Hello, today I'm going to talk about mulch. I'm Liz Zorab and this is Byther Farm.
You hear gardeners talk about mulch and particularly organic gardeners who tend
to go on and on about using mulch and there's a really good reason for it.
So what is mulch? It is a layer that you put over the surface of the soil and
there are several really good reasons for doing that first of all a layer that
excludes the light will reduce the amount of weeding that needs to be done
because without the lights a lot of weed seeds won't germinate the second and
really useful thing it does is it locks moisture down into the soil so if you
put a mulch layer on to damp soil so if you've watered the soil or it's been
raining and you put a layer of mulch just a couple of inches will do that
will hold that moisture down into the soil make it available for the plants to
use and reduce the amount of evaporation due to that glorious sunshine and the
other thing which is possibly the most important is when you use an organic
matter on the ground whether it's woodchips or homemade
compost straw hay newspaper there's a whole load of different things that you
can use as a mulch these things will all return nutrients to the soil and because
worms do what worms do they will come up from the soil and they will take your
mulch layer down and incorporate it and mix it into the soil and it will improve
the soil it will improve the soil structure and it can improve the soils
microbiology so they're the living organisms within the soil in this bed
I've used homemade compost so this is this is lovely stuff this has been made
over the last a couple of years through a cold
composting method and it's around this comfrey plants and all these young
flowers that I've put in I know there are tens of worms and this bed so
they'll be coming up to take this mulch down over the next year or so but in the
meantime it will reduce the weeds it'll keep the moisture in and you can see
I've watered in the last day or so and the soil is staying together because
it's moist enough this soil has had very little mulch on it and you can see it's
it's been baked hard by the Sun the soil is like well it's just like dust so this
really needs next time it rains and so that this hasn't now I got some moisture
in it I need to bring more mulch over and lock that moisture into the ground
and add in those nutrients and the mulch will also help to suppress some of this
weed growth as well it's a whole host of materials that can be used as mulch s
one of my favorites is woodchips and these will break down over time and be
highly water attentive we had a heavy rain storm about 10 days ago but none
since then so the top surface is really dry and the this is actually on some
paper sacks because I'm trying to exclude the light from any weeds but
underneath the paper sacks the soil is it is still really moist I can it's
holding together it's doing a really good job so wood
chips on top of paper sacks do an amazing amazing job of mulch and those
are time this will break down and it will add the organic matter into the
soil another mulch that I like to use is
grass clippings so these came from my neighbors they don't put anything on
their grass they just cut it and bring it around for us so you can see it's
really dried out on the top and underneath it still looks a little green
and Erica from Eric's of the Welsh garden and I were talking about this
what an amazing job grass clippings do for keeping the ground moist and there
you can see how dark that soil is where the moistures retains in it let's tuck
that back up so I use this as a mulch around my potatoes and the next lot will
then get put that much higher up around potatoes to exclude the light from the
stems and when I lift the potatoes I've just put my hand in and find the
potatoes and leave as much of the mulch on the ground as possible and then over
the winter that will all break down it will add its nutrients to the soil and
bit by bit we are improving the soil structure all the time the other thing
that I have access to an awful lot of is used chicken bedding now this is very
strong it's very very high in alkalinity so it needs to sit in a heap and rest
for at least 12 to 18 months if not longer so that it doesn't actually burn
the plants that you are growing around it or in it but once it's rested and
it's started breaking down it's also really good it's really high in nitrogen
and again the soil underneath it is very moist and it's poor little plant needs a
water but it's very good at retaining the moisture and as long as I actually
remember I had some water the plants when I first put them in this mulch will
help lock that moisture down for the plants I also use weed suppressing
membrane as a mulch and here is literally just to suppress the weeds and
effectively I'm just clearing this area of weeds it's had a lot of grass it's a
lot of stinging nettles and a lot of duck leaves so the mulch is down for
this season and in the winter I will cover take I'll take the plastic up and
then I'll cover this area in organic matter and allow that to look itself
into the soil for the winter and then this area would be lovely for growing in
next year in the meantime I've made some small holes in the membrane and I've
planted in some squashes you can see they're drooping in the heat it is it is
just incredibly hot at the moment so they've had a water in I'm trying to
restrict it so once or maybe twice a week and then I'm giving each plants are
good a good bucket low load of water so that the soil all around it gets a
really good drink as well and then leave it because what I want the plants to do
is to put their roots down really deep and an access water at lower levels
rather than if you've water it little and often the roots will stay near the
surface where the water is and then you'll need to keep on watering them
whereas if they get their roots deeper down to the lower levels where the water
is more likely to be what's going to have a
longer healthier plants around plants I've put some grits and this is mainly
because I've cut a hole in the weed suppressant membrane reading the grit to
hold the loose pieces down so they don't flap around in the wind but it will also
help suppress the weed growth where the opening is and because anywhere that the
lights can get in the weeds will come up through so just a little bit of grit
which is actually and poultry grit but it is what I had for hand so that's what
I've used so they're little bit of shelves hand flinch in it but it's just
as a weight it's holding it down now that's not going to add many nutrients
to the soil but it's a very clay soil so next year when this is actually on the
soil rather than on the membrane this will help open up that very very soil a
little bit this bed has two different mulches on it this one is a duck bedding
and unlike chicken bedding this is mild enough to be able to put straight on to
the beds so you just put it on and it will be fine and the other thing I've
got which just went on this morning at its pond weed
one of my neighbors have got quite a big pond and they've got this weed in it and
I would consider this an invasive weed I wouldn't want it in my pond my Ducks
love to eat it so if I do put it anywhere near the duck pond they
immediately I've tried several times growing it for them in the pond but
they've just eaten it however the neighbor very kindly lets us have huge
quantities of this which high in nutrients high in nitrogen breaks down
quite quickly and mixed with the straw from the debt
betting very quickly forms a really nice compost and in the meantime it's great
for excluding the light from around the potato plants inside the Brassica tunnel
here I really need to get some mulch on the ground it's very very dry and
there's weeds springing up everywhere there's also lots of plants that I
wouldn't mind keeping so there's some Otto plants have sprung up and when I
was trying to think about what to do in here I saw a post on social media and
from a woman called Katy Shepard who teaches permaculture and she was showing
a pile of seeds that she was going to be using on the ground as a mulch so I'm
gonna do the same thing in the Brassica tunnel here so I'm gonna chop and drop
the weeds so I literally chop them up off drop them on the ground as long as
they haven't gone to seed they can break down in situ and return their nutrients
to the soil and then I'm going to scatter a lot of seeds and create and
living mulch so the plants will grow up there will be edibles and there'll be
flowers for pollinators and they'll thought-form a thick layer underneath
these brassicas and these are tall brassicas there's cavalo Nero kale
Brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli the ones on the outer edges are
cabbages which will come out in a few months time and that will leave a
complete area of growing living mulch most of which will be edible and it's
it's like a form of of extreme into planting I'm really excited to get going
with this
well that's it for me today I'm gonna get on with shifting some of these wood
chips these ones are going down onto the path and they will break down for a
couple of years before I add them to the beds as a mulch on the beds and so
wherever you are in the world and whatever you've got planned for today I
hope it's a good one and I also hope you'll join me again next time