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WHEN the sun’s rays scorch your garden, it makes sense to do rigorous mulching in it. Mulching is a must in hot cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, to name a few. What is mulching? It is something like composting. Compost is the tonic you get for your soil by adding kitchen wastes, leaves, grass and other organic materials to it. While composting you work the kitchen wastes, etc into the soil, in mulching you lay it down on top. This is a very useful technique as it saves labour and enriches your plants by: Stopping most weed seeds from germinating and making it easy for you to pull out the few that do surface. Mulch keeps your soil moist and cool in summer and drastically reduces the need to water it. Decomposing slowly, putting out nutrients into the soil. Helping earthworms to flourish, improving soil’s nutrition. Protecting your flowers and vegetables by not allowing dirt to splash on them. Mulching is the smartest way to decrease your labour in it. Mulched vegetable and flower gardens are healthier, have less weeds, and are more drought-resistant than unmulched ones. You will find yourself spending less time watering, weeding, and dealing with bugs and pests. Mulches can be organic like: straw, your kitchen wastes such as egg shells, vegetable and fruit wastes, chopped leaves, straw, grass clippings, paper, old carpet material etc. Inorganic mulch is: gravel, stones, black plastic and landscape fabrics. The advantage of organic mulch is that it improves the soil even as it decomposes. But the advantage of inorganic mulch like black plastic is that it warms the soil and gives out heat at night, keeping heat-loving vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants warm. So how do you start using mulch in your garden? Remember to put down mulch on soil that you have already cleared of weeds. Then lay it down thick enough to keep new weeds from coming up. A four-inch to six-inch thick layer will ensure that new weeds don’t come up. In shady spots it can be thinner, 2 to three inches, as weeds are fewer there. If you are lucky enough to have a lot of trees in your garden, or can pick up fallen leaves from the roadside (which is so easy in our country) you can shred them and get nutrient-rich mulch absolutely free. Grass clippings also are very good and will give a nitrogen boost to your vegetables and flowers. How to use plastic mulch: If you mulch your vegetable garden with sheets of black plastic film (in Hyderabad and other hot places you can only do it in November, December and January), the plastic film remains warm and dry and protects your vegetables such as cucumbers, melons, strawberries etc. from rotting. They keep the weeds out and retain the precious soil moisture. You can lay down a large sheet of black plastic all over your raised bed garden, if you have one. Use rocks to weigh the plastic down and punch holes in it for the plants. Sow seeds or plant transplants in the holes. Since water can’t go through the black plastic, you will have to water the garden yourself. (The advantage is that the mulch retains soil moisture). Drip irrigation will help you to water the garden or you can use soaker hoses placed beneath the plastic. You can shove the end of the hose through a hole in the plastic and turn it on. You can even try an old bottle of some liquid cleaner that can be used to squeeze water over the plants through the hole in the plastic. But don’t use black plastic under shrubs as mulch as it is not good for them in the long run. It makes roots grow very close to the soil surface since water and air cannot come through the plastic. The shallow roots will lack enough moisture and oxygen and will become spindly. Here organic mulches will help out—try leaves, kitchen wastes, shredded grass, old newspapers etc. A few problems to remember while mulching: since wet mulch against your plants can cause them to rot, keep the mulch about one inch away from crowns and stems. Rodents may be attracted if mulch kept against trees and bushes makes them rot. Pull back deep mulch about six to twelve inches away from tree trunks. But in the long run, even ordinary, simple mulching works wonders. Even if you just throw all your kitchen wastes in the garden, around your plants, without following any rules, it still works. It makes your garden healthier, richer and keeps you energetic longer. And here is a very ancient Chinese Clay Pot system that is now becoming very popular with penny-pinching gardeners. Dig a hole beside the fruit tree or shrub that you want to irrigate, or every 2 or 3 m along a row of plants like begonias or crotons etc. that you wish to water. Find an unglazed earthenware pot or jug and put it in each hole. Even an old flower pot will do fine. They should be porus. Remember to plug the holes in the pots. Or caulk them. Fill them up with water and cover them to prevent evaporation. This method will show you that you need to fill them up again only once every four to eight days! Isn’t that a great boon in Hyderabad and other places where the sun scorches the garden?
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