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5/26/17 in Common Herbs for Natural Health Juliette writes that Braken is good mulch for strawberries cause sluggs don't like itNicole Alderman wrote:Last year I discovered, quite by accident, that not much can grow through a layer of fern fronds. I had put a nice layer of them in my potato garden, as I read it would reduce the loss of potassium and nitrogen...only to find the potatoes and even the garlic couldn't grow through them! So, I got no potatoes or garlic, but I did learn something useful!
This year, I'm using the fronds as a mulch around my my fruit trees, layering/weaving the fronds around the base of my trees were I really don't want anything growing. I'm hoping that it will keep the weeds down. For the places that already have grass growing, I'm putting down a layer of duck bedding and then putting the fronds on top of that. I sloppily interweave the fronds in various directions. I assume that the rain and oxygen can still filter through those fronds (unlike with cardboard/newspaper, which can supposedly smother)
I did this a little around one of my cherry trees last year, and there was markedly less weed growth than with my other trees. I have a lot of ferns around me, so I plan on mulching as many of my fruit trees in this way as I can. Below is a picture of one of my cherry trees that I just mulched today (I'd show the other one I mulched, too, but it's covered in snow).
Is there anything that might be wrong with this mulch? If/when I apply the duck bedding, would it be better to put it above or below the ferns?