The downsides of mud are many.
In the garden, it increases the risk of slipping, prevents the lawn from flourishing and sticks to the gardener's clothes and the paws of pets.
How to avoid mud?
How to amend the soil so that it does not turn into thick slush?
Our answers.
To discover
January: what vegetables and fruits are in season?
Stabilizing slab, Japanese step: what to put on the mud?
In case of heavy rains, the ground becomes muddy and slippery.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a path in their garden or around their house.
To move around without risk and make the garden practicable, certain elements can be placed on the ground.
This is the case of the
anti-mud slab
, better known as the
stabilizing slab
.
This is frequently used in paddocks by horse owners.
The stabilizing pad looks like a plastic grid or mat.
It is very easy to install it on the muddy ground, which it is advisable to level beforehand.
The tiles fit together, like a puzzle, and create a stable and dry path.
Another tip:
Japanese steps
.
These pieces of slate or flat stone must be laid in such a way as to constitute a support for each step.
The spacing between the center of each element should be about 60 cm.
Before anchoring a stone or slate in the ground, dig 10 cm deep and prepare a bed of sand half the height.
Lay the slab on top.
Read also"My grass sown in clay soil does not grow..."
How to dry muddy ground quickly?
Mud is made up of earth but above all a lot of water.
In order for the soil to quickly return to its original state, it will have to be dried out, that is to say absorb the excess water.
For this, some temporary drying solutions exist:
The sand ;
The gravel ;
Blond peat;
The shredded material;
Wood chips.
Use one of these additions by spreading a thick layer over the muddy ground.
They will have a draining and absorbing effect.
Read alsoTerreau: how to choose it well?
To know
Clay soils are the most affected by the appearance of slush.
Its dry and fine structure filters rain poorly and tends to regurgitate water abundantly.
How to avoid the appearance of mud in the garden?
The solutions mentioned so far make it possible to circumvent the difficulties generated by the mud.
But it is possible to treat the problem at the source.
For example by reinforcing the soil structure.
There are many natural materials for improving soil: vegetable charcoal, dolomite, green manures, basalt powder or cattle manure.
In winter or during a wet period, it is a good time to amend the soil.
You will thus have a more fertile, more stable, more filtering soil, which will be less inclined to produce thick mud with each bad weather.
For non-clay soils, it is also possible to install drainage systems to collect and evacuate excess water.
But this solution is expensive.
Read alsoHow to prepare the soil in the garden for winter?
What trees to plant in a muddy garden?
If your garden is often muddy, it will be more difficult to grow beds and pretty plants there.
However, some trees are perfectly adapted to mud, water and wet earth:
Softwoods: bald cypress or metasequoia;
Poplars;
Willows;
alders;
Birches;
Ash trees;
Swamp Oaks.
Finally, some perennials resist mud well, such as miscanthus, Siberian iris, geranium, azalea or Japanese anemone.