Mulch and how to use it

It’s time to mulch beds and borders, but what to use and how much are the keys, says Tim

- Tim Rumball

MULCHING the soil in flower, shrub, and veg beds suppresses weeds, holds in moisture, looks smart and can help to feed plants as it breaks down in the long term. A mulch can be any material spread over the surface of the soil in a continuous layer. This can include gravel, broken slate, fabrics, and other inorganic substances, but the most common are organic materials such as garden compost, grass clippings, and straw, or decorative wood and bark chippings.

Compost, grass, and straw break down fairly quickly (within six months) returning nutrients to the soil – which is a good thing, but they’ll need replacing or topping up every year. Wood and bark chippings take around four years to decompose so they’re great for shrub borders.

All mulches bring a decorative uniformity to garden beds. Homemade garden compost looks good and works well anywhere, but is unlikely to be entirely weed-free so wherever you use it you’ll still need to patrol with the hoe. Bagged multi-purpose compost from the garden centre makes great mulch as it’s weed-free, but it will work out expensive.

Using grass and straw