IT’S that time of year, when the temperatures have started to rise back into the 30’s… well ok it is a fair bit earlier than usual.
For the first time in a long-time soils have started to dry out and although we don’t want to have soggy soils, most plants, animals and fungi in our region prefer moist soils and if I can take a liberty and give them all a voice, I’m pretty sure that what they’d be saying is, “please help keep our soils moist!”
Now if you’re the obliging type like me, it really isn’t that hard to make life a lot easier for the plants, animals and fungi that we share this country with.
First up I’d suggest that you don’t remove natural mulch, e.g. fallen leaves.
Trees are good environmental managers, and you may have noticed as the heat spiked, leaf fall increased. This leaf fall provides two clear benefits, less leaves means less transpiration / water loss and the fallen leaves in turn mulch the soil below the tree, reducing or preventing the drying of soils.
Although you may need to remove leaf fall from some areas of your garden, make sure you use it elsewhere.
Whatever you do please don’t put it in the bin, appreciate it for the resource that it is. Next up, we need to reduce mowing, thicker deeper grass protects and shades the soil and catches the dew overnight, that adds even more moisture to the soil.
Mow if you must but lift the deck up and make sure you’ve got at least 50mm of lawn height. Bare soil when the temperature gets up into the 30’s is pretty much dead soil. There may even be some areas of your lawn you could let go wild for a bit or at least grow a bit longer, to add more mulch and cooling to the soil.
If we adopt these few practices, we also benefit as a greener environment during hot weather is a cooler environment for us too, win, win!