MULCHING MATTERS

During the past weekend when we opened our garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B for the Australian Open Garden Scheme, I was frequently asked about my mulching methods. I use several methods of mulching but they are all intended to serve these purposes.

• To stifle weed growth
• To prevent evaporation of moisture
• To keep the ground cool
• To prevent erosion

Most green ground covers serve the same purpose, provided they have sufficient water to encourage their continual growth.

Ivy as a ground cover

I planted this ivy in 1993 to grow over an old tree stump situated in the garden at the rear of the house. This is the western side and after soil and rocks had been moved to build the guest wing of our house this spot looked like a dessert with white dusty soil and raw boulders. I hired Frank and his bobcat to create a rocky upper terrace above this portion of the garden. My priority was then to green my summer view by planting deciduous fruit trees and to cover a couple of old tree stumps with vines.

Beside the second stump I planted a wisteria vine. As it grew I twirled it around the stump and over the years pruned back the top to form a bushy tree. One of my friends described it as looking like an ancient wisteria treated as a Bonsai specimen. Every spring this wisteria blossomed, bring perfume to my garden and joy to my heart.

Wisteria - spring 2008

Then a week ago, during a heavy storm, the top heavy vine blew over breaking off the old, rotted wooden stump at the ground. Half down, it remained supported on one of the raised garden beds I had created this year from recycled sheets of a rusty iron water tank.

Fallen wisteria

This morning, with the aid of a Korean WWOOF girl, I set to with secateurs and saw to reduce the vine to mulch. After I have removed the rotten stump, I will find another support for the vine.

On the opposite side of this path, I had already established tomato and Italian parsley seedlings. To protect them from being buried by fresh wisteria leaves, which will create considerable heat as they rot down, I placed empty pots around the seedlings. I had firstly removed the base from each pot to form a protective tube.

Tomato seedling

The next step was to snip all the twiggy, leafy portions from the vine and toss them loosely around the pots. This is rule number one with mulch. Mulch must be kept loose. My ground was already well soaked from the rain, but future rain must be able to penetrate the wisteria leaves as they decompose. They can’t be allowed to stick together like sheets of paper. Allowing some wood to remain with the leaves will create a support structure through which the water may trickle down.

The worst mistake gardeners make with mulch is dumping grass clippings so thickly that they form a carpet and like thatch allow no penetration of water through to the soil below.

Dry grass mulch

Such grass clippings are best mixed with rough leaves and placed in a compost bin. When available, I use Lucerne (alfalfa) hay throughout my garden, because it is a legume and enriches the soil as it breaks down, which it does rapidly. Thus, it is an expensive mulch as it needs to be replaced yearly. I also find it difficult to persuade my WWOOF workers to break it up roughly and place it thickly around my plants. The easiest way to prevent them damaging my seedlings and to indicate how deep the mulch should be, I use hollow pots like these I have placed around cosmos plants.

Cosmos seedlings

Very shortly the fern like foliage of the tall growing cosmos will shade the mulch to keep it cool and damp.

Deep wisteria mulch

The black pots protecting the seedlings can barely be seen amongst the fresh wisteria leaves, but by tomorrow the leaves will have wilted and the top of the pots will be clearly visible. The black hose on this path carries away the gray water from our bio-cycle system, to be recycled on to plants further down the garden.

Although future rain will penetrate this loose cover of wisteria leaves and soak the whole garden bed, it will not be necessary for me to water all this soil during dry periods, only the portion reached by the roots of the tomatoes and parsley plants.

Cow pats

If you can obtain cow pats, they make a superb garden mulch. I do not break dry patties up, but place them loosely to cover the ground around seedlings. Here they are enriching the ground for healthy tomato specimens planted early in the spring. These hard pats shed water off their surface in the same manner as rocks. After the water has soaked into the ground they shade the soil and prevent evaporation. Earthworms and other soil dwellers break down the pats from underneath, adding their fertility to the soil. The only problem with this form of mulch is that seed of weeds and grasses eaten by the cattle will be included in their manure. Thus, beside my tomatoes and lemon balm in this plot have appeared kikuyu grass and a wild turnip weed.

Roma tomatoes

Again with this form of mulching, if hand watering, only water the roots of the plant.

This morning, I was discussing using rocks as a ground cover, with a visiting gardener. He told me of a friend in a fire prone district, who had been advised to remove any flammable mulch and replace it with stones. Good advice. I have used rocks throughout my garden and in two places planted mondo grass between them. In my lawn area the slabs of granite keep the earth cool and provide additional run-off water to the grass. In the same manner grass growing beside a sealed road is often green in times of drought, attracting kangaroos to feed on road verges.

Mondo grass and granite

All mulches protect the soil from erosion, by breaking the energy of a downpour. I built a dry creek bed to take the overflow from my rain-water tanks. Once the tanks are filled during storm rains, the water falls with force down the overflow pipe and gushes forth in a quick flowing stream. My downpipes are placed so that the energy of the water is broken by hitting rocks forcing it to spread widely, before flowing away amongst other rocks and mondo grass.

Overflow

If you have any questions concerning mulches, please ask.

Book Cover

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au

Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

Technorati Tags: Australian, compost, Das Helwig Haus B&B, erosion, Glen Aplin, mulch, mulching, rocks, Wildflowers wilderness and wine, wisteria, WWOOF

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