Karen Gimson,  team member at Garden News Magazine, writing a weekly growing, cooking column.  Many years appearing on BBC Radio Leicester’s Down to Earth gardening programme.  

I host courses and festivals  at Barnsdale Gardens, and host a children’s planting tent and do talks on stage at the Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show. 

With the repeated heatwave temperatures, there’s definitely a difference in plants in the areas where I have used PlantGrow mulch.  I have sweet peas growing  in a well-mulched bed. These really do love moisture, but with only watering them when I plant them out – and very minimally through the summer, you’d  expect them to wilt and stop flowering. But, fortunately, they are coping well with the drought and temperatures. Sweet peas are a favourite of mine and I start sowing them in October. They then have to be looked after over the winter and protected from mice. They are planted out in April. So, quite a lot of work. I want to keep them flowering for as long as possible. PlantGrow helps me get good value out of all the effort of growing food and flowers such as sweet peas. It extends the flowering season, and with food crops, increases the yields, saving me money. 

Generally, I mulch the garden either in the autumn or in early spring before planting out. 

PlantGrow suppresses the weeds and  helps to protect roots of plants from extremes of weather, either heat or cold.

PlantGrow mulch reduces evaporation from the soil, so less water is needed. 

As a biodegradable mulch, it adds nutrients and rots down eventually. Unlike non-biodegradable mulches which do not improve the structure of the soil.

Adding mulch around new plants also helps them establish. We are careful not to pile the mulch up around stems of shrubs or trees though. 

We mulch our trees out to the radius of the canopy, a technique seen at Kew Gardens. 

Less  water is needed as less will evaporate when using a mulch. Weeds are suppressed. They are easier to pull out too.

I want to get the maximum amount of flowers, fruit and vegetables for the effort of growing them, and PlantGrow helps achieve this aim.

I’m also growing courgettes, beans, aubergines, tomatoes and cucumbers. Here PlantGrow is used as topping for the plant pots, containers and raised beds. 

One fabulous  bonus of using mulch is the discovery of a family of four baby hedgehogs born in the garden. The ground in surrounding gardens and fields is rock hard after the drought and heatwave. But the borders that have been mulched remain loose enough for the hedgehogs to forage through. And they are finding earth worms, beetles, and insects which thrive in healthy, rich soils full of organic matter. They are a source of joy and one of the reasons I love gardening.