Lessons from my Garden Rooms

The First Lesson is Covering the Soil

A reflection on what my garden has taught me and how those lessons will inform my new project.

Graphic by Author (using Canva) featuring Viola banksii as a living mulch on the right.

My garden rooms aren’t finished. I suspect they never will be, no matter where I am. The pulsing, living nature of gardening makes it a constant project that can only be abandoned.

This one is being abandoned prematurely in some ways, but what I have learned will hopefully help my next garden flourish sooner.

Lesson One: The importance of covering the soil

I have a serious weed problem in the garden rooms, that would take weeks of consistent work to remedy and then consistent work for years to eliminate the seeds in the soil. This has taught me that I need to prioritise covering the soil when I plant.

There are two ways of covering soil that I want to focus on:

1. Mulch
2. Living Mulch (shallow rooted groundcovers)

I’ve learned a bit about mulch, not nearly enough! What I have learned is that:

• Different mulches do different jobs
• Some mulches repel water
• Mulches don’t have to…