about mulch

In response to someone's homework today I put this post up. http://permaculturevisions.com/mulch-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ http://permaculturevisions.org Mulch – The good, the bad and the ugly Mulch, in the long term, for the garden or farm can never be bad. It is always useful to reduce evaporation, protect the soil and worms from erosion and increase your store of organic material. In the short term, throwing mulch on without considering the effect can result in undesired effects. If you apply: the mulch too thinly – this can result in a light cover that encourages existing plants and seeds to thrive (they are simply ‘top dressing’ the weeds). fresh grass clippings, pulled weeds or prunings you might find that it contained grass seed or that some plants resprout where you don’t want them. material that has not yet decomposed, you might start to witness nitrogen draw-down (when the leaves of plants near the mulch begin to turn yellow). It is wise to put a good layer of compost or aged urine or manure underneath the top layer of ‘green’ material. mounds of fresh clippings that can generate heat and burn the plants below (this can be handy if you are wanting to burn out an area). Usually it is wise to keep the mulch in a heap until it has stopped burning (the burning kills weed seed within the heap too, so it is handy) then apply the mulch when it has cooled. hair for mulch hair as mulch heavy mulch full of naturally occurring allelopathic chemicals (such as eucalytpus) – this will not be kind to any tender, unaccustomed plants. Basically, be aware that non-natives may not like native mulches. putting mulch too close to the trunks of your trees can kill them. They can develop collar rot where the trunk suffocates, gets too wet and rots away. Some materials do not decompose quickly (hair, old wool, re-used cotton) so are good long term protection. The ideal mulch is living mulch which replenishes itself year after year. This mulch can be edible such as sweet potato (kumura). April Sampson-Kelly