We’ve seen that mulch clearly protects soil from drying out, which in turn protects our plants from dying. But how does it help?

The short answer is that mulch reduces evaporation.

The slightly longer answer is that the mulch forms a layer on top of the soil that keeps the water in the soil where we want it. It works by preventing water evaporating in the sun and wind.

Mulch can also insulate the soil so it doesn’t get as hot during summer. Again, this reduces evaporation but also means that the roots aren’t overheating or needing extra water.

Organic mulch (like bark) can also hold some moisture itself and them slowly release this onto the soil. This mulch will eventually break down and act as compost to the garden.

As a bonus, mulch also reduces weeds and looks nice!

Posted: October 28th, 2007 under gardening.
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“Put mulch on your garden to save water”

No doubt you’ve heard it before, and even believe in it yourself. But it is so true!

We saw this in action this week at our local primary school. Parkhill Primary School has a community garden that the kids work and play in, and it is a valuable elarning experience for them. Most of their garden beds are mulched, but two haven’t had fresh mulch for a while.

When ready to add some new plants this week, they noticed that the unmulched gardens had very dry, dusty soil that didn’t absorb the water - the water beaded as the soil was hydrophobic. We dug down about 10 centimetres and still couldn’t find any sign of moisture, despite a bit of rain this week (along with 30 degree and windy days).

By adding water and turning the soil again and again, the soil was retruned to a usable state.

A neighbouring garden bed (which is covered in pea straw mulch) provided us a perfect example of the vlaue of mulch. Soil under the mulch was moist and had a great texture. The mulch is the only difference as both beds receive the same amount of sun,wind and rain.

It was fascinating to see how significant mulch is. If you’re not convinced, try this at home.

Posted: October 25th, 2007 under gardening.
Comments: 1

What more can we say - water is precious and we need to value it.

It is amazing that Austraia is one of the driest places on Earth, yet we are the highest dosmestic consumer of water. You’d think we’d be leading the world in how to conserve and save water.

There are many ways we can save water, and it’s great to see people doing their bit around the country - pity it took a serious drought to wake us though.

We have started this blog to share some tips and ideas about saving water, as well as explaining some of the science behind water conservation (see, those science degrees have come in handy after all!) and sharing some of our water experiences.

Posted: October 23rd, 2007 under general.
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