Why Mulching is a MUST in Florida

So you want to grow fruit trees and other edible stuffs in Florida, huh? This climate is pretty unique, in that we can have dry spells from November to March, and monsoon-like weather the rest of the year. These are some reasons why it's imperative to use mulch in your garden or farm if you live in Florida.

#1. The Soil. It's no secret that Florida has very sandy soil, it was once underwater! (And some say it will be again soon). It's not that sandy soil is void of any nutrients, but it certainly doesn't have as many as the land my rental house sits on in northern Illinois (talk about black gold). But since the soil is so sandy, plants that bear fruit or veg need some sort of amendment. In addition to using high quality topsoil, adding mulch can seriously benefit the soil quality. This is because the mulch is from ground up trees, which is basically nitrogen aka "brown matter" (something trees need and love). Especially initially, after planting mulch and after a rain, those nutrients are fed to the plant. The rain flows through the mulch, sending the nutrients down to the roots.

#2. Retaining Moisture: It's hot in Florida, in case you didn't know. Any of us who live here know how hot that sun feels and what it can do to literally anything that sits outside too long (bake it). The mulch helps the plant to retain moisture because after a rain the water sits below the mulch. If you didn't have mulch, the moisture would evaporate up and leave the ground very dry, which would dry out the roots. However, with a few good inches of mulch, the water isn't evaporated, as the mulch provides a barrier and only the top layer of mulch gets bleached.

#3. The Soil. Yes, again. Old mulch doesn't just sit there forever. It breaks down into dirt. It's pretty amazing but a very basic part of science. Anything dead will decay. Just so happens that dead trees turn into dirt over time, in turn, providing a good soil amendment to the sand.

#4. Flooding. It hasn't done this lately here, but Florida is notorious for flooding. We are mere inches above sea level, so this makes perfect sense. Mulching your plants can actually save them from becoming waterlogged or from having root rot.

In closing, there are many good reasons why a productive garden or farm in Florida should take advantage of the use of mulch. There are also great benefits to using animal manure whilst farming, but I'll save that for another time.

Hope you found this interesting and thanks for stopping by! Happy homesteading!

@vegansilverstack

All work and photos are original and this post was done using my iPhone 7