24 September 2012

Mulch, mulch, glorious mulch...

Doesn't look very exciting, does it? But, do read on, our trees have finally been mulched!

What is mulch?
Mulch is a glorious substance!  Put simply, it is a layer of organic material spread around the tree to retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds, and keep the soil cool.  Over time the mulch breaks down and provides nutrients for the tree. 


Once we had planted our beautiful trees the next step was to be watering and mulch.  The watering was the easy bit; at least the mechanics of it was easy.  In reality, it meant carrying large watering cans and other receptacles full of water over to the trees at least twice a week.  Thanks to our tree-huggers (trumpet role!) Anna, Hannah, Nicky, Liz, Tim, Glyn, Alix, Luis and Rosa (with assistance from Jim, George, Thomas & Joe) the trees are thriving.

Mulch proved more difficult.  Hackney Homes kept promising to deliver a load of mulch and then let us down more than once.  Luckily, the heavy rain this summer meant that the mulch was less of an issue than it would be in a very hot summer.  After much prompting from Lewis, our tree guru, we finally got our act together and purchased some Strulch from Crocus.  Strulch is made from organic wheat straw and is used by the RHS and the Eden Project - no other recommendation needed!

On a beautiful morning in August some of our wonderful tree-huggers got together and spread the mulch around all the trees.  Result: trees as happy as hippos wallowing....






2 comments:

  1. Here's to mulch everywhere. Can't wait to hear more about the progress.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Paula. I shall try to post more often.

    ReplyDelete