Keep Your Soil Covered

Graphic by Matt Goodman.

Why mulching your garden and landscape is a sustainable practice.

Most gardeners strive for horticultural best practices in their gardens and landscapes. This includes things like utilizing right plant, right place, proper placement of plants for their sun/shade exposure needs, designing for plant compatibility with soil moisture requirements and when designing for a mature landscape, to keep the sight lines open to avoid obscuring the awesome views.

A recommended practice with numerous soil/plant health benefits is to cover your soil with a natural mulch, (armoring). Plant vigor begins with soil health and cultivating a healthy soil community is foundational for plant vitality and reproduction. Natural mulches that cover the soil surface have numerous benefits and nutrify the soil through the decomposing organic matter which enriches the biological diversity of the living soil food web.

Conversely, utilizing synthetic mulches like rubber mulch or landscape weed fabric contributes no nutritive benefits to soil biology.

Within the protective mulch layer live beneficial surface dwellers that provide habitat within the soil networks. Nurturing a healthy and functional soil food web provides protection against pests and diseases and in cultivating these living systems, we come to understand the value and interdependent nature of these associations. Plants are better able to control the nutrient cycling occurring in their root zones and access the minerals that are stored in the organic matter.

Mulching reduces soil evaporation rates thus retains more moisture for plants to use. This means you won’t have to water as often. Colorado’s climate is semi-arid (receiving 10 to 20 inches per year) thus water conservation is a high priority in Western states as many municipalities and gardeners maximize soil conservation efforts through soil armoring.

Mulching is a win-win strategy that emulates Mother Nature’s methods that facilitate soil health which in turn contributes to the functional health of all living systems including humans and what they hold dear.

Some of my gardener friends enjoy weeding and tending to their green spaces but there are many who would rather occupy their precious time with other interests. By mulching, much less time is spent weeding as it suppresses unwanted plant volunteers because it limits the amount of sunlight available to weed seedlings.

An important environmental benefit of mulching the garden and landscape is that it moderates soil temperatures thus keeping soil warmer in cold weather, and cooler in hot weather. This is especially relevant on the hottest day of summer when plants are drought stressed.

Recommended Mulches:

• Compost
• Composted or shredded leaves
• Bark Mulch
• Living cover crops
• Straw
• Hay

What’s not to like about utilizing life-promoting land practices that have so many ecological benefits to soil health, plants, and the environment? It may make for a more contented human too.

Sources
Natural Resources Conservation Service-USDA
National Park Service
Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web School