This year we are very excited to try a new technique with our garden beds. We have been doing a lot of reading lately on different methods to maximize our garden fertility and keep out weeds, while saving us time and effort. This year we are putting down a thick layer of mulch on our beds. This does many things for us. First, it holds moisture in the soil. After the drought last year, this has become something that we think about more. Preserving what water you have in the ground goes a long way when it won’t come from the sky. Of course, so far this spring it seems all we have had is cold and rain, but the mulch also helps stop erosion.
Secondly, the mulch will keep the weeds out. Laying down a few inches of mulch over the soil ensures that weeds can’t get enough sunlight to grow. If one does make it through, it is easy to see and pull. Just pop it out of the ground and add it to your mulch layer.
Third, over time, the mulch decays from the bottom up, and adds all kinds of goodies to your soil fertility. Continuously adding different kinds of plant matter to your soil ensures that you are giving back the surplus nutrients to your soil so that it can put all that good stuff into your food!
[…] kiddos and blog about their own homesteading efforts. I enjoyed their posts on the importance of mulching, a cute post on a homemade teepee they made for their kids, and a great midwife story about […]