MULCHING

● Is any type of material that is spread or laid over the

surface of the soil as a covering.
● It is used to retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds,
keep the soil cool and make the garden bed look more
attractive.
● Organic mulches also help improve the soil’s fertility, as
they decompose.
 BENEFITS OF MULCHING
• Mulching is essential to the survival of your landscape during a drought.
Mulch will reduce the amount of water that evaporates from your soil, greatly
reducing your need to water your plants.

• Mulch improves the quality of your soil by breaking up clay and

allowing better water and air movement through the soil. Mulch provides
nutrients to sandy soil and improves its ability to hold water.

• Mulch acts as an insulating layer on top of soil, keeping it cooler in

the summer.

• Mulch keeps weeds down, and the weeds that do grow are much
easier to pull.
 KINDS OF MULCHING MATERIALS
1. Bark mulches are best used around trees, shrubs and in garden beds
where you won’t be doing a lot of digging, like front walkways and
foundation plantings.·
● don’t mix well into the soil and it can become a hassle to have to keep
moving them aside to make way for new plants.”

2. Compost and Composted Manure can be used anywhere, as long as

they are relatively well composted and weed free.
● use them as a coating or simply side dress plants with them during
the growing season, to insulate and give a boost of slow released
nutrients
 KINDS OF MULCHING MATERIALS
3. Grass Clippings are a mixed bag and are best suited to remote areas of
your garden where you basically want to suppress weeds.

● Synthetic lawn care products can be bad for some flowers and you
certainly don’t want to use them in your vegetable garden. But
untreated grass clippings can either be dumped into your compost bin
or used to mulch open, unplanted areas.”

4. Newspaper as mulch is becoming more and more popular.

● Layered sheets of newspaper also have great moisture retention

abilities and they act like other organic mulches as far as suppressing
weeds and controlling soil temperatures.
 KINDS OF MULCHING MATERIALS
5. Shredded Leaves are nature’s favorite mulch.

● can be used as mulch anywhere and have the added bonus of being
free.”

6. Rice Straw and Salt Hay are popular mulches for the vegetable garden.

● They keep the soil and soil borne diseases from splashing up on lower
plant leaves and make paths less muddy.
● Straw decomposes very slowly and will last the entire growing season.
● It also makes a nice home for spiders and other beneficial insects that
will move in and help keep the pest population in control.
● it’s easy to either rake up or work into the soil when it’s time to plant
a new crop or put the vegetable garden to bed.
 KINDS OF MULCHING MATERIALS
7. Polypropylene and polyethylene mulch

● Polyethylene is used mainly for weed reduction,

● Polypropylene is used mainly on perennials.
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years.

● placed on top of the soil and can be done by machine or hand

● This mulch can prevent soil erosion, reduce weeding, conserve soil
moisture, and increase temperature of the soil.
● Ultimately this can reduce the amount of work a farmer may have to
do, and the amount of herbicides applied during the growing period.
● The black and clear mulches capture sunlight and warm the soil
increasing the growth
 CHARACTERISTICS OF MULCH
The ideal mulch is :
● economical,
● readily available
● easily applied and removed
● stays in place well
● and supplies organic matter to the soil, yet is free of noxious
weeds, insects, and diseases.
● It also performs the three functions described earlier —
suppresses weeds, conserves soil water, and moderates soil
temperatures.
 WHEN TO APPLY
● If possible, the mulch should be applied before or at the onset of
the rainy season,as then the soil is most vulnerable.
● On vegetable plots it is best to apply mulch only after the young
plants have become somewhat hardier, as they may be harmed by
the products of decomposition from fresh mulch material.
● If mulch is applied prior to sowing or planting, the mulch layer
should not be too thick in order to allow seedlings to penetrate it.
● Mulch can also be applied in established crops, best directly after
digging the soil. It can be applied between the rows, directly
around single plants (especially for tree crops) or evenly spread on
the field.
 HOW TO APPLY
Beds and borders can be mulched entirely, taking care not to smother low
growing plants or to pile mulches up against the stems of woody plants.

● To be effective, biodegradable mulches need to be between at least 5cm (2in) and

ideally 7.5cm (3in) thick
● Lay mulches over moist soil, after removing weeds, when the soil is not frozen
● When creating new beds, planting through mulch sheets is effective
● Single trees and specimen shrubs are best mulched to the radius of the canopy
● As it decomposes over time, a biodegradable mulch will feed your plants and
microorganisms in the soil reducing the need for additional soluble feed
● Ground covering mediterranean plants such as Thymus species may be best left
unmulched as it can hold too much moisture around the stems and foliage
THANK YOU…