Autumn Mulching

Not done any mulching in Autumn before.

Do the summer plants coming to the end have to be cut back before applying mulch for the winter.

 

Hi some i do but tend to leave some for the wildlife over winter but i do protect their roots i use bark,if i have any but i tend to use newspaper and raise some off the ground and put some in a plastic greenhouse at least its some protection

 

Think it depends on what you are using for the Mulch, if its something very slow to degrade like bark etc then ok, but if is more like well rotted garden compost we tend to apply it in Spring as puting it on now all its goodness will probably be washed away by all the winter rains.

 

Does this not suppose that the rotted compost contains some kind of soluble substance that can be leached, whereas the reality of composted vegetable matter is that it provides feedstock of organic matter upon which soil organisms can work to exchange with plant roots for sugars from photosynthesis?
It is correct to feed the soil, not the plant.
Mulch layers are useful also to provide a layer of humus which creates storage for water in addition to being a physical barrier to the penetration of frost that could destroy root and kill micro-organisms.

 

Thats why we used the terms "probably" and "goodness" as never been able to get a clear answer to how the heavy winter rains affect the mulch/compost or the soils ability to retain nutrients and micro organisms etc.

 

Some of my garden gets mulch though out the year. it would be a huge feat to save it all for just the fall, too large of a garden. Other parts do not get mulched as the denseity of the shrubs kill out weeds, and well established plants seem to not need that comfort. Also in some areas, with re-seeders I can't mulch, that would kill babies in the spring.

 

I try to put compost on my allotment veg beds as the crops come out over autumn and winter. It gets turned into a nice tilth by the frosts and so makes a good medium to plant into in spring. I'd do the same for the flower/shrub beds at home but I don't have enough compost so they go without, although all my neighbours have a lot of trees that drop leaves on the flower beds so they get that instead.

I also pick up a lot of seaweed during November or December and put some of that on the veg beds. Kelp dissappears by spring but bits of bladderwrack can still be visible a year later. I'm assuming it makes a decent slow release fertilizer of sorts.

 

Might it be best to keep this to beds for brassicaes where the salt content be best tolerated, and mycorrhizae is of lesser importance? Seaweed in this region (Solent) would come with all the benefits (?)of humanure!

 

I have just put a nice ring of seaweed around my brassicas in the hope that it might deter slugs and snails. It probably has a bit of salt in it but I took it from above the tide line after rain so I'm thinking it won't have so high a salt content. Very good for moisture retention.

 

Yes I tend to put it more heavily on the brassicas. Although I've also put it between alliums with no obvious detriment.

I think the salt content is negligible, at least for the amounts I use

 

To try to answer your question, welshone () that depends on two things...which summer plants, and what are you using for mulch?
Slightly tender stuff like Cannas and Dahlias can be cut down and ideally be mulched with something fairly dry. Annuals can be cut right down, seed recuperated if wanted, and then mulch applied. Look forward to hearing further if there are specific plants that we can advise on