Thing To Do Today: mulch.

Mulch.

Mulch mulch mulch mulch

Mulch mulch mulch mulch...

Can't you fell the stickiness of the stuff sucking at your wellies?

Mulch! Lov-er-ly mulch!

The word mulch started off meaning half-rotten straw, but now it means putting a layer of stuff down onto the surface of soil rather than digging it in. A mulch can stop weeds growing, or stop water from evaporating, or make paths less muddy, or stop the soil washing or blowing away, or can merely be intended to look rather smart.


This, believe it or not, is a rubber mulch. Who'd ever have imagined such a thing?

Mulch mulch mulch mulch...

So if someone says they're going to mulch their beds, the bed in question will almost certainly be in their garden.


Picture by Bobbi Jones Jones.


Unless they're very eccentric...

Mulch mulch mulch mulch...

...or a hedgehog.



There is one other use of the word mulch which is hardly used at all nowadays. It means soft. I think English would be all the better for a word meaning soft and mucky, so perhaps we should revive it.

Let's face it, all opportunities to say the word mulch are to be celebrated and relished.

Mulch mulch mulch mulch
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
MULCH! Lov-er-ly-MULCH!

Thing To Do Today: mulch. The word is from the Old English word mylisc, which means mellow. It's probably related in some way (great aunt?) to the German dialect word molsch, which means soft, beginning to decay, and the Latin word mollis, which also means soft.