You might find it ridiculous paying for dry mulch because mulch is so easy to make on your own. But actually, this is not true. It is easy to make mulch on your own if you have a large garden space, if you have the space to rake it and store it, if you have the equipment to bag it in, and if you are able to keep it for a long time before using it. It takes art to make a good mulch but it also takes a lot of supplies. Mulch is made of grass clippings, tree and plant and bush clippings, fruits and veg and any natural compost. All of these bits and pieces which must be purely natural are raked and mulched up together, to make, mulch. For a start, you need to have all the clippings, the grass, the trees and the bushes. And you need to know what you are doing.
Mulch is purely natural
Mulch must not have anything chemical in it. The best mulch is purely natural mulch. Why then, do you say, should you pay for mulch? Well, somebody has to make the mulch. Somebody has to rake all the clippings together and pile it up and leave it to become mulch, and then bag the mulch. It takes not just supplies to make mulch, all natural supplies and cuttings, but it takes labour and it takes bags and it takes delivery and it takes storage! Mulch should never have any additives no matter how tempting it might be. Some people add paper to mulch to bulk it up. This is a definite no no. Paper does absolutely nothing for mulch, other than bulk it up and has zero nutritional value for the soil or for the plants and vegetables.
The value of mulch
So what does mulch actually do if it is just a whole bunch of natural tree and grass and bark cuttings, all raked and stored together. Mulch feeds the soil. Mulch keeps the soil dry in the rainy season and it keeps it moist in the dry season. Mulch adds much needed vitamins and nutrients, minerals, into the soil, thereby feeding anything that is growing in the soil. Mulch makes a huge difference to how plants grow and how they survive an extra cold or extra hot spell. In this day and age of climate change, mulch is necessary for small gardens, for small holdings and for farms. There have been terrible droughts, look at Italy right now, and terrible floods and fires. Mulch has kept a lot of plant matter safe.
Make your own mulch
If you have a small garden you could try and make your own mulch but it is much easier, and it is not expensive at all, to buy mulch. Buy mulch from the people who make it as then you know exactly what goes into your dry mulch, the way mulch should be.
The people in Australia who use mulch are generally people who love their gardens, owners of small holdings, farmers and vegetable growers.
Most people use mulch on an annual basis, either just before summer or just before winter, but some do it twice a year.
Mulch, which is totally organic and is made up of grass clippings, plant clippings, wood chips, shredded leaves and compost, has a good job to do.
It makes things grow better.Where to get mulch?The obvious place for mulch and mulch delivery is from a garden centre in Australia, although if you are buying mulch in bulk, you should get it directly from the supplier.
A supplier who makes mulch generally has their own smallholding or farm, or small forest or forests for firewood.
A tree care service or nursery generally makes their own mulch, as does a firewood supplier.
