Suitable mulches

[judy]

I am hoping to use a small area of pasture land for a garden. We have already dug out docks, mowed the first area and applied a lot of very mature goat manure. We have another area we could use, and have a number of very elderly big bales of hay and silage which my husband wishes to dispose of. I wonder if unrolling the hay bales and then unrolling the silage bales on top, possibly followed by a little manure if necessary, would ‘rot down’ to produce a suitable area for planting next spring.

[charles]

 Hello Judy

This sounds promising and a really good use for old bales of hay and silage. I would unroll them as soon as possible to give maximum time for starving all the pasture plants of light.

Next spring there may be some couch grass and perhaps some dock or dandelion growing through, they are best dug out, and I would also gather up any mulching material where vegetables such as salads, spinach and carrots are to grow, to keep slug numbers down there. In fact you will have quite a few slugs next year, but they should decrease through the season.

For growing leeks and courgettes, the mulch could be left in place with plants set out through it.

[judy]

Many thanks for the advice.
I will be particularly careful about slugs, probably send in the khaki (campbell) army on eating patrol! They are very useful provided their big webbed feet can’t crush small plants.
We are finding our birds are quite handy; the apple trees used to suffer from a lot of codling moth (I think), the hens peck around under them and far fewer apples are affected this year.
I really enjoyed the course I attended, as a result we’re also re arranging the poly tunnel.

[Author]

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