I am preoccupying myself with the best way of coping with my vegetable patch & other growing areas during our imminent hosepipe ban which starts next week.

I have very dry soil now & very little mulching material at the moment apart from lots of newspapers which I could shred up. Should I shred these now and dig them into dry soil? Will that make the initial situation worse if we have no rain in the immediate future?

Is there any point in putting a surface mulch on dry soil as I fear that if we have some light rain it will not penetrate the mulch, and thus the situation would end up being worse than if I had not put any mulch down..

Part of my veg patch is already sown. I am watering a little but after the hose pipe ban, the situation will be difficult to manage. Should I mulch with shredded newspaper anyway, even if the soil is dry?

What are the rest of you who are in hosepipe ban areas going to do?

No point in mulching dry soil Primrose, wait till you have had a good soaking from above first. Then water well everything as you plant and mulch with anything you have to hand. Not sure about dry shedded paper as it may be inclinded to blow everywhere. It will rot down if mixed with other material in your compost bin though but needs to be soaked first.

Beryl.

Dear Primrose, who would have thought we would be worrying about this sort of a problem, at this time of the year.

I agree with Beryl, don't mulch while the ground is dry, it will do more harm than good. if you can soak the ground first it would be o.k.
And i think i would also soak the shredded paper before applying it.

Here's keeping our fingers crossed for some nice steady rain, at night of course.

Hi Primrose, next year start thinking of mulching late summer / autumn if you mulch then it helps to prevent soil getting washed away by the rain when it comes, a bale of hay here costs only £1.50 and I spread this as a base, dry seed free weeds on the path and add to the mulch, what is left after harvesting peas and beans etc can be added to the top of mulch, also dried grass clippings. It keeps weeds in check if you have mulched - winds can be very drying if your ground is bare too - mulching early prevents it drying in the first place. I plant things in modules and then plant them through the mulch in spring, or you can move mulch to plant a row and move it back when they have grown a little. Mum was very poorly last year so I only managed to mulch half of mine last autumn, but where I did mulch the soil is beautifully moist and workable.

Hi NB,
A bale of Hay here is £6. and we make rather a lot here.
The seed content of a bale of hay is enormous and suggest that if hay is to be used it should have a good threshing before use.
JB.

I was always told not to use hay as it was full of course of grass seeds, but to use straw.

Where are you sourcing hay at that price. It's well over £6 a small bale round here, not that it's readily available.

sorry slip of the tongue I meant straw, we use it for the ducks and chickens and in summer it is layered in the compost and autumn I put it straight on the veg beds winter rains wash it clean into the soil, and it is only 1.50 a bale here. Good article in K G Mag on mulching this month.

Ah that will be grand stuff indeed! I just put rhe leak-ruined old carpet out on the garden...

Before using any carpet on areas where food crops are to grow, it's worth bearing in mind the toxins that can be lurking. The link is an old article, but well worth reading. A web search will throw up many more recent links.

"Carpets are piled high with toxic pollutants"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... tants.html

Agree with Alan on this one, our homes are loaded with these toxins especially in flame retardent carpet, furnishings, and paint, and in cleaning products unless we choose eco, once carpets were pure wool etc but not anymore.