Winter muching for weed suppression and to feed the soil in spring/summer

[Vanessa]

Ok I am not sure if my hypothesis is correct here or not, but I am going to give it a go. And I found someone selling the big round bales of pea straw locally for $50 each.

I know I have heard advice not to mulch in winter, but I think that was based on the mulch insulating the soil and not allowing it to warm up, 

I am also mulching the opposite to summer, in that beds are left un-mulched, with the mulch being spread thickly between the beds, with the idea that it will hopefully smother the weeds while breaking down and feeding the soil, come summer I can either leave it where it is or rake it up and add it to the beds.

Hopefully this will also mean less mowing or pulling out of weeds, and less muddy areas to walk on.

So I now have a 5′ by 4′ bale of pea straw to pull apart and spread around the garden and hope that most of is stays in my garden and doesn’t get blown around the neighbourhood.

[Bel]

Best of luck with it Vanessa.  Last spring/summer, I covered a huge area of ground with cardboard covered in horse manure to try and smother the weeds (mainly Gazanias).  Well, it appeared to have worked at first, but with the recent rains the Gazanias have come back with a vengeance.  The ones growing where the poo had been spread are much bigger and healthier than the ones outside of that area!  I’m hoping at least that the heathier soil will also assist the fruit trees in the area so that the Gazanias don’t have as much impact. I was so hoping the cardboard/poo would do the trick!  The only thing is that I think there may be fewer of them, so may be able to pull them up by hand.

[calliecat]

I’ve done the same thing, I have cooch grass and other stuff, I’m hoping it works as well, but my mulch is lucerne hay
I laid cardboard down first

[ferhiljoe]

I have seen quite a few garden beds done with cardboard and mulch over winter then in spring they rake it up and awesome soil left behind

[Author]

Posts