Reducing Soil Erosion and Compaction
Why: One of the most clever uses for mulching your garden is to help reduce soil erosion or compaction. In your garden, mulch basically becomes a physical barrier restricting soil from either displacing or moving around with water. Also, this protective barrier extends to instances when your garden is walked on or even driven on.
How: Mulch takes the brunt of any water naturally falling down around plants or from irrigation systems, or even flooding where the soil underneath is not disturbed. Mulch can protect the soil around your plants’ roots from being displaced, too, which also improves soil drainage and keeps it more constant. When force is repeatably exerted by the weight of foot traffic, mowers, equipment, or vehicles, your garden soil is pressed further down and together. This is soil compaction, which creates smaller pore spaces for air, water, and nutrients to be deposited and be taken up by plant roots. Compaction also makes it harder for plant roots to grow through and this can result in smaller plant roots systems. This results in smaller surface areas for water, air, and nutrient uptake for any plant, and also a less stable plant because it is not as anchored in the ground as it could be in uncompacted soil.
General Tips:
- Larger and coarser mulches are great for lessening compaction in your garden.
- Good mulch examples of this are Arborist mulch and Engineered Wood Fiber.
Mulch can protect the soil around your plants’ roots from being displaced which also improves soil drainage.