Mulch!

[SasherinSuite]

What's best to keep on top of weeds and how much do I need?

There are lots of good mulches, each with their pros and cons!

• Gravel: decorative, but expensive, does not decompose and add nutrients to the soil.
• Compost/manure/bark chips/leaf mould/grass clippings: these decompose and add nutrients to the soil, but will therefore need renewing every year.

The exact choice probably depends on which is easiest and cheapest for you to obtain. E.g. for me it's a combination of leaves and grass clippings.

You'll need about 1 cm depth, so calculate that depending on the length and width of your plot.

Ooh can I join in the mulch debate ?

As usual I tend to do something first and ask second ....so because I happened to have a large bale of straw I spread some of it around over my heavy clay soil .And then because it looked awful I put small bark chippings on top of it .

Is this going to cause problems ? It's not a huge area and I could take it off .
I've googled and I think I read that straw will take nitrogen out of the soil as it decomposes .Which ,if correct,is not good is it ?

Straw with bark chippings is fine, if you are worried about it making the soil poorer just add some nitrogen fertiliser.

I've tried every mulch existent, I think, and the honest truth is that just using whatever you can get easily and cheaply and you can put to a pretty good depth is best.

I find 1 cm not nearly enough, I use between 5-10 cm. Anything less the weeds will grow straight through.

Although gravel and the mineral mulches look great for a couple of years, they do start to look tatty after a while so still need refreshing on a fairly regular basis. And as a pp said, they add nothing to the soil (and are pretty much impossible to take off after, so you end up with stony soil). I do use them in pots, as they look much more polished and I am likely to change the whole soil every year.

I am currently using fresh shredded prunings (well, we actually chopped down lots of trees and shredded what was left over after we separated what we can use for firewood) and it's working really well, so if you know a gardener/tree surgeon who might have lots to spare that could be a good solution.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Definitely don't want gravel. Hate the stuff. I like the idea of bark chippings for a neat appearance. I tried grass clippings once and it went all slimy. Did I do something wrong? Also worried it would harbour rogue weed seeds.