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ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot
Each week, Carolyn writes about what she is doing in the garden, the orchard, the greenhouse, with seed saving and soil building, with the intention of helping gardeners of all levels realize they can have the most healthy, productive, and beautiful garden without resorting to substances harmful to humans, animals, plants, or the myriad of soil-dwelling organisms.
Mulch is an odd sounding term for layers of organic material that are added to soil. The practice of mulching caught on in the ‘70s, and it’s now de rigueur for conscientious gardeners, who endlessly expound its virtues.
Benefits of mulching:
· There is less water loss from the soil.
· Weed growth is suppressed.
· Plants are protected from soil temperature extremes.
· Mulching helps feed the soil: layers of organic matter gradually break down to form humus, which provides a source of nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as many trace elements.
· It lightens clay-based soils and bulks up sandy soils.
· The soil is protected from wind erosion and plants have an extra blanket of protection throughout the winter.
Mulch materials:
Compost, grass clippings, manure, leaves, wood chips, pine needles, straw, hay, coffee grounds, and even weeds (with no seeds). Technically, non-organic materials, such as landscape fabric, gravel, and rocks can also provide a mulch, but avoid materials that may break down and contaminate the soil, such as black plastic and cedar or treated wood chips.
Required amount:
A three-inch layer of mulch is usually applied. If you want to spread that depth over a 200-square-foot garden, you will need two cubic yards of material, or enough to fill a four-foot-square compost bin. To determine how many full bins of compost you will need to spread a three-inch layer over your garden beds, calculate the square footage of your garden.
When to mulch:
For maximum benefit, mulch garden beds every fall, immediately after the final cleanup, which includes cutting the plants back and weeding. It’s the last thing we do in the garden, before putting it to bed for the winter.
As well as increasing biological activity in the soil and providing food for plants, mulch covers weed seeds so they will not germinate. Surveying tidy garden beds covered in a cozy layer of mulch is very satisfying.
Before covering beds with mulch, replace plant labels while you can still identify them. Tomato cages work well for marking bulbs, peonies, and dahlia tubers. Place cages over any areas you wish to remain undisturbed. In hot weather, mulch acts as an insulating barrier, preventing evaporation and locking moisture in the soil. Never mulch when the ground is cold or waterlogged.
Potential problems:
Wood-based mulches, such as sawdust or wood chips, and hay, straw, and leaves can temporarily tie up nitrogen as they start to decompose. Supplementing with additional nitrogen may be necessary if plants show signs of nitrogen deficiency stress, such as yellowing.
Some gardeners fear that damp layers of mulch will provide a breeding ground for bugs and slugs. It’s true that insect populations will increase due to the decomposition of the mulch, but, for the most part, these are the good insects that cause your plants no harm, busy at work assisting in breakdown. To avoid attracting slugs in the wet spring, wait until the rains are over and the soil has warmed up. Usually by spring, mulch spread in the fall has broken down to the point that it does not present problems. If fungal problems occur, spread mulch out more thinly, or remove it from under plants to increase air circulation.
Metric conversions:
Three inches = 7.6 centimetres
Two hundred square feet = 18.6 square metres
Two cubic yards = 1.53 cubic metres
Four square feet = 1.21 square metres
From A Year on the Garden Path, A 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide by Carolyn Herriot. $29.95. Earthfuture Publications, Victoria, BC. Available from Banyen Books and Duthie Books or
www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath
Carolyn Herriot has been operating The Garden Path Organic Plant Nursery in Victoria since 1989, from which grew her organic seed business, Seeds of Victoria. Carolyn shares her passion for gardening by way of lectures and as a garden writer, and appears weekly on Get Up and Grow and the Go show on Global and CHTV.
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