In the Charamon Garden

Mulch to a summer West Texas garden is as cool water to a fevered brow.  It is comfort in a time of stress.  It hath power to soothe the heat-savaged soil.  Actually, it is more than a mere comfort – it is salve for seasonal suffering.  Mulch is true salvation for a poor, hot, dry garden languishing and lost in the distant shimmering heat (as you can see, mulch moves me to poetry).

Mulch is certainly not a panacea for dry climate gardening.  It is still possible for the wind to be so hot and dry that tender plants may wither and die.  You can’t do much about that.  But you can hedge your bets with a good, thick mulch to stave off disaster by maintaining moisture.  Soil without this comforting cover is vulnerable to the ravages of the dog days.  It is common for plants to wilt during hot summer days but if the soil retains moisture, they will perk back up as the day cools into evening.  Without mulch, the moisture is simply sucked out of the soil into the dry air.

Mulch also suppresses most weeds.  Unfortunately, nothing can stop the dreaded nutsedge (aka “nutgrass”) persistently sending up spear-like leaves right through the deepest layers.  It can even help control bermuda grass by fooling it into thinking it is growing through soil making it much easier to pull out.  Since mulch blocks out the sun, most weeds will not germinate.  Those that do are easily plucked up, given to the chickens or added to the compost.

Mulching is a superior way to build great soil…even better than composting.  Inevitably, some nutrients leach out of traditional compost when placed in bins and piles.  Nothing is lost, however, when organic materials are placed on top of the soil to decompose in place.

My mulch ingredients

Over time, the microbes, worms and insects will eagerly degrade the mulch, add its nutrients to your soil and build precious humus.  This process is also called “sheet composting.”  Mulch can be in the form of grass clippings, leaves, newspaper, cardboard, straw, nut hulls, etc.  I use a combination of prunings, leaves, crop residues, newspapers and bones from the previous season’s compost all put through my trusty grinder.  In the picture starting clockwise from the left are my ingredients: newspapers, prunings & crop residues, bones and leaves.  Bones you say?  Yes, I plead guilty to adding bones: chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, pork, armadillo (just kidding) to my compost bin.  I also might buy an occasional bag of bone meal.

I have a chipper/shredder just like this but not as new looking

It is a good idea to add any fertilizer (organic, I trust) to the soil before adding the mulch.  This forestalls any nitrogen depletion that might occur as the woody part of your mulch breaks down. Remember, what composes your mulch is what decomposes into your soil.  The more nutritious you make your mulch, the more you nourish your soil.  I usually add cottonseed meal and Texas greensand to the topsoil prior to mulching (except for nitrogen-fixing veggies such as peas and beans).

The only other caution here is making sure that water (rain, irrigation) can penetrate the mulch and reach the soil.  In the matter of irrigation, this is accomplished in one of two ways.  (1.) You can place your drip irrigation lines under the mulch.  Or, (2) you can make sure the compost is shredded enough to be permeable and run your irrigation cycle long enough to allow the water to reach the soil below.  I prefer the second method because I use drip emitters which occasionally get

Finished mulch

clogged and I need to be able to find and clear them.

    So, to recap the benefits of mulch:

1. Maintains soil moisture
2. Suppresses most weeds
3. Sends soil life into a feeding frenzy
4. Nourishes the soil

I read somewhere that to leave your soil uncovered, especially in summer, is a sin.  Well, I can’t find that in the Bible but, if you are guilty to you I say, “Repent, add mulch to your soil and sin no more.”  Dig?