The pros and cons of mulches

[Di]

I've used cardboard as a mulch before and on several occasions have found that mice moved in beneath, clearly found it a convenient bedding material and general warm spot. I cannot hurt baby meese, and being a soft towny, I re cover the nest and leave...

Red ants on the other hand seem to thrive under black poly - can't say I feel the same affection for them!

Then theres the ecological impact, cardboard is recycled and gets rotted down to feed the soil, poly is a product of the petro chemical industry.

Whats your preference

[Lyn]

Cardboard, every time. As you say, it rots down and adds to the soil, and also helps to retain moisture. Plastic is just "there", and remains "there", getting tattier and tattier. However, the main problem with any sort of mulch, I find, is that the slugs are provided with a perfect hideaway. Having said that, it provides a home for other critters, too, some of them beneficial. Got to take the rough with the smooth, I suppose!
Regards, Lyn

[gardenaholic]

Mulches are a must in Australia as without them we wouldnt have a garden. I use lots of different types. The best if I can get it is seagrass. I collect this from the beach and use it thickly over the surface around existing plants. Pea-straw made by mulching left-overs (can be bought in pales). Pine needles around my strawberries a must to prevent rotting. Straw bedding from my animals straight onto the beds especially from my duck yard, the manure is not hot enough to burn. In between my beds I use old carpet to keep the weeds down. The slugs and snails are not a problem as I leave lenghts of pvc piping around and check them. Its amazing what a difference they make.

[madasafish]

Composted leaf manure anytime.

[Malk]

we have a free supply of wood chips, so I use that, but also feed the fruit I put it around quite well as I'm told it steals nitrogen from the plants.

[WestHamRon]

Mulches are a must in Australia as without them we wouldnt have a garden. I use lots of different types. The best if I can get it is seagrass. I collect this from the beach and use it thickly over the surface around existing plants. Pea-straw made by mulching left-overs (can be bought in pales). Pine needles around my strawberries a must to prevent rotting. Straw bedding from my animals straight onto the beds especially from my duck yard, the manure is not hot enough to burn. In between my beds I use old carpet to keep the weeds down. The slugs and snails are not a problem as I leave lenghts of pvc piping around and check them. Its amazing what a difference they make.

Care to elucidate ?

[richard p]

ive got both plastic and cardboard weighted down with 4 pint plastic milk containers filled with water, trouble is the screw caps are being chewed, presumably by mice, which is letting the water out... our young cat has been asleep all day, there are at least 4 others that roam arround the garden between naps and feeding times....fat lot of good they seem to be

[jane E]

To the lady who found mice nests under cardboard - I have difficulty killing anything, so one year when we found baby mice in the compost bin they were covered back up - and they feasted on my courgettes all summer! I would now leave the cardboard turned back and point the cat in the right direction!

[Stephen]

JaneE
I sympathise. I couldn't (or didn't) kill the mice living at one end of the allotment (under a pile of flints). However, they came upon their end in a plastic dustbin in the neighbour's shed, when they got into it and their was no way out.