Gardening Galore

With the heavy rains that we have experienced over the last two months, many of the nutrients in the soil and compost have been washed out or down below the rooting zone. If you have a beautifully manicured garden without a leaf on the ground and no cover at all on the soil, this might look good but it is going against nature.

You need the leaf cover to protect the soil and to feed the earthworms and other insects that process or compost the vegetable waste. Constant disturbance of the soil in garden beds also looks nice but you are disturbing the balance of nature.

Allow the leaves and weeds that are pulled up to dry out and then mulch around the shrubs and plants. You will notice more worm activity as they have something to eat and the soil is shaded and cooler. The worms are constantly releasing nutrients that are available to living plants so even with the heavy rains, the nutrients are constantly being replenished. Composting on your flowerbeds like this must be an ongoing process. For plant matter to break down, it also needs nutrients which it will draw out of the soil, depriving the plants. But a balance will be reached, as in woodland or forests, with a deep leaf litter layer.

Deep rooting plants, like comfrey, can pull some of the nutrients back up to the surface and if you mulch these plants, it releases it again for use by the plant.

Constant soil disturbance by shallow digging does attract and allow termites to burrow about in the loose soil. If there is nothing for them to eat, they will eat the growing plants. Their preference, though, is for dead plant material which the mulch will provide.

If the weeds are winning the growing game, slash them down; mow them or get some garden shears and cut them down before they flower and set seed. There is a saying ‘one year seedling, ten years weeding’ which is very true. So chop them up and use them as a mulch on the compost heap at the same time as feeding the earthworms and other soil bugs as well as protecting the soil from sun and heavy rains. This will also attract birds to the garden, especially the ground feeding bug eaters like thrushes and robins.

Vetiver grass is a good source of plant material for mulching the garden and is a vigorous grower which can be cut often. It breaks down slowly and is an excellent erosion control tool being very deep rooted. The roots are also a natural insecticide.

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