0tterbot wrote:
hello,

in retrospect, i am thinking now that it ended up being unfortunate that we
mulched with horse poo, rather than (say) straw, just before a stint of
(unseasonal for the area) hot weather with almost no rain.

knowing that dark colours are likely to absorb heat & lighter colours to
deflect it, i've been putting straw round the veggies over the top of the
poo (but as my plants are pretty well spaced, most of the bed areas are
still pooed, rather than strawed).

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't measured
due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is several degrees
hotter there than in general garden areas (where the larger plants would
ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all that stuff - but there are
no larger plants in teh veggie garden - it's just blindingly hot :-).
between the rows the grass is short & dry & therefore light-coloured, but
the throb of heat you experience walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable
nevertheless!

i can't recall any previous time in my fairly limited gardening experience
where i've noticed that i seemed (personally) to have created an inadvertant
heat sink like this. the garden in general, the veggie patch in particular,
is struggling with lack of water atm & it's just making me sad, really. i
haven't been getting good germination this spring/summer, nor good growth.
there are things i'm just not doing because i foresee that they would fail,
& i should just put it off until a cooler/wetter period starts up.

any thoughts or comments on mulch colour?
ta!
kylie





Funny you mention that.

I used to mulch with stable manure (mixed liberally with wood-shavings)
and it remains my favourite mulch to this day. Sadly, we no longer keep
horses, so I've had to revert to paddock-pickings (ie pure poo) to bring
home and rot. This feels *much* hotter to me than the shavings mixture.
I'd never discussed it with anyone before, but I think we've hit upon
something here. Would it be worth investing in a bale of sugar cane
mulch to cover the poo thinly and (perhaps?) reduce the temp?

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia