It may be a surprise to your good selves, but it is a little known chapter of English history that before the immortal bard Shakespeare took up the pen to write his now famous plays, he was actually a Bush Regenerator working on restoring the once extensive woodlands of middle England.
When not out practicing sound ecological weed management to enable the recruitment of the native woodland, he was busy planting trees in the Commons that had been deserted by the Black Death.
Not surprisingly he was a firm advocate of applying deep mulch to improve soil and increase tree growth and long before his play writing days he was known for his insight and passion for the use of organic matter in ecological restoration and famous for such phrases as “to mulch or not to mulch – that is the question” or “some mulch, some mulch my kingdom for some mulch”…
It’s also little known fact that Shakespeare actually drew his name from his profession (as many did in the Middle Ages), it relates to his innovative technique of removing the highly invasive Eurasian Pear through a technique of shaking the saplings loose, hence Shakes – pear!
Now before you ask, the above is fiction (you’d be surprised…) although it could contain some grains of truth…
What cannot be argued however is the importance of the use of organic matter in land management, be that revegetation, orchard or your garden.
Most soils that we plant on are in some way degraded.
By adding deep mulch around your new plants, or even better still mulching months in advance of your planting, you will increase the health and vigour of your plantings and reduce weed problems in the early phases of establishment.
If you had the time, energy and available finances you could do far worse than covering your whole garden to be in mulch!
As a general rule mulch depth should be ideally between 100-200mm thick – pile on the mulch and watch your garden grow!
