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| Living Mulch, Penny Royal Mentha pulegium |
I am really tired of weeding and get very irritated when new ones pop up in the garden, especially in the areas that border my veg plots – AKA ‘The Weed Zones’! So I decided I would like to plant something there that would compete and displace the weeds, preferably something that is useful to the veg garden; such as attracting insects, or repelling pests or has some edible use.
I settled for Penny Royal for several reasons:
ü It is a matting ground cover
ü It grows quickly
ü It has a pungent aroma that repels some garden pests (or I would assume disguises the smell of the veggies from the pests)
ü Water friendly because it belongs to the mint family
ü Low maintenance
ü Flowers to attract beneficial insects
ü Leaves are used for herbal mint tea or can be applied to treat insect stings
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| Growth rate of Penny Royal in The Weed Zones Before pic: Late Summer After pic: Mid-winter |
As well as all the benefits of Penny Royal by itself; it acts as a living or green mulch with most of the benefits that traditional (dry) mulch also has:
ü Retains water (green ground cover is able to capture water from just 1mm of rain!)
ü Keeps the soil warmer for longer during the winter months and cool in summer
ü Controls weeds
ü Assists with maintaining a healthy soil community (microbes and small insects can take shelter)
I would suggest either pruning or digging out sections with a spade that start to invade the veg plots. The clumps you remove that have roots can be easily replanted elsewhere and it’ll keep on growing there – propagating Penny Royal could not be easier!
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| Weed guard Penny Royal Mentha pulegium |
You can find information on clovers as living mulches @ Natural Biofertilisers & Edible Legumes post
Related articles:
Green manures and cover crops
Mulching – Watering Page
Attracting beneficial insects to the garden - Insectary
Pest Control
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