Your only gardening job for 2026

If you only do one gardening job all year, mulch. Mulching is the multi-purpose wonder job that will make your life easier, now and forever. For starters, it makes your garden look neater, covering up weeds, leaves and the detritus of winter.

But its benefits go much deeper (excuse the pun). Mulching locks in moisture now, and minimises water loss from your soil later, when summer finally arrives and we tip over from too much rain into not enough. It provides a literal barrier to evaporation. Depending on what you use to mulch, it can also make your soil more spongy and therefore better able to hold moisture within it.

What you mulch with depends on the effect you want. If you have a dry, sunny garden and you like self-seeding plants, mulching with gravel will lock in moisture, and provide a seedbed for plants to spread themselves around. If you have heavy clay and want to make it lighter, mulch with fallen leaves or leafmould. The worms will pull them into the soil, making it lighter and spongier over time. If you want a super productive vegetable or fruit garden, mulch with compost or manure, to boost nutrients in the soil.

Mulching now will massively decrease your need to water later. It will create more resilient plants, and if you do it with organic matter, it will feed your soil too. It’s an absolute no-brainer, and the most important job you’ll do all year.