Mulching garden beds offer a lot of benefits for your plants, especially if they're newly planted.
For starters, mulching protects the roots from changing weather conditions. During the warm summer months, the mulch serves as a barrier, preventing too much heat from reaching the roots of your plants so they won't get. In the autumn and winter season, the mulch insulates the soil to make sure that the temperature is just right to keep your plants healthy.
Another benefit of mulching garden beds is that it helps keep weeds at bay. By mulching your garden beds, you're preventing sunlight from reaching the soil, starving these pesky weeds from the sunlight they need to grow and invade your garden.
Certain kinds of mulch like chipped bark, grass clippings, shredded leaves, and straw also help nourish your garden's soil. Over time, these organic mulch will decompose. The resulting organic matter enriches your garden's soil with the nutrients your plants need to grow, saving you money you'd otherwise spend on fertilisers.
The simple way of mulching garden beds
1.prepare the area
The first step to mulching your garden beds is to remove any weeds and grass on your garden bed. Use a garden spade when you do this so that you can really dig deep to get the weed roots out. Otherwise, they'll just go right back.
It's also a good idea to treat your garden bed with a weed killer or herbicide before adding the mulch. This will help kill any weed seeds that are present in your garden bed's soil. Ask your local gardener for recommendations since there's a wide variety of weeds that can grow in your garden bed. That way, you can get rid of them entirely without harming your plants.
Also, make sure that you trim the plants so that their branches won't come in direct contact with the mulch when you apply it. Otherwise, you can risk your plants getting infected with mold, fungus and other types of bacteria.
2.Create an edge around your garden bed.
Once you've cleared your garden bed, the next step is to create a smooth edge around it. This helps make sure that your mulch stays in place. At the same time, it makes your garden bed look neat, further adding to your garden's visual appeal.
3.Add your mulch.
How you add your mulch greatly depends on what kind you're using. Organic mulch, as well as those that you can buy in bags from your local garden supply store, can be added directly onto your garden bed. However, bulk mulch can be quite dense so you'll need first to break this down first using a bedding fork. This will make it lighter and easier to work with.
When adding your mulch, it's a good idea to distribute it across your garden bed. That way, it will be easy to even this out.
4.Spread out the mulch
Carefully spread the mulch all around your garden bed. Use a bow rake for the larger areas and a bedding fork to reach to those smaller areas in between your plants.
The ideal thickness of your mulch greatly depends on what time of the year your mulching your garden beds. During the summer, it should be between one and two inches thick. You can raise this up to four inches during the winter time.
Be careful not to go over these measurements. Otherwise, these could suffocate your plant roots and kill them.
Also, make sure that there is a distance of one inch between the mulch and your plants to prevent fungus and other types of bacteria from forming on them.
5.Water the mulch.
Lightly watering your mulch will help keep the soil underneath moist and prevent the mulch from blowing away. Avoid adding too much water to the point when the water will pool on top of it. Not only can this cause your organic mulch to decompose more quickly, but these puddles can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other pests.
