Mulching - what do you use?

Posts

• josusa47 Posts: 3,530

  June 2020

  That sounds expensive to me. My garden isn't very big but I know from volunteering in the park that a tonne of anything doesn't go very far when you start spreading it on the ground.  
  
  I've never bought mulch, I mulch with whatever I've got, or can get for nothing.  Home-made compost, mown grass (but only in spring when there are no seeds in it), shredded hedge clippings, leaf mould made from leaves swept off the street, seaweed gathered from the beach, and a pulp I make from torn cardboard soaked in freshly-voided urine. (It doesn't smell, honest!)  I don't suppose any of these would supply the quantities you need.  Unless you're near the sea and have a vehicle that could shift enough seaweed.  In my experience, it is very slow to break down.

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• K67 Posts: 2,506

  June 2020 edited June 2020

  I always use bagged manure but then 6 bags do my small garden.
  Have used a product called Strulch which was lightweight and supposed to last 3 years , unless like me you had plants in the wrong places and it got mixed with the soil when moving them.
  www.cpa-horticulture.co.uk is good.
  Sorry not sure why website links aren't working

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• polb Posts: 198

  June 2020

  Thanks your mulching sounds varied which I think must be great for the soil. We don't live near the sea unfortunately. We do use leaf mould and our own compost but it doesn't go far, so we save that for certain areas of the garden. I'd just like to be able to put a lot down to improve our clay soil in time and suppress weeds as well as give the plants some nutrients. Just wondered if there was a good supplier out there that someone could recommend?

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• polb Posts: 198

  June 2020

  Thanks K67 for the website - looks good and plenty of choice! 
  
  

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• K67 Posts: 2,506

  June 2020

  Our posts coincided 
  www.cpa-horticulture.co.uk

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• Topbird Posts: 8,355

  June 2020 edited June 2020

  A bulk bag of bark costs around the £100 mark here too (Suffolk) so I don't think your supplier is taking the p**s. I'd expect spent mushroom compost to be a bit cheaper. A 1 tonne bag doesn't really go that far if you spread mulch to the recommended 2 - 4" thickness. Most suppliers have a ready reckoner to help you calculate how much you need. 
  
  I think it is better to mulch half the garden thickly and properly one year and the other half the next - rather than spreading too thin a layer over the whole area every year.
  
  I use home made compost and shreddings for most of my mulching but - in areas where I want a really thick mulch (4-6" thick) and where I know I won't need to disturb it for ages (paths, woodland area, soft fruit patch etc) - I use pine nuggets. These are much larger and chunkier than the regular bark pieces sold as mulch (about 2cm pieces) and they take a long time (several years) to rot down. They smell nice, look quite ornamental and, if laid thickly enough and left undisturbed, are a good weed suppressant. 
  
  I have found that all other forms of mulch tends to rot down into the soil or get mixed in when I'm weeding / planting and needs to be topped up every year.
  
  Spent mushroom compost is a decent mulch but it will only last a season and IME it may smell a bit for a couple of weeks (depends if it was made using stable manure as a base). Another thing to be aware of is that it usually alkaline - so not suitable for mulching around acid loving plants and it will not be the best additive if you already have alkaline soil.
  

  Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  

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• Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

  June 2020

  I can use about 40 dumpy sacks easily in Spring.
  As you've a large garden, get composting. Contact local tree surgeons who are often happy to offload chippings , and stables are a great place for free manure. I layer up chippings with horse poo with grass clippings and just leave it for a year, no turning and it's great for mulching.

  Devon.

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• polb Posts: 198

  June 2020

  Thanks Topbird, thats really helpful. Perhaps I should just use some mushroom compost for the raised veg beds then? Would this be Ok to use for veg? I could then order some bark for around the base of the fruit bushes, young trees ? 
  
  Good to know that £100 is about right. Can't find a local supplier of the mushroom compost though. We're based in Derbyshire. Where do you get your pine nuggets from?

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• chicky Posts: 10,410

  June 2020 edited June 2020

  We get a delivery of composted waste from our local waste company (veolia in our case). They deliver it as a mountain on our driveway and we barrow it to where we need it.  Last year we paid £160 for 3.5 tonnes (including delivery but excluding VAT).  Didn’t do it this year as everything got a bit mixed up 😱
  
  We found them via a few google searches.  It’s great stuff, good and black, fine and crumbly, and has no weed seeds as it has been composted in bulk at a really high temperature 😀

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• polb Posts: 198

  June 2020

  We do compost and that gets used up quickly! We also produce leaf mould which is fab. I'll contact a local tree surgeon and see if they deliver wood chip - that's a good idea! Thanks.
  
  We were going to look into getting horse manure but we don't have a trailer for transport it and we don't fancy putting it in the car!!  Also where we would offload the manure is not really suitable for storing as I understand we'd need to leave this for sometime before we can use it.

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