Gardening is a great hobby. It gets you outside which provides an instant boost of vitamin D from the sun. If you’re planting veggies, then you’re setting yourself up for some healthy salads. When growing flowers can be a great way to de-stress and enjoy your property. No matter what you’re growing, the goal is for a vibrant garden. That can be helped along with one word: Mulch. If you haven’t utilized mulch before, then you will after considering these benefits:
Moisture Retention
Plants need water to prosper. That water can’t just “come and go.” It needs to stick around so that the plants can absorb it. This is why you should always water either early in the morning or late in the afternoon otherwise the sun is just going to evaporate it all. Mulch can keep the soil moist because when it gets wet, it stays wet longer than soil. Using mulch to help with your watering could actually reduce the need for frequent water. After putting down the mulch and watering it, check back throughout the day to see how moist it still is.
Temperature Control
Your garden will thrive with cool soil. Ironically, it also needs sunlight. With mulch, you can have both. Mulch can act like a layer of insulation between the soil and the direct sun light. When you put down a layer or mulch in the early spring or summer, it can keep a cool “blanket” over the garden and slow down the soil’s rising temperature.
Weed Suppression
The key with mulch is to spread it around your plants, not over them. In doing so, you’re also cutting off the sun supply to any weed seeds. This will prevent them from germinating and growing. Your plant will be health surrounded by mulch and without any weeds. And if a weed seed gets blown onto the mulch by the wind, that is where it is staying. It is not going to burrow down and grow like an alien plant!
Fills the Soil with Nutrients
Wood chips and leaves make great mulch material. They’re also organic and that means that they’re going to break down. When that happens, the nutrients from those organic materials are going to flow right into your soil. It is like giving the soil a nutrient injection. The more nutrients in the soil, the more your plants can feed on and grow. Everybody wins!
