that can be used.
These and others are discussed below.
Table of Contents
Sheet mulches are used to put over large areas such as the whole garden bed and include the following:
In some areas trash or vegetable waste is readily available examples are:
When setting up a garden is often necessary to buy in mulches. These could include:
One’s own garden often provides on-going mulch material, such as:
Plastic can be weed mat or simply a sheet of translucent or black plastic. Plastic is laid on the bed and is used to preserve moisture and to kill weeds. Crops are grown in holes put into the plastic. Because water cannot penetrate the plastic, an irrigation system must be put in underneath. Commercially, this irrigation system also carries fertilizer.
The organic Gardner is unlikely to want to do this. He may however wish to put down a sheet of plastic as a weed killer before using the garden.
Paper can be used as a sheet mulch and 3 or 4 sheets of newsprint can make a most effective mulch. It is a good idea to put a little fertilizer underneath the paper. Paper is often used in raised bed or no-dig gardens. Large sheets of cardboard from television set packaging or white goods packaging are a very effective mulch and are often available from local stores.
Woodchips can be aesthetically pleasing, they hold the earth help avoid compaction and erosion of the soil but because they did not breakdown easily they require fertilizer underneath them.
Weed mats are woven plastic material which, theoretically, water is able to penetrate. In many instances however the water runs off and care must be taken to ensure it penetrates. Weed mats tend to fray at the edges and sometimes the threads get caught up with growing weeds or mowers.
Stones and pebbles of various kinds can be aesthetically pleasing. Fist size stones or little larger can be placed around trees and shrubs to collect dew and so help to moisturize the area. Weeds can grow through pebbles and are then hard to eradicate. Usually they are used decoratively on top of another mulch.
In agricultural areas there are often cheap by-products or trash from commercial crops. These can be very useful but of course one has to be certain of their history because they may contain pesticide residues. Types of trash can be from bananas or from corn or sugar cane. Filter ash from sugar cane milling can be a brilliant growing medium but is no longer approved as an organic input in Australia.
Most people will have easy access to baled or plastic wrapped straw or hay. Both are good and will decompose to add valuable nutrients to the soil. However they are not the same; straw has less nitrogen than other grasses and is likely to need a nitrogen boost. On the other hand alfalfa / lucerne hay, has a good balance of carbon and nitrogen and make an excellent mulch. Spoiled meadow hay is often the cheapest available and is a good mulch.
Peat compost is usually available in bags from landscape suppliers. Peat is often suitable for pot plants and small areas and plants that need a fine mulch
Once the garden is established, it should provide home-grown mulch. Leaves, grass clippings de-seeded weeds, prunings, slashings and other cuttings are all grist to the mill
A catch crop can be grown (to ‘catch’ the fertiliser in the soil) and then slashed and an immature stage to provide a mulch for following plantings.
Some forms of companion planting provide living mulches. The large leaf of a pumpkin vine grown among corn provides shade and shelter to the soil.
Animal litter from the henhouse, stable, or goat shed can make an excellent mulch. One should be little careful of sawdust based stable manure as it may contain too much sawdust compared with manure and so lead to nitrogen drawdown.
Horse manure has the ideal carbon nitrogen (C:N) ratio or balance and can be used directly under fruit trees and roses (for example). Be careful not to allow manure to be near vegetables that you intend to eat. Sadly organic gardeners have been poisoned from eating lettuce that had been in contact with manure.
Another form of home-grown mulch is that called by Permaculture practitioners ‘chop and drop’ which is usually a hedge or shrub adjacent to garden which is periodically slashed or trimmed and the cuttings allowed to lie where they drop on the garden.
The many types of mulches and they perform various functions the Gardener should choose that which is suitable for his needs.
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