Mulching beds: technology, methods and materials

Material prepared by: Nadezhda Zimina, gardener with 24 years of experience, process engineer

By applying various methods of agricultural technology, you can achieve better results when cultivating your personal plot, while applying less effort. For example, once using the mulching technique for tilling the soil surface, you can forget about watering, loosening and weeding for a long time. Plants will feel comfortable without additional care. And decorative mulch, which is available in a huge assortment, will decorate the garden, set accents and fill the empty spaces of the beds.

Mulching technology

Before covering the ground with a protective layer of covering material, it must be prepared.

You need to do the following:

Remove weeds from the entire area of the treated surface;
Water the bed so that moisture remains in it, which we will save;
Loosen the earth to a depth of at least 5 cm;
Ventilate, slightly drying the top layer of soil so that when mulching it does not sink and compact.

When to mulch?

Covering measures that contribute to the long-term retention of moisture around flowers constantly growing in one place must be carried out in the spring, after the soil thaws and warms up well. If done earlier, when the soil is cold, the layer of mulch will prevent thawing by keeping the cold close to the roots. This can lead to the death of plants.

In the fall, soil cover is also produced. Indeed, under the protective layer, the vital processes of soil organisms will continue much longer than in the environment, which will lead to additional production of organic matter from the covering substrate. In autumn, it is possible to plant various cultivated plants under mulch, for example,. He winters well under the shelter of pine sawdust, which, among other things, also protect him from diseases and pests.

Many garden vines also need autumn shelter, otherwise they do not survive the winter, freezing to the root. For successful protection from the cold, they build a dry shelter over climbing roses, actinidia, clematis with their own hands. You can’t just fill them with sawdust - during thaws, water will wet the covering substrate, and with a significant drop in temperature, it will turn into an ice shell, under which plants can die.

For the construction of a reliable shelter, wooden frames or boxes are used, under which whips and creepers are placed, they will be in a dry air environment. Then the protective structures are covered with a "blanket" of sawdust. But this is not enough, since wood shavings do not protect plants from excess moisture. On top, you need to make another layer that prevents it from getting in. To do this, use a film for mulching.

winter shelters for grapes

The quality of covering measures largely depends on the material used. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, which can help or harm specific plants. For the correct choice, it is necessary to have information about the properties of protective materials.

Mulching with green plant residues

siderates

For spring soil mulching, there is an original, and very economical way that allows you to grow healthy seedlings right in the ground. Of course, we are not talking about tomatoes and peppers (although you can try it in the southern regions). First of all, in this way you can plant zucchini, eggplant, and pumpkins.

In the spring, as soon as the earth thaws, they dig it up and sow green manure, rye is best suited. When the soil warms up well and constant positive temperatures are established, you can start planting seeds of cultivated plants. Rye will serve as a natural protection, shading young shoots at the initial stage, creating comfortable conditions for them to develop. When the cucumbers and zucchini grow up, the cereals around are removed, and the earth is covered with the resulting straw. It serves as a good material for mulching, while nourishing the soil with nitrogenous compounds.

It must be remembered that immediately after removal from the soil, green manure cannot be used. They must be dried within a day, otherwise the straw will smell bad and rot, as a result of which pathogenic microflora and fungi may appear on it.

cut grass

After weeding the garden or mowing the lawn, a lot of grass remains. Throwing it away is irrational, therefore this type of plant waste has two ways of implementation. The first is to compost them. The second is to organize grass mulching of beds, flower beds and near-stem circles of fruit trees.

You can also throw weeded potatoes with mowed grass, instead of hilling. The tubers will develop perfectly in a loose layer of half-rotted substrate, and in the fall, potatoes can be easily removed by pulling the bushes by the tops.

But gourds, cucumbers and cabbage cannot be mulched with grass, as they can become infected with rot or fungus. For the winter, fresh grass mulch should not be left, as pests can start in it. It is best to use plant residues a second time by sending them to the compost. As a covering material for winter, well-dried hay is used, which is used to cover near-stem circles of trees just before frost.

