We hold regular working bees once a fortnight on Friday mornings. This autumn we have been mulching the site section by section. John, one of our members has been collecting mulch from the Council depot in his ute. We have been barrowing and bucketing it on one small area at a time starting at the station end. It takes only 20- 30 minutes for the group to off-load and distribute each load of mulch but John says loading it onto the ute at the depot is a much slower process. 

The main reason for mulching is to suppress annual weeds like stinging nettles and cleavers. Mulch also conserves moisture in the soil and looks good, too. To suppress weeds completely, mulch needs to be 7.5 to10 cm. deep but we spread it thinner to allow water penetration when it rains and spread the mulch further.