Mulching experiments: cardboard and whool

Mulching fulfils a variety of functions: it reduces evaporation, slows down the germination of weeds, offers additional organic material,... We usually mulch with straw at the Monte as it is a material that is easy to handle. We generally spread the content of one small straw bale around each fruit tree. This year, we experimented with two less usual mulching materials. One is cardboard, which we used specifically to try and slow down the growth of couch grass (Cynodon dactylon) ("grama-bermudas" in Portuguese). The latter tends to be one of our greatest challenges. The other mulching material is whool. The COVID-19 crisis seems to have killed the whool market in our area and we had then a large amount of whool at our disposal, which we decided to take advantage of. Let's see in a few months how both mulching materials will behave. With the rainy season coming, cardboard is likely to decompose. However, it may have managed in the meantime to reduce couch grass's vigor.