Mulch

What exactly is Mulch? Can I make it myself, with grass clippings from the lawn, or is there more to it?

 

As I understand it, mulch is a protective layer put around plants. It can be grass clippings, bark, shredder produce or even pebbles and gravel. The trouble with grass clippings is that in cool weather they rot down and harbour slugs, in hot weather they dry out and blow about!

 

'Green' mulch as far as I'm aware takes up nitrogen during decomposition which is another good reason for not using grass clippings until they have rotted down.

A layer of mulch should help to reduce water loss from the soil due to evaporation, supress weed growth due to cutting off light and if bio-degradable will be drawn down into the soil over time by worms thus improving the condition of the soil.

In a nutshell - It cuts down on weeding and watering and does the soil a bit of good too.

It's a bit like the human equivalent of a good sun barrier cream/skin lotion

[ 16. May 2006, 11:47 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

Mulch is great. The simplest stuff would be out of your compost heap (if you have one) just before it completely rots down into the good stuff. It will keep the moisture in, help suppress the weeds and as it continues to rot down it will act as a slow release feed for the soil. Yum!