Keep your plants covered in a blanket of love this winter!
As autumn draws in the temptation of sitting in a big comfy chair, curling up with a blanket, hot chocolate and good book is strong…keeping warm and feeling loved.
It’s the same for plants – they too like to keep warm and feel loved and it’s easy to do! The warmth of the blanket can be replicated by using bark mulch; it provides an insulating layer between the roots of the plant and the cold air of autumn and winter.
Retaining some warmth in the soil over the winter period is good for your plants – so once your herbaceous plants have finished growing and after some rain, but before the winter chill is the perfect time to mulch.
Mulching has the added benefit of suppressing weeds too – keeping your garden looking tidy if we have a warm winter. You will need a layer that is thick enough to block light to prevent the weeds from germinating – recommendations are that around 4” will be deep enough to stop most weeds coming through.
At Stones4Homes we have too types of mulch for you to choose from our standard ornamental mulch and our luxury mulch. Both will do a fine job of insulating your plants and suppressing weeds but our luxury mulch will last longer than our standard. All mulch breaks down eventually – adding much needed nutrients into the soil to aid plant growth. The structure of the soil also improves as earthworms are encouraged.
Even if winter is warm it’s likely to be wet and mulch helps to protect the soil from heavy rain – the water filters slowly through to the soil below preventing run-off, pooling and erosion.
Our top tips when it comes to mulching are: don’t apply it right up to the stems of shrubs and trees and keep an eye on your levels of mulch and top up when necessary to maintain a thick layer.