Why NOT to use wood chips (mistakenly know as mulch) on your Gardens
There are many reasons why we do not use mulch (wood chips) at Plant Paradise Country Gardens
- Mulch does not mimic nature. Do you see piles of wood chips on a forest floor? No, you see leaf mulch.
- Plants do not grow well in gardens that are mulched.
- Mulch provides habitat for slugs, snails and disease.
- The little bit of rain we get, only the mulch his getting wet
- Mulch is not bee friendly. Ground bees require bare soil.
- Mulch does not prevent weeds and when there are weeds the mulch gets contaminated with soil after those weeds are pulled out.
- There is lack of oxygen getting to the roots of the plants with the amount of mulch that is applied.
- Mulch depletes the soil of nitrogen when it is decomposing.
- Mulch should not be touching the plants. Who has time to move mulch away from the base of the plants?
- Gardens should be planted so that eventually you do not see the soil. No reason for mulch.
- Self-seeding annuals will not come back the following year in a mulched garden.
- In mulched gardens it is difficult to add compost or worm castings. For immediate garden soil benefit worm castings or compost is applied annually. In sandy soil worm castings adds moisture retention and in clay soil, worm castings breaks up the clay soil to create better root growth. Read our planting instructions.
- At the same time we are weeding, we apply corn gluten to inhibit the germination of weed seeds.
- Follow by example. In all the famous and not so famous gardens in Europe you do not see any wood chip mulch. Wood chip mulch is a North American phenomenon. Add leaf mulch instead – the real beneficial mulch.
To protect your plant investment you should use worm castings in the same way that you would apply mulch. Your plants will thrive and your garden will look great.