Mulch without membrane

Man! There are weeds everywhere! If only the things I wanted to grow were so vigorous
In some areas of the garden I have weedproof membrane which I’ve planted through and covered with bark/gravel and that works very well. Some beds are already planted though, so no way I could lay membrane. So how well do mulches really work on top of bare soil?
Obviously a thorough weed before laying it, anything else to do? Can’t really put weedkiller down in among all my plants, it’s tight in spots. Under the hawthorn hedge is a major weedspot especially.
I bought strulch recently from crocus, to try it. A friend who opens her garden for rgs highly recommended it, and I could buy from her bulk purchase if I decided it was worth it. So far, the slugs have stayed off my delphinium

 

retaining moisture isn’t something I have to worry about! Waterlogging is more my problem, but it doesn’t stop the weeds! Good note about tree surgeons, is it the produce from their chippers? I’ve been waiting for Asda to get it back in @ 3 70l for a tenner

 

I have a friend who’s a tree surgeon, I’ll enquire

 

A good thick mulch.....4" or so will suppress weeds daisybelle but you need to weed the area first. Weed and loosen the soil then mulch. Most anything....leaf mould,,garden compost, mushroom compost, bark chips, etc. will do the job.
Personally, I detest weed membrane......weeds will establish in it, the soil beneath it becomes lifeless, birds cannot forage in it, plants are difficult to plant or remove, and it simply is AWFUL and looks AWFUL.

 

If only life was perfect @Verdun. I sort of agree with you about membrane but (that well used word) if needs must re membrane.
I have a huge garden which I try to manage more or less single handed. About 4 years ago as I am not getting any younger I decided I just had to do something to help the never ending weeding here so gave in and got membrane for only the shrub borders. I agree if you have all the time in the world and are young and able then membrane should be a no no.
I don't agree however that it looks awful. You can't see mine at all as it is covered with bark. As I got proper bark not wood chips it has hardly degraded and I do not get weeds growing on top of the membrane. I do however, STILL get Spanish Bluebells making their way through it, despite it being really good quality tough membrane If you are careful it isn't difficult to remove plants and if you want to plant through it you just cut out a hole to do so. Below can you see the membrane?

It's there alright. I do 100% agree that birds get a bit cheesed off with it and I spend a while putting back the bark they have smothered the driveway with but they do have vast areas of garden where there isn't membrane plus acres and acres of surrounding fields to forage in so don't feel too sorry for them!

 

Yeah, weed membrane makes life manageable. Mine is also bark covered and the way the birds chuck that about, there must be something living in it worth them hunting

 

I had a couple of areas I was struggling to get the time to weed etc so I emailed a couple of tree surgeons and got 1.5 ton for £30, he had to be able to just tip it at the front of house as not bagged. I wasn't bothered about acidity etc I just wanted coverage. (Central Scotland)

 

Membrane is great for underlaying gravel paths but otherwise not for me

I once had to take every plant out of a garden that had been planted through membrane. It had bark chips over it but still showed through in places where bark had moved or worn out. Topping up the bark too seemed silly as it did nothing but hide the membrane. ,Difficult to feed properly too. Plants, when replanted, thrived after that.

A friend of mine with almost 6 acres once decided to use masses of membrane...when a lavendar hedge died we had to remove membrane and lavendar; messy job. I think the lavendar didnt enjoy the membrane either. She is forever cursing the widespread use of membrane esp when she wants to make new plantings

Daisybelle, birds are searching through the bark chips but the soil underneath is denied to them.

I fully understand why folk use membrane but in most average size gardens a living mulch is far more environmentally preferable. A freshly mulched soil looks great too

 

I thought the black stuff would be a good idea once upon a time, but found that it was not. When I took it all up a couple of years ago and dug the ground over there didn`t seem to be many worms, and the soil was like a shiny splodge of plasticine. The ground elder, and deep rooted perennial weeds were doing very well though - difficult to get them out through the membrane.

Now the plants are doing well, and I mulch - with spent mushroom compost which is economical, or lately ''peat plus'' from a firm online, which is also a good bet. it enriches the soil and keeps the weeds down too. The birds in our neighbourhood like me now they feed on worms!

 

When I win the Lottery I'll get rid of the membrane and employ 3 full time gardeners who just might be able to keep the garden weed free. Not only is my garden a good 2 acres +it is surrounded by our fields some of which are quite weedy as we use as little weedkiller as possible plus the verges on the road are wild containing every weed known to man. As for birds and wildlife, my herbaceous borders (without membrane) are a mass of bees every summer, I grow at least 10 Buddleia which I don't particularly like for the Butterflies, allow anything up to about 15 nesting pairs of Swallows to bring up their young in our stables (oh boy the mess) and last year we had 6 House Martins making use of our house to build their nest on (oh boy the mess again), so think we ain't doing a bad job of supporting our wildlife. I have been approached 4 times in the last 16 years by developers wanting to buy our house and land so they can build god knows how many houses on it and offered huge amounts of money to "get out". Yes it would be very easy to sell up and let yet another lovely area disappear under tarmac, a bit of "help" is all I needed to give me a chance of keeping on top of my garden. Oh yes and I ran a plant sale last year for charity making over £3000. The money went to a hedgehog sanctuary and an international equine charity. Maybe the foregoing might just about justify me using a few metres of membrane,by using it I had the time to run the sale as before using it there was barely time to do much other than weed weed and weed again.

 

I have never used any kind of membrane. I prefer to live and let live. In this context basically, IMO the soil deserves to live also. Lets be honest, what we call weeds. They will eventually turn up almost anywhere. Even in the labs, I have seen tiny fungi suddenly appear. No problem. May I please offer a tip or two relating to mulches and the like.
Typical day in the garden. "Look at that. B***** weeds grow better than my plants. Remember even weed seeds can be airborne.

So You have your mulch, now what? Please lightly prick over the area you wish to mulch. This proveds a kind of gripping/mixing point. Apply a layer of mulch, whatever it may consist of, now work that into the soil also, the gradually apply the rest of the load. Imagine seeing this sideways on. Simply dumping a load of whatever on the soil. Yes it will cover over etc but, it will stay as a layer. Think of strata.
Where such nulches consist of decorative bark chippings, yes the garden looks good, but say every two years or so, get in there and dig the area over. That actually is when the mulch/chippings will truly benefit the soil.