Video: an example of mulching tomatoes with plant residues

Mulching with sawdust

The main function of mulching is the ability to create comfortable conditions for plants. Using organic materials, you can significantly increase soil fertility, reduce the amount of watering and loosening, and get rid of weeds.

Mulching is one of the most common methods of such shelter. Especially often they are used for. Under a warm blanket of large shavings, strawberries and strawberries winter well and do not get sick with various types of rot. Pathogenic flora is the very negative factor that significantly affects the yield. But when using sawdust, which act as a sorbent, a significant part of the berries sing quietly on the bushes, and do not rot, since they do not come into contact with moist soil.

Strawberry mulching technology is simple and effective:

Before making sawdust, the bed is weeded, loosened and watered. After the formation of a light crust on the top layer of the earth, proceed to the main work. To do this, take cardboard (it is better not to use a newspaper, since the ink for printing contains lead), and cover the space between the rows with them. Sawdust is poured on top of the cardboard. Everything, the work is finished. By the way, this method protects not only from the appearance of weeds, but also from the excessive growth of the strawberries themselves.

Mulching with hay and straw

These natural materials, which are easy to find in any village, began to be used by summer residents for planting according to a new technology, for the application of which it is necessary to stock up on cardboard (you can ask for boxes at the nearest store), planting material and dry grass.

The process itself can be divided into several stages:

Covering the ground with cardboard. It can be laid directly on overwintered grass as soon as the snow melts. The point of this action is to prevent light from reaching the weeds, which will die along with the roots within a few weeks.
Germination and disinfection of potatoes. You can disinfect using a solution of any ready-made biostimulant, and germinate in the sun, planting a tuber. These preparatory procedures have a healing effect, so that subsequently the potatoes under the mulch do not get sick with late blight.
The next stage is the planting of planting material. To do this, holes are made in cardboard sheets, whose radius should be twice as large as the radius of the tubers. After that, the seed potatoes are placed directly on the ground, sprouts up, so that they rush to the sunlight.
The final stage of planting is the straw mulching of the entire row. To do this, the dry remains of cereal crops are poured directly on top of the cardboard, with a layer of at least 15-20 cm. Some use hay for shelter, but it has a significant drawback - it is a carrier and accumulator of weed seeds.

This method, revolutionary for the minds of many gardeners, has many advantages. First, it is minimal in terms of labor costs. Imagine, you do not have to plow, weed and hill up plantings. Potatoes under mulch grow well without too much intervention. The exception is drought, when you have to water your plantings a couple of times. And still, the amount of physical labor used is incommensurable with the traditional method of planting.

Harvesting potatoes that have grown under thatch cover is also a cakewalk compared to traditional digging. This is a fairly clean job, as getting to the tubers is very easy - you just need to push the straw, and harvest.

After harvesting, the beds are left without digging. They are already natural compost, which will quietly rot in the time remaining before the onset of winter cold, and next year these beds can be used for planting without additional processing. Using the straw mulching method, it is possible to achieve a significant improvement in soil fertility on the site in 2-3 years.

Video: comparison of potato yield when mulching different types

Mulching with textiles and film

This type of protective procedures is applied in two cases:

The first is during the construction of "dry blankets" for the winter for various ornamental plants and vines, which has already been described above.
The second type of use is to protect the beds from weeds and moisture evaporation.

A prerequisite for the use of rolled covering materials is compliance with all preparatory procedures (weeding, moistening, loosening), before covering the beds with polyethylene. Applying this method in the summer, use only a transparent film and agrotextile. But the black film is used before the start of planting. It has too strong a depressing effect on any plant flora, therefore, even with the use of partial perforation, it is not suitable for summer use.

mulching with agrotextile (left) and film (right)

The film is spread on the beds at the end of March, when it is already warm enough and weeds begin to grow. Within 3-4 weeks, they all die under a black film, and their roots, which die off naturally, are easy to remove with a rake.

