We’re getting into the summer season and the days are getting hotter and the weeds are growing faster. One of the tricks in the gardener’s toolkit is mulches. Mulches have many benefits, including suppressing weeds, conserving soil moisture, moderating soil temperature and minimizing the splashing of soil onto lower leaves during rain or watering (which can introduce diseases such as wilt and blight that harbor in the soil). Organic mulches will also decompose over the season and eventually enrich the soil. Mulches do have some negatives, such as providing a place for pests such as slugs to hide during hot summer days, but I think the advantages outweigh the negatives.
Now is the time to consider mulching, before plants get bigger, the weeds get out of hand, and the soil dries out. It is often useful to see what other gardeners are doing, so I took a stroll around the garden today to do a survey of mulching techniques. Our gardeners are using an interesting variety of techniques, the simplest and cheapest being the dust mulch. What do you like to use for mulch?
