MORE ABOUT MULCHING.

Golden ripple cherry tomatoesTo see a former post called Mulching Matters go to the Organic Gardening category in the November archives. 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

In that post I showed how I had used clippings from a fallen wisteria vine to mulch an area around self-sown Golden Ripple cherry tomato seedlings. I bought the first packet of seed from the Diggers Garden Club about 1994 and ever since then these tomatoes have volunteered to grow each year in my garden. All the fruit eating birds feast on them and then spread the seed throughout my entire garden. Mostly, I weed them out, but I always leave some plants to bear fruit each summer.

Wisteria mulch

Eight weeks after this green wisteria mulch was laid around the tomato seedlings we could begin harvesting these little cherry tomatoes for salads or for my favourite Lemon & Tomato Marmalade.

Today I once again turned my attention to mulching. It was time to harvest the pumpkins and I had a Korean girl wwoofer, Kerry, to assist me.

Kerry gathering pumpkins

I explained to Kerry that she must cut the pumpkins free from the vines, because if she pulled them she might break the stem away from the flesh, thus creating a wound where rot could enter. I then showed her how to stack the pumpkins on their sides, to allow air to circulate around them. In this way pumpkins may be stored for months and will usually keep throughout the winter. Pumpkins are a staple vegetable in Australian diets, peeled, boiled and mashed or baked in the same manner as potatoes.

Stacked pumpkins

As you will see from the above photograph I have grown several types of pumpkins, but the striped ones would be crossbred seedlings which volunteered in my garden compost. Probably they are a cross between striped Jap Pumpkins and the orange coloured heirloom Butter Pumpkin.

I told Kerry there would be no need to remove the dried pumpkin vines. We would cover them with sheets of newspaper and then add a thick layer of loose mulch.

Firstly, we had to remove Patches from her comfortable bed in a box of saved newspapers.

Patches

I had been busily cutting back wisteria vines and lemon balm which became the first layer of mulch to be laid over the newspapers.

Then I cut away a lot of the lower, loose foliage hanging from the Isabella grape vines.

Grape foliage

As I trimmed the vines, I cut them into short lengths for easy management. Kerry loaded them into the barrow and pushed them to the former pumpkin patch.

Kerry

We spread the mulch thickly over the newspaper. As I trim back various woody shrubs and vines around the garden they will be used this year to form such mulch, but lush growth, grass with seeds and weed plants will still be composted.

Compost bin

Mulch over newspaper

When mulching in this manner the newspaper blacks out the light and prevents the germination of any unwanted plants. Rain will penetrate the loose leaves and soak the papers, which by the spring will be well rotted. The woody stems prevent the leaves packing down to form an impervious sheath against rain. They also hold the leaves in place as they dry, preventing them from blowing all over the garden. Thus it is better to gather some such deciduous leaves while still green, rather than rake them up after they have fallen and are blowing in the wind. But, I never prune back my vines and shrubs severely. That is a winter job after the fruiting buds have set for the next season. A hard pruning at the end of summer would trigger fresh growth in the autumn, not the spring.

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 send an email to helwig@halenet.com.au The price is $33.00 posted to destinations within AustraIia.

Internationally it is available on

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

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

Technorati Tags: Australian, compost, Glen Aplin, mulch, mulching, Patches, pumpkin, Wildflowers wilderness and wine, WWOOF

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