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Fact Sheet: Mulching

Jerry shares some tips on how to use mulch when preparing a garden bed

Presenter: Jerry Coleby-Williams, 12/10/2013

SERIES 24 Episode 30

Jerry explains how a little mulch can do a lot of work
"I want to share a few tips about mulching when you're preparing a garden bed. The most important thing is to get things in the right order. Now I've dug this bed over, I've added compost and now I'm applying a concentrated farmyard manure," says Jerry.

"By mulching over this, if it rains really heavily, none of this fertiliser is going to be washed away and that's very important. As a side issue, it seals in the odour, it reduces the amount of flies, so mulching over fertiliser will keep you on better terms with your neighbours."

"The thickness of the mulch can have a profound influence on plants. If you've got a seed bed, all you need to put is a veneer of mulch - the thinnest layer. If you water in the morning, that layer will keep the soil cool enough to make the water last until you come home in the evening."

"If you've got a whole bed to plant, I find that planting through the mulch saves an awful lot of fuss. Of course when it comes to mulching trees, a depth up to 10 centimetres is ideal. Any deeper than that and small showers of rain may not penetrate the soil."

Jerry ends, "Soil wasn't meant to be bare - neither was it meant to be buried."
