In my garden I've been mulching. It is one of the most important tasks of the year - next only to compost making. I do it every February to March using my own compost. This takes up to a month because emptying the compost out is a tough job, I can no longer cart a heavy bucket up and down the garden and I have no wheelbarrow so I fill plastic pots with the compost and do it in small batches. The advantage is that it gives me an opportunity to really look at the garden and work out what has priority.
Mulching with compost has several purposes. It helps to retain moisture, specially if you do it just after it has rained or you have watered; it helps to keep down weeds; it encourages worms which are really good for the garden. Importantly, it provides nutrients for the plants and as I don't use chemical fertilisers, this is vital for their well-being.
As I carry my compost-filled plant pots around the garden I prioritise the plants that need mulching most and those include all fruits, from rhubarb to currant bushes and raspberry canes as well as the cordon apples, pears and damsons. I drop the compost by their feet and then spread it around to about 2in all round, being careful not to allow it to touch the stem of the plant.
The mulch at the top of the compost heap is less well rotted than the bottom which has had longer to mature, but it is perfectly good to use. You can see a fairly coarse mulch used on the damson above. After the edibles, I mulch the hungry plants that have spectacular flowers, like the two tree peonies and the roses and if I have any left I give it to the shrubs forming a hedge round the garden.
There are other mulches you can use for specific purposes. For example if you want to prepare a piece of ground for new planting, rather than digging and removing weeds. you can lay a length of black plastic or an old flattened-out cardboard box over it and leave it for a couple of months. The lack of air and water will kill most weeds in that time. I want to claim a bit of ground at the top of the garden for growing more vegetables (being a bit disconcerted at failing to get any supermarket delivery slot for over a month) so I'm using cardboard. If the foxes choose to play around with objects I have put in the garden like this I have some old bricks lying around which I use to pin them down.
An old cardboard box used as a mulch
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