Daggy wool as mulch

Not sure if this is the correct place for this!   We are expecting a drier than usual summer (record low rainfall so far )  so  I'm trying out something different, for me at least.   The Grosse Lisse tomatoes seem to need more water than other varieties, so I've taken the daggy (soiled) bits from a less than stellar fleece and buried them between the plants on each side of the root system.   Rationale is that wool can hold 20% water by weight and still not feel wet - so should have no trouble hanging on to more.   Buried, because the birds like to pinch bits for their nests and that same property upsets the humidity and causes problems with hatching of any eggs.    So far so good - I've been able to reduce the frequency of watering, no bad thing.
I have two batches of cocktail tomatoes which are less vigorous which are surface mulched as usual, for "control"  - it's the science nerd in me.  
I know people who have used not-so-brilliant-felting projects as liners for hanging baskets,  and I think that any cut up holey sweaters would be suitable  candidates for a mulch with less attraction for the birds. -  however I'd still go with burying for maximum benefit to the root systems.  

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone else has had success with this approach.

The wool will hold in moisture and stop things like chooks from scratching around the roots. It also works well to stop erosion and dirt washing out of unsealed driveways. At one point here the bits and pieces from shearing- the stains, locks, pieces and bellies- were pretty much worthless. One feller dumped a truckload of it holes in some of the tracks around his farm and covered it with dirt. Many months later, with almost no rain, wool prices skyrocketed, that feller ripped up the wool, shook the dirt out of it and sold it for good money.
I have a bunch of fleeces stacked on the floor in my shearng shed because some idiot forgot to buy enough wool packs at shearing time. A week later my milking cow managed to get the door open, went in a knocked stuff over, pushed gear off the table and her piece de resistance- she tipped over and busted a twenty litre (four gallon) plastic drum of sump oil and dragged a heap of good wool through it. It wasn't worth a whole lot before- it's worth a whole lot less now.

I like to use carpet over mulch to protect the soil life coming up to break it down. So worn out wool carpet would allow any precipitation to be held and if it gets overgrown because it is not taken up and reinstalled, it will eventually break down itself.

It would have to be pure wool carpet Hans. I pulled up carpet with a mouldboard plough on this place that had to have been there for at least twenty years. The strands were separated but still very strong- a great big tangled mess- and orange! It would have looked horrible even when it was new

A week later my milking cow managed to get the door open, went in a knocked stuff over, pushed gear off the table and her piece de resistance- she tipped over and busted a twenty litre (four gallon) plastic drum of sump oil and dragged a heap of good wool through it. It wasn't worth a whole lot before- it's worth a whole lot less now.  

Ha! Milk cows can be like that . . . cows anyway just have to be into everything.  Ours avidly watched tree-planting with a view to a later dining experience.
If the sump oil was unused, you may be able to reclaim the fleeces by soaking in water  with added methanol.   Methanol removes the grease from fleece in processing factories to lessen the need for excess agitation and possible felting.   If the oil was used, then I can't think of anything that will remove that black stuff . . . been looking for years for that remedy.

Not worth the expense or the hassle Jill but thanks anyway. My old ewes are due to start lambing right at the end of January so I'll shear them a couple of weeks before- easy access to the teats for the lambs and no risk of fly strike- assuming I remember to buy wool packs  Middle of summer, not the time to be lambing but my previous young ram turned out to be a dud- he had fun but that wasn't what he was here for. So he went to lambie heaven and was replaced with an absolute beast of a Poll Dorset- probably three hundred and twenty pounds- hence the lambing at the wrong time of year.
The milking cow has horns and likes to play with door handles and gate chains and levers on machinery just to see what happens. She's a likeable pain in the bum.

I like the idea of burying the fleece to hold on to water underground.
I would use it as a surface mulch - to feed and protect, but can only do this where my dogs can't get to. I'm pretty sure my labrador retriever has made himself a fleece gastric balloon by eating the stuff - the dogs love it!