{"id":9684,"date":"2014-09-08T19:53:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T02:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9684"},"modified":"2014-09-09T00:23:52","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T07:23:52","slug":"plants-are-the-new-mulch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/plants-are-the-new-mulch\/","title":{"rendered":"Plants  the New Mulch For Green Soil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All I wanted for Christmas is more humus.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Vegetables by tejvanphotos, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tejvan\/3745411635\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2501\/3745411635_65b767d85e.jpg\" alt=\"Vegetables\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When winter comes to a close and the spring flowers give a hint of things to come I will be buying and sowing my vegetable seeds.<\/p>\n<p>Within a couple on months I wont have a spare bit of soil in the garden and the ground will be covered with lush vegetation (I hope). Plants are the new mulch!<\/p>\n<h3><strong> Green Soil<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Ground covered with greenery will hold water more readily and provide shade for roots. Ensure water gets down to where it is needed as a dense covering of foliage can leave the under-soil bone dry.<\/li>\n<li>Soil in good heart will grow better crops and you can plant closer together.<\/li>\n<li>Add layers of mulch material or compost on top of your soil to condition the soil and get it into good shape.<\/li>\n<li>If for some reason you intend having a bare patch for sometime then try a <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/tips\/green-manure-at-the-end-of-winter\/\">green manure <\/a>crop. They can help soil structure and nitrogen balance when dug back into the soil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Traditional Organic Mulch Materials<\/h3>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grass clippings and animal manure to cover the root area. Do not let them touch the stem to avoid burning.<\/li>\n<li>Compost heap compost or purchase compost will contain nutrients.<\/li>\n<li>Sawdust, straw or wood ash.<\/li>\n<li>Seaweed and Kelp<\/li>\n<li>Chopped leaves or stalks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Go for Height<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>When your soil is totally covered you may be driven up the wall, literally and mentally.<\/li>\n<li>The walled area in the photo sustains artichokes in flower and a grape vine to take advantage of the sunshine and retained wall heat.<\/li>\n<li>Walls can be used to support baskets and\/or plant pots as long as you can reach to water them.<\/li>\n<li>Walls can act as a heat sink trapping sun to be released in the evening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Green Crop Protection<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Now I have spent all winter feeding and protecting the birds it is time to think about protecting the crops. A cage like the one above is in the &#8216;rolls royce class&#8217;. I would reserve it for soft fruit if I had a bird problem, which fortunately I do not seem to suffer from (famous last words.)<\/li>\n<li>The cage is needed to keep the pigeons off the cauliflower, brussels and cabbages.<\/li>\n<li>I have also had good success with horticultural fleece to keep the blighters at bay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Use plants to conserve moisture and cover your garden with a useful crop whilst saving watering. Plants can form a natural mulch in a garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}