What is the difference between the two and what role do they play in our gardens?
Mulch and compost are not synonymous.
Simply put, compost is always covered by mulch, never the other way around.
Quite often it is easy to get confused about what product goes where, when, and does what in the garden. So, let’s take a look:
Mulch:
Think of mulch as a product you use to replicate the natural mulches you’d find in nature. For example, leaf litter.
Mulch will:
- Create a protective blanket on top of the soil
- Breakdown eventually to add organic matter/carbon to your soil profile
- Create a habitat for microbes and other invertebrates
- Help slow rainfall and allow water infiltration
- Prevent erosion
- Protect plant roots from extreme temperature fluctuations
Mulch choices:
In the veggie patch and around fruiting trees and plants, your best mulch choice will be:
- Rocky Point Sugar Cane Mulch
- Rocky Point Lucerne Mulch
- Rocky Point Pea Straw Mulch
For more established ornamental exotic and native gardens you could select longer lasting high carbon mulches such as.
- Rocky Point Tea Tree Mulch
- Rocky Point Cypress Mulch (natural termite deterrent)
- Rocky Point Pine Bark Mulch
- Rocky Point Outback and Blackwood Mulch
When applying mulch to any garden, clear the area of weeds and water the area thoroughly. Apply your mulch of choice at 50mm, or 25mm if it is a reapplication. Then water well to settle the mulch.
Compost:
Compost is an organic-rich product that has been made from the decomposing of organic waste such as vegetable matter, garden refuse, and more. Rocky Point ActivGrow Soil Improver compost is supercharged with composted chicken and cow manure, blood and bone, gypsum, fish meal, seaweed extract, iron, zeolite, and trace elements.
Compost, in general, is applied beneath the top layer of soil to:
- Improve soil structure
- Retain and hold in moisture
- Benefit plant roots by delivering nutrients
- Encourage micro-organisms by providing essential nutrients
Choose Rocky Point ActivGrow Soil Improver, a certified organic compost, at planting and as a follow-up soil conditioner mixed in with soil as a fertiliser. Look out for Rocky Point Sugar Cane Mulch and use it in conjunction with Rocky Point ActivGrowSoil Improver compost and Rocky Point ActivGrow Fertiliser Pellets.