Agrotextiles are very often used for mulching strawberries. Usually they take non-woven tightly, which allows moisture to pass through. It is spread over all surfaces of the beds, cutting out circles for berry bushes at an equal distance. When using this method, strawberries produce excellent fruit throughout the season, and require little or no additional care.

Mulching with peat

This fertilizer from the swamp is very often used as a mulch layer for the soil, when planting various plants. serves as an excellent protection against weathering and washing out of fertile components from the soil, and does not allow the growth and development of pathogenic flora. After the end of the season, this substrate is left on the beds, and it gradually passes into the soil, improving its composition.

decorative use of peat

The homogeneous structure of peat allows it to be used as a decorative backfill. Peat is also used in the garden, for mulching various crops that require increased care, such as tomatoes. Under nightshade, this substrate is applied when they are well rooted, a couple of weeks after planting the seedlings in the ground.

Peat is ideal for mulching. It creates optimal conditions for the growth and development of this moisture-loving shrub. The soil will constantly retain moisture, and becomes loose, which allows the raspberry root system to develop well.

Mulching with bark and wood chips

This way of caring for the garden gains more and more fans every year. Bark mulch is commonly used for walkways and large outdoor areas. In our climatic zone, pine bark is the most widespread. This material for landscape design has a number of useful properties.

decorative mulch made from bark and wood chips

Decorative bark mulch stays in one place for a long time unchanged, perfectly protects the soil from weeds, and saves from the sun on hot days. Also, it does not compact for a long time due to its porous structure and relief surface.

Pine bark

This type of covering material is very popular throughout the country. The advantages of pine bark are its lightness, thickness and high content of fungicides, which suppress unfriendly microflora and prevent the appearance of pests.

Features of mulching with bark / chips of near-stem circles of trees

The bark has been used for mulching for centuries. This type of protection has become especially popular for those who constantly need comfortable conditions. The bark retains moisture for the root system, and perfectly decorates the near-stem circle, which saves time when caring for these capricious flowers. It also serves as a winter shelter from freezing.

Wood chips

When buying this material, you should pay attention to the number that is indicated on the package. It corresponds to the size of the chips, and indicates the dimensional indicators of the product. Chips are small (5-8 cm), medium (8-15 cm), and large (more than 15 cm). It is advisable to purchase this covering material from manufacturers that guarantee a minimum inclusion of chip dust in the composition. This property helps protect the beds from oxidation.

Chips for mulching perform the same functions as other materials. It keeps the soil moist and loose, stimulates the development of beneficial microflora, naturally forms humus. In addition to all the above advantages, this material is perfect for decorating the site.

decorative mulch options - based on wood chips and bark

Decorative mulch can be any color and size. It is used in young flower beds, or in discounts made in a minimalist style. It is resistant to external influences, so it can fall asleep flower beds and garden paths.

Precautionary measures

The choice of wood chips must be approached more carefully than the purchase of other materials. When buying it, it is desirable ... to smell it! If the substrate emits a sour vinegar smell, then it is better to postpone the purchase. Most likely, wet chips were stored without access to oxygen, and decay products that were very harmful to plants began to be produced in it.

But, if the acquisition has already been made, the situation can be corrected. The wood chips must be well dried. Once the sour smell is gone, you can use it to mulch the soil.

Unusual types of mulch

Leaves

They are used everywhere, this is the most affordable covering material that serves to protect plantings with perennial flowers and wintering bulbs.

pine needles

Pine needles are used to mulch plants that are prone to massive pest attacks, such as garlic.

Eggshell

This species is used as an obstacle to slugs, scattering the shell in a thin layer around rose bushes.

Using various improvised materials for mulching beds, you can greatly simplify your life. The protected roots of plants fully use all the moisture introduced into the ground, which provides them with excellent nutrition. The need for constant watering disappears, as well as constant loosening. Mulching the soil will help bring the garden and garden in order, and free up time to finally straighten up and admire the beauty and order created by your own hands.