# Mysterious Lack of Mulch in Cyprus...



## JoeChristmas (Oct 29, 2016)

I love to garden, and I'm a huge proponent of mulch. It helps retain water, provides valuable nutrients to the soil, helps block weeds, and smells great. I also think it looks good, too.

But for some reason, very few people in Cyprus seems to use it! Why?? I see colorful stones (gravel) in everyone's garden here, it seems to be standard. And yes, that can look nice, I can see why some prefer this over mulch. But I don't understand why _everybody_ seems to avoid mulch here.

Can someone enlighten me? Are there practical reasons to avoid mulch in Cyprus? What am I missing? 

I'm thinking of getting rid of all of the gravel in my beddings - and there is a ton of gravel there now - and replacing it all with mulch. My wife thinks I'm crazy, because she's convinced there must be a very good reason why nobody uses mulch in Cyprus. 

Please help me solve this mystery!


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

I think possibly the lack of mulch is down to the lack of suitable green materials etc for making mulch with. Remember Cyprus does not have lush forests etc except for in the mountains where it is mostly pine which is not suitable material for mulch.
We always struggled to find decent mulch which we like to put on our potted plants to help retain moisture.


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## JonandGaynor (Jun 8, 2009)

Sounds to me its a case of 'Mulch to do about nothing'.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

Gravel does most of what you want without needing to be replaced every so often.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

NickZ said:


> Gravel does most of what you want without needing to be replaced every so often.


Except unlike mulch it dosn't provide any nutrients for the plants.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

Yup that's the tradeoff.


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## nhowarth (Dec 6, 2017)

You can get almond shells here. They act as a mulch and will breakdown eventually.

You can also get 'used' hay from goat farms - it stinks a bit but it does the job.

Cheers,


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