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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Fwd: [Spinning] Felting / matting for garden mulch

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  • From: "Claudia & Linda" <dragonhill2@netzero.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Fwd: [Spinning] Felting / matting for garden mulch
  • Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:47:43 -0500

I wouldn't count on felted wool allowing water and air to pass thru to your plants.  Remember, the Mongolians used and still use felted wool to make their yurts, which protect them against the harsh central Asian winters.  Felted wool would probably be better used to cover garden paths.
 
Claudia
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 7:01 AM
Subject: [Livingontheland] Fwd: [Spinning] Felting / matting for garden mulch

This came up on the spinning list.  I will send the response that includes a idea for making a felted mulch matt.
Norma
 

Hi all,

I have a lot of dirty wool from our latest shearing, and I would like
use it for the garden (we did also keep the nicest parts of the wool in
bags for spinning, but here I'm talking about the dirty stuff that we
skirted off).

We sheared over a month ago, and I immediately used some of it as mulch
-- around the tomatoes and courgettes in particular. What I'm thinking
of doing which would, I think, make it more practical, is to spread the
wool out over a large surface (10m by 1.2m) and felting it (or matting
it or something, I don't know what the exact technical term is), the
idea being to obtain a (relatively) compact mat that I can then roll up
and use several years in a row. Since the mat would be more compact than
the raw wool, it should, I think, be a better protection against weeds
(which is one of my main purposes in using it). I assume that air and
water would still be able to get through (that would be important though
I suppose not absolutely necessary). I've organized my garden into plots
of 10m by 1.2m, so if I make rolls that fit the size of my plots, I
should be able to simply roll them out over empty plots to avoid weeds
growing, and then simply cutting little holes in the spots where I want
to put my plants.

That kind of thing is often done with a sheet of black plastic, but I
don't like that having plastic in the garden, it's messy-looking, and it
always gets torn up over time, and also, not only is it quite expensive,
but it doesn't let the water through, so it makes puddles whenever it
rains... I like the idea of using wool because not only it doesn't cost
me anything, but it looks a lot nicer, and it does let water through.

Anyway, that's just the context. My question is, how would you suggest I
go about it, and do you think it's a realistic idea, or is there some
reason why it wouldn't work?

Thanks in advance!

--
Best regards,
Jonathan Neve

.

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