Peter Dowdall: Why mulching is one of the best things you can do in the garden 

Whether you're a gardening beginner or expert, Irish Examiner columnist Peter Dowdall has the answer to your questions

Mulching our soil over winter with any organic material will help to rejuvenate and replenish our most valuable asset. Picture: iStock

The hour has gone back and with that, we enter the winter proper and during this season we have a chance to replenish our garden soils. It is probably the best thing that we can do for our gardens and shouldn’t be forgotten.

Mulching around plants is thought of as merely a means of weed prevention and often, that most dreadful of materials, “weed block”, is used beforehand.