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Perennials & Annuals - Australia

mulching cottage gardens

19 years ago

Hello all, I'm a new member of this forum, with a large traditional cottage garden in central Victoria, which I inherited four years ago. Along with a few evergreen perennial shrubs and roses, it is filled with many beautiful flowers each spring/summer - achillea, valerian, asters, poppies, penstemons etc, and come late autumn-winter I've been chopping these back to the ground, which I have read is the right thing to do (yes? comments anyone?).

The problem - grass has invaded and due to other commitments in the past year I've had less time for gardening, so it has run rampant. I've tried digging out the roots, but it only comes back again. I've tried filling gaps with perrenials which help a little but it's a large area to plant and I haven't been able to cover all the ground. Also, I'm digging up the root systems of many of the plants and no doubt causing damage. Once the self seeders come up the beds are chock-full of flowers so any grass isn't visible, but I really want to get rid of it! A local nurseryman has advised hay/straw mulching, but I'm concerned that if I do this to stop the grass coming up, the above mentioned plants and self seeders won't come up either. Does anyone have any advice/experience on this?

Also, whilst of course mulching in spring/summer is the answer to keeping weeds/grass down/moisture in - how do you mulch around densely flowering areas without squashing everything?

I hope these questions don't sound silly but with all the reading I've done and knowledge I've gained looking after this garden the past few years, I'm still confounded on this! Thanks for your replies in advance.

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Comments (3)

sparxiris
19 years ago
Also in Central Vic, with a similar garden. I have 1 acre and have learnt that I have to mulch if I want as much garden as i like without killing myself working in it. I don't mind weeding, and i do weed all my (many) iris beds by hand, and just mulch between the rows. My mulch of choice is pea straw. Good luck if you can get it cheap this year! Ordinary straw is OK, but grows oats/wheat. Pea straw adds nitrogen.
Both will be spread by the blackbirds. I really don't care about a messy look, so that's OK.
Many of your perennials will still manage to self seed. I have lupins, Honesty, poppies, ranunculus, aquilegias, all self seeded in the broken down straw. The thing is, it only takes 6 to 9 months to break down. It feeds and conditions the soil, and opens it up, so any weeds that do grow are easier to pull out. You mulch in late Spring, and by next Spring you may still have a bunch of weeds to pull, but can selectively leave any stuff you want, and the amount of weeding is greatly reduced.
I work full time, and I'm not getting younger, and my gardens are top priority. I like the look of mulch and I think it is worth it to make your life easier.
If you have really nasty stuff (sorrel is my worst one here) put down layers of newspaper the first year, under the mulch. It will gradually get easier.
Hope that helps,
Cheers, Jan
traceyc
Original Author
19 years ago
Hi Jan, thanks for your reply, which helped greatly to answer my questions. I don't mind the weeding either, but like you, working full time, and so have to find ways of managing the garden in the time I have. After reading your comments and some from the cottage garden forum, I think the big thing is the timing of the mulching - I've gone ahead and weeded and mulched now - with recent rains the grass was growing like mad, so I felt I couldn't wait - by late Spring it would have just been a lawn rather than a garden bed!! I used pea straw and mixed in some sheep manure. So maybe having done this now, some of my plants won't come up this year? What do you think?

Thanks again, Cheers, Tracey
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sparxiris
19 years ago
I would think that, by this time ofyear, most of your self seededs would be up and you could selectively weed them and mulch around them. I have plenty of poppies, lupins, foxgloves, and honesty self seeded, and have had to thin the poppies ruthlessly.
Good luck with your mulching, I am sure you will be a convert to the system :-)

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