Garden innovations - mulches

Mulching is an ancient technology to enrich and protect soil, helping provide a better growing environment by keeping water in the soil and preventing the spread of weeds. Mulches can either be organic - such as grass clippings, straw, bark chips, and similar materials - or inorganic, such as stones, brick chips, and plastic. Both organic and inorganic mulches have numerous benefits.

Organic mulches have their place in certain landscapes, but they lack the soil improving properties of organic mulches and, because of their relative permanence may prove hard to remove if you decide to change your garden plans in the future.

Organic mulches have the added benefit of improving the condition of the soil. As these mulches slowly decompose, they provide organic matter which helps keep the soil loose.

• Lawn clippings make excellent mulch. While not particularly attractive for a flower bed, they work wonderfully in the vegetable garden. The fine texture allows them to be spread easily even around small plants.
• Newspaper, as a mulch, works especially well to control weeds - but it's not pretty and may best be kept for the allotment!
• Leaves are another readily available material to use as mulch. Leaf mould is what gives the forest floor its absorbent spongy structure.
• Compost makes wonderful mulch if you have a large supply. Compost not only improves the soil structure but provides an excellent source of plant nutrients.
• Bark chips and composted bark mulch are available commercially. These make a neat finish to the garden bed and will eventually improve the condition of the soil. These may last for one to three years or more depending on the size of the chips or how well composed the bark mulch is.
• Hay and straw work well in the vegetable garden, although they may harbour weed seeds.
• Seaweed mulch, and pine needles, can also be used. Pine needles tend to increase the acidity of the soil so they work best around acid-loving plants such as rhododendrons.

Garden innovation mulch photograph by carabou, used under a creative commons attribution licence.