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Best Mulch to use

Have a go NickHave a go Nick Posts: 352
in Problem solving
Hi Folks,

Long time no speak, sorry about that I've started a new job in the NHS (the none striking lot :0)

Just a quick couple of questions 

I have no Leaf Mulch, so which is the best Mulch to use and when is it best to do it?
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Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    There's a load of information here to start you off. Hopefully forum members can add a bit more advice from personal experience. 
    https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/maintain-the-garden/mulches-and-mulching/


  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I don't cut down perennials in autumn unless they are the soggy unsightly sort. I have daffodils in my flower beds. That means that I clear my beds in very early spring so that they look nice when the daffodils come up. When cleared and weeded I mulch them.

    I never have enough home made compost or leaf mould so I have to buy some. I buy the cheapest sort of ordinary compost from a supermarket or garden centre. Shame Wilko has gone. If I want to improve the soil by digging in the compost I buy a better quality compost, but for ordinary mulching the cheapest is fine. Mulching early in the year then keeps down the spring weeds but don't put it thickly on top of your plants. Spread thinly on plants and thickly around them.

    I use bark chips for my shrub bed, but not for roses. Roses get first choice of the best compost or well rotted manure.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • richardhodsonrichardhodson Posts: 36




    We are in West Lancashire and there are several large tomato growers nearby, they grow their crops ON growbags with coir in. At the end of the growing season the growbags are replaced ready for the next crop. I spend a lot of time over Winter carting these to our place, then we use the coir for mulch. It is fantastic stuff, plenty of nutrients in there from when they are feeding the tomato plants, mostly potash and some nitrogen, and FREE.  This first picture shows a stockpile in our yard and the second picture shows one of the beds after me and wife, irene, have mulched it. You may notice a few white strands in there, they are tomato roots which soon rot off.
  • Robin_GoodfellowRobin_Goodfellow Posts: 8
    Living in the countryside, and being frugal (i.e. a tight bastard), I favour well-rotted manure, as there are loads of horse-owners in and around my village happy to let me take away as much as I want. If you are fit and healthy and able to spend a couple of hours shovelling, you could post a request in your nearest rural-ish village Facebook group and you would likely be inundated with offers - for some reason people seem keen to get rid of huge piles of excrement.

    You do get weeds as it's not heat-treated, sterilised, shredded like shop-bought, plastic-wrapped manure, but I don't mind that. My garden is so densely planted that weeds don't get much of a look in, and I don't mind a bit of weeding from time to time. Some of them I even keep - the creeping field buttercup that came out of the manure has colonised a spot that everything else struggled in, and a patch of nettles I left have really increased the butterflies in the garden.

    Personally, I think the huge quantity of worms and the birds rooting through the mulch for the worms and eating all the slugs while they're at it is worth the weeds. But if you hate weeds, it might not be the best option.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    I would say: beech and oak leaves best' nxt whatever you can get.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Evidence?
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    I wouldn't recommend Evidence as a mulch, to be honest - it's ok when it's wet (if a little unsightly),  but when it's dry it just blows all over the place...
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    ... of course it will last longer if the Evidence is stapled together, but you'd want to be sure that stainless steel staples were used ...
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    edited 3 January
    ...and there's also (of course) the danger of Evidence attracting termites, depending on how it's bound: https://gardenprofessors.com/why-i-dont-like-cardboard-mulch/

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Agree, leaves might be better, but any leaves are as good as any other.
    IME Beech take the longest to become useable.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
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