Bare ground is BAD! It’s bad for your garden and bad for the environment.
If your garden has lots of plants and shrubs spaced out with lots of open ground covered with mulch – that’s not much better.
Studies of the environment and climate change have shown that bare ground has a huge impact. When the ground isn’t covered with PLANTS, the soil breaks down, water is lost and the micro climate of the area releases the carbon dioxide stored in the soil. This effect warms the microclimate and eventually the global climate.
The best thing you can do for your garden and ultimately, the world is to keep your ground covered with living plants.
Group your plants in clusters. Plants do better when planted close together. They lean on each other and hold in moisture.
Keep your clusters closer together. And when you do use mulch, try to get some that isn’t created from trees cut down just for that purpose. It’s just silly to kill one plant to mulch another. Avoid dyed mulch as the dyes are not always harmless to the environment.
If you have annuals in your garden, consider planting a “cover crop” at the end of the season. Most cover crops are ‘nitrogen-fixing” which means they improve the soil’s ability to fertilize plants naturally.
You CAN make a difference.