Yes! My dad, may he rip, was so against Nature, clearing the weeds to leave the ground bare, but the soil is lifeless, there are no dead mulch, leaves, twigs, bird and animal droppings, Since 2020 I've been cutting and leaving the chopped weeds on top,the result: when it rains the decaying matter absorbs water, and life begins to return…and besides amidst the "horrible weeds" there are wild edibles: mallow, lambsquarters, wild amaranth, wild sunflowers(in their stems/trunks: a white "tissue" that can be ground into flour),talayotes(wild cousin of the chayote or as some folks call it 'alligator pear' or 'air potato'. Thanks for sharing your knowledge here Sonya, 👍and 👋from Mexico. Green mulch is great, but for my region which is semi-arid,maybe with certain cacti?
thanks for this advice! so when you want to plant vegetable seeds do you just pull the ground cover plants to bare soil or would you only plant seedlings after weeding a small circle of the ground cover? or do you plant the cover crop at the same time as your vegetable seeds? this is a great idea and i would love more details on how to implement it in my vegetable garden
Saying that weed seeds often "helicopter in" to our gardens describes pretty well their invasive intentions. I have been leaving my tall grass clippings where they land when cut down in March. Weeds are showing up far less frequently now than 3 or 4 yrs ago. Happy Spring growing!
I also really love Prunella vulgaris as a green mulch. Pollinators love it. It carpets like a champ in partial shade situations and it's edible & medicinal!
This is what I have been doing for years, and glad to see someone else pointing it out. I've gone from ornamental gardening (former profession) to a half and half permaculture/wildlife gardening scheme in my own garden. One thing that troubled me in my grade days was the amount of 'bare' ground in borders that we had to cover in truckloads of mulch. Don't get me wrong, mulching was my favourite job – but at the back of my mind was the time I had the opportunity to work with one of the best gardeners of my acquaintance. We were given the task of restoring an old border that had become overgrown, and while most of it was down to Rhododendrons and Azaleas, within it were 2 tight patches of neglected perennials. After digging up these 2 patches carefully and rearranging the Rhododendrons, this colleague set me to dividing these perennials into the smallest slips possible. Then he showed me how to consider planting them in drifts throughout the border, while explaining that the best mulch were plants themselves, and if we did that rather than keep chucking pulverised bark down, we would probably have less weeding and more productive soil
I still follow his advice to this day. In fact, wherever I live, I always use one of those same perennials Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis). It's a pretty, shade tolerant, low growing plant. Flowers now (February), in time for the first sleepy bees.
My other favourite plant mulches include Spring bulbs. Both Snowdrops and Bluebells greatly enrich soil. Indeed, they build the very darkest soil in my garden. In comparison, grass, which still covers aot of my garden and is never mown, builds a much paler, yellow soil, which means less nutrient. Over the past few years, I have been dividing what bulbs I have to underplant new shrubs and trees I plant in the grassy area, and they darken the soil over time. Spring bulbs can be planted among Lungwort, Wood Sorrel, Pink Campion, Carex and Ajugas for a succession of undergrowth. It's certainly better to let the plants handle the mulching, saving you money and letting you put your effort into planting or tending other things.
Waay too quite. Otherwise, very helpful. Thanks,
Edible ground covers?
Yes! My dad, may he rip, was so against Nature, clearing the weeds to leave the ground bare, but the soil is lifeless, there are no dead mulch, leaves, twigs, bird and animal droppings, Since 2020 I've been cutting and leaving the chopped weeds on top,the result: when it rains the decaying matter absorbs water, and life begins to return…and besides amidst the "horrible weeds" there are wild edibles: mallow, lambsquarters, wild amaranth, wild sunflowers(in their stems/trunks: a white "tissue" that can be ground into flour),talayotes(wild cousin of the chayote or as some folks call it 'alligator pear' or 'air potato'. Thanks for sharing your knowledge here Sonya, 👍and 👋from Mexico. Green mulch is great, but for my region which is semi-arid,maybe with certain cacti?
Amazing channel name. I too have mild hearing loss from too many loud DJs in my younger days! 😂 Love a good carex, too.
thanks for this advice! so when you want to plant vegetable seeds do you just pull the ground cover plants to bare soil or would you only plant seedlings after weeding a small circle of the ground cover? or do you plant the cover crop at the same time as your vegetable seeds? this is a great idea and i would love more details on how to implement it in my vegetable garden
Saying that weed seeds often "helicopter in" to our gardens describes pretty well their invasive intentions. I have been leaving my tall grass clippings where they land when cut down in March. Weeds are showing up far less frequently now than 3 or 4 yrs ago. Happy Spring growing!
I also really love Prunella vulgaris as a green mulch. Pollinators love it. It carpets like a champ in partial shade situations and it's edible & medicinal!
This is what I have been doing for years, and glad to see someone else pointing it out.
I've gone from ornamental gardening (former profession) to a half and half permaculture/wildlife gardening scheme in my own garden.
One thing that troubled me in my grade days was the amount of 'bare' ground in borders that we had to cover in truckloads of mulch. Don't get me wrong, mulching was my favourite job – but at the back of my mind was the time I had the opportunity to work with one of the best gardeners of my acquaintance.
We were given the task of restoring an old border that had become overgrown, and while most of it was down to Rhododendrons and Azaleas, within it were 2 tight patches of neglected perennials.
After digging up these 2 patches carefully and rearranging the Rhododendrons, this colleague set me to dividing these perennials into the smallest slips possible. Then he showed me how to consider planting them in drifts throughout the border, while explaining that the best mulch were plants themselves, and if we did that rather than keep chucking pulverised bark down, we would probably have less weeding and more productive soil
I still follow his advice to this day. In fact, wherever I live, I always use one of those same perennials Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis).
It's a pretty, shade tolerant, low growing plant. Flowers now (February), in time for the first sleepy bees.
My other favourite plant mulches include Spring bulbs. Both Snowdrops and Bluebells greatly enrich soil. Indeed, they build the very darkest soil in my garden.
In comparison, grass, which still covers aot of my garden and is never mown, builds a much paler, yellow soil, which means less nutrient.
Over the past few years, I have been dividing what bulbs I have to underplant new shrubs and trees I plant in the grassy area, and they darken the soil over time.
Spring bulbs can be planted among Lungwort, Wood Sorrel, Pink Campion, Carex and Ajugas for a succession of undergrowth.
It's certainly better to let the plants handle the mulching, saving you money and letting you put your effort into planting or tending other things.
I love this! Come visit us in Oregon City Oregon!
Very good advice, its all easier and more sustainable to work with nature, time to get rid of my flame thrower and consider ground cover planting
Really interesting… thanks 😊
I need to do this to suppress the weeds.