Kids’ Valley Garden

Mulch

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Many gardeners leave their gardens alone for a few days and when they come back it’s full of weeds and they become discouraged. Mulch will help prevent weeds from taking over your garden. This means you can spend more time enjoying your garden and less time pulling up unwanted plants. The best time to mulch is after thesoilhas warmed up and your are ready to start planting. In Zone 4 Canada, this is usually the 2nd week of June if the weather has been warm and sunny. Use black plastic or landscape fabric to help speed up warming if it has been a cool, cloudy spring. Different mulches have different properties but most of them do the same basic jobs. They all:

  • keep thesoilcool during the day and warm at night,
  • reduce the amount of water evaporation from 10 to 50%,
  • keep weeds from germinating between the wanted plants,
  • (some) improve the texture and fertility of the soil,
  • and keep the rain from eroding or crusting the soil.
  • If you have claysoilthen good mulching will definitely help your garden.
  • Mulch also helps to keep you and your plants cleaner.

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