Rain and mulch and returning home!

The weatherman forecast 100 mm in 48 hours in the Garden Route, we got 52 mm on Saturday alone. We came home to much erosion damage and a virtual moat between our path and our house! Annual soil loss in South Africa is estimated at 300 - 400 million tonnes, nearly three tonnes for each hectare of land! If we start to address the situation on our own little pieces of paradise, it will make a difference. Top soil is worth it’s weight in gold and is difficult to replace when it's gone!

Only 13.5% of South Africa’s land surface area is considered arable/suitable for food production. Every year an estimated 34 000 hectares of farmland is converted for other purposes, such as urban expansion. At this rate, by the year 2050, there may be no more than 0.2 hectares per person available on which to produce food in South Africa. This is much lower than other countries and it really does enforce the point that we need to grow our own.

Mulching is every gardener’s best friend.

It is, by definition: A protective covering, usually of organic matter such as leaves, straw, or peat, placed around plants to prevent the evaporation of moisture, erosion, the freezing of roots, and the growth of weeds.

A layer of mulch 7.5mm thick can reduce your water consumption by about 70%! Just think about it, the only open bare earth you see in a natural untouched environment is desert! And desert is a hungry thing! The ground needs to be protected and there are many different mulches that can be used.

We use opened up cardboard boxes on our paths with saw dust over. In the beds we use Lucerne as we don't often find hay at the co-op here, but hay is your best option. You can also use stones, newspaper, leaves raked up from the garden. Grass clipping may leave you with a lot of grass in your beds!

Our veggie garden incurred almost no damage, being mulched and all, and we returned home to the last of the tomatoes and very happy lettuce! Thank you rain, please do come again, just wait until the moat dries!