Garden sing! The birds will come flocking, along with so much other life that goes unnoticed, until you start to realize the soil is soft and dark, just how I like my espresso, it too will sustain life with much more vigor!
MULCH - (a layer of material applied to the surface of your ground. To conserve soil moisture, regulate temperature, improve fertility and health of the soil, reduce weed growth, and enhance the visual appeal of the area.) Mulch is a secret weapon that all gardeners should be using. Are you utilizing it correctly?
Leaf litter, crushed bark.
Cardboard, straw, landscape fabrics (fiber cloth)
Grass clippings, well dried.
Plants (living mulch, cover crops) - are sometimes referred to as weeds!
A good example here of a spent crop being used as a straw mulch.
How Do you get these ingredients for free?
Weed your garden, pile up stalky weeds in an area they can be left to dry out for a couple of months.
Mow the lawn, again pile up to dry out for a couple of months, where the rain can't fall.
Local council reserves, often the contractors leave a regular supply of chipped trees, you just have to do some research;
this leads me to, keep a good lookout on your usual neighborhood route. You never know when you might see some good materials for your future mulching.
Contact your local arborist, or lawn mowing service and ask if they would be interested in dropping off a load of chipped or clipped waste at your site sometime.
Cardboard from your local supermarket just checks in with the manager before heading around the back to help yourself.
Neighbour's large deciduous trees, most people don't need or want all the leaf litter left behind in Autumn and pay to have it removed!
Grow your own row of stalky stuff; like lemongrass, yarrow, borage, and calendula. This is what we call a wild area, if you like doesn't have to be a row. Wait until the plants go to seed, collect the seed or shake it all over the ground to grow again, then pull out and stack to dry, or just bunch up and put straight under shrubs & trees.
All these additions to your garden environment will create biodiversity, Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of animals, plants, and microorganisms, we cannot have the healthy ecosystems that we rely on to provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat.
Thank you for reading, & take care of your environment first!
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