Why you should mulch your garden

THE BENEFITS OF MULCH

By Anthony

YOUR GARDENS

Simply put, Mulching is an essential part of your landscape maintenance. Beyond providing an improved visual appeal, mulch actually provides various nutritional benefits along with actually helping to protect your plants. There are plenty of types of mulch to suit each unique condition and of course, the benefits of each will vary differently.

Organic Mulch: Woodchips, Straw, Pine Needles, Cocoa bean hulls.

Inorganic Mulch: Stone, Landscape Fabrics, Black Plastic

The most popular mulch is shredded bark, this is because of its very low cost, and it’s ability to breakdown slowly.

REASONS FOR MULCHING YOUR GARDENS

1. Retains more water 

Mulch plays many important roles in your garden, one of which is reducing evaporation. This is achieved by taking the beating from the sun as opposed to the soil which in turn would end up drying it out and damaging everything on it. The mulch takes this allowing the soil below to stay moist with less work.

2. Works to slows erosion

Your garden soil when open to heavy rain, winds, etc, can begin to wash away/spread into surrounding areas which can lead to other potential problems. Mulch helps to provide a barrier keeping your soil in place and protecting it from the elements.

3. Helps water reach deeper with more nutrients

Going back to the first point, Mulch helps prevent evaporation by creating a roof to the surface water. This in turn allows the water to slowly trickle through and make its way deeper into the soil reaching the roots of the plants. While making its way through the mulch, the water actually picks up nutrients and can carry it through to the plants providing even more benefit.

4. Helps in preventing weeds

Bare soil provides the perfect growth environment for weeds to thrive. Mulch works to deprive the weed seeds and their seedlings the sunlight needed to germinate and thrive. Also forcing weeds to grow long and around the mulch in trying to reach the sun as opposed to building strong roots it makes them easier and easier to remove.

5 . Feeds the soil

Organic mulches provide a benefit above the non-organic mulches (plastic, stone, fabric, etc). Organic options actually break down over time, this allows the nutrients and organic matter to