Blogspot - Interia Dezain

Growing my own mulch has long been a goal of mine. We use a lot of mulch in the nursery and garden and at the moment we have no problem sourcing straw but if/when the day comes that the farmers start using their own straw to improve their soil (which is becoming a more common practice), We'll be needing to step up our mulch growing efforts. Currently, we grow enough mulch to sustain the perennial beds and around 10 % of the annual beds but rely on imported straw for mulching the other 90% of annual vegetable and nursery beds. During this post we'll look at what makes a good mulch, a range of plants that we use for mulch and some possibilities for growing mulch for broad scale use. Mulch Growing in the Garden  What makes a good mulch plant ?   My ideal mulch plant grows fast, is drought tolerant, competes minimally with crop plants, does not contain seed that easily spreads, is easy to handle and cut, i.e,  not thorny/prickly or tough and fibrous, and can biodegrade relati...

Definitions of Annual, Biennial, Perennial, and Ephemeral Annuals Annuals are plants that go through their entire life cycle in one growing season. Hardy annuals are plants that go through their entire life cycle in one season and that can be sown outside in the open garden in spring where it is to flower, for example, Centaurea cyanus – cornflower. Centaurea cyanus - Cornflower Half-hardy annuals are plants that die if exposed to the cold, so they can’t go into the garden until after the last frost and should be sown indoors in spring. They’ll keep going until killed by the first autumn frost. For example, Tagetes erecta - African Marigold. Tagetes erecta - African Marigold Biennials Biennial are plants whose life cycle spans two years, so they flower and produce seeds in their second year. An example of a biennial is Armoracia rusticana - Horseradish.     Armoracia rusticana - Horseradish. Perennials  Perennials are plants that live for more than two years. Woody pere...