For the last three years, I have been experimenting with different ways to use wool in my garden - now I'm a total convert. Warm, flexible, absorbent, rich in nutrients, and 100% natural, wool protects, insulates, irrigates, and feeds your plants while preventing breakages in the potting shed. It can even stop you from getting blisters!
Here are ten ways wool can help you garden more successfully and sustainably:
1. Deterring slugs and snails
When they hit a woolly barrier, pesky molluscs will glide the other way. The prickly scales on the surface of the wool fibres irritate their smooth undersides, and the wool draws moisture from them. Unlike conventional slug pellets, the wool is not a poison won't harm slugs, other wildlife or pets, but it will put them off.
Best product to use: Romney Marsh Wools Organic Wool Slug Pellets
When wool fibres are minced and formed into small pellets, they become more effective and easier to apply than fleece. They also decompose more quickly, feeding your thriving plants in the process. They're ideal for protecting hostas, dahlias and young vegetable plants.
2. Keeping plants evenly moist
Seedlings and young plants should be kept constantly moist to help them grow faster and stronger. Standing them in a tray lined with wool felt gives them access to water without drowning them. The wool acts like a sponge, releasing water when it's required and creating humidity around plants. The same principles apply to house plants. If you're going on holiday, stand your indoor plants on damp wool mats and let their roots and capillary action do the rest.
Best product to use: Hortiwool Garden Wool Pads - Pack of 5
If they're not the correct size, you can trim wool pads to using scissors. Any scraps can be used at the bottom of pots (9) or in bird nesters (8). The best beans I ever grew were harvested the year I lined my bean trenches with wool - give it a go!
3. Mulching
Wool fleece and felt possess signficant loft, forming light and open masses capable of trapping air and retaining moisture. When laid on the ground around plants, wool acts like a blanket, keeping the soil beneath a more even temperature and reducing evaporation.
Best product to use: Hortiwool Garden Wool Pads, Large - Pack of 2
If you garden in a windy spot or are concerned that wild animals might take a fancy to your cosy wool, pin down your wool mulch using bamboo kebab skewers—the ones with blunt ends are easier and safer to use.
4. Improving the structure and fertility of soil or compost
Wool possesses many of the same properties as peat, with the added benefit that it's renewable and plentiful. Its production helps to preserve traditional landscapes and farming methods. As we move away from peat-based composts, we can replace peat with wool to add texture, improve water retention, and build the structure of our soil. Wool breaks down more slowly than peat, so its benefits are longer-lasting.
Best product to use: Romney Marsh Wools Organic Wool Pellets
When planting new plants, add a handful of wool pellets to your potting mix or the backfill soil. The pellets will swell when wet, holding on to water and reducing the need for regular watering.
5. Lining hanging baskets
When lining a hanging basket, you have many options. Moss is messy and fiddly to use; jute and coir have travelled halfway around the globe to reach your garden. Wool is a better option as it's usually produced in the UK (if it is, it will say so on the packaging) and comes in attractive, neutral colours to complement your plants.
Best products to use: Hortiwool Garden Wool Pads, Large - Pack of 2, Twool Woolly Water Keeper
Wool pads can be cut to size, but if you have a large or awkward container to line, loose, carded wool is more easily moulded into shape. At the end of the summer, the wool can be added to your compost heap or used as mulch - nothing is wasted.
6. Protecting pots and absorbing shocks
We received parcels of frozen pet food packed in wool felt strips for many years. My doggies' dinners safely unpacked, I used the felt between pots when stacking them in my workshop and to prevent surfaces from getting scratched. When I pack parcels containing delicate objects such as bowls and pots, I often surround them with felt off-cuts to protect them should the parcel be handled carelessly - thus far, this method has never failed me!
Best product to use: Hortiwool Garden Wool Pads - Pack of 5
Studies have shown that socks made of wool provide the best shock absorbency, and some people swear by putting wool between their toes to prevent blisters when walking or playing sports.
7. Supporting tall and climbing plants
I've used every kind of garden twine and net available, and in most instances, I now turn to wool. Wool twine is softer than jute or synthetic plant ties, and doesn't cut in to tender stems. I also find it easier to untie, when the need arises. The natural oils in wool help it to last longer than jute, which often frays or breaks after one season.
Best products to use: Twool Wool Garden Twine, Green, Twool Sustainable Wool Garden Netting
Wool net has smaller mesh which twining plants find easier to attach themselves to, meaning you spend less time tying stems in and coaxing them upwards!
8. Encouraging garden wildlife
When I was a boy, I used to watch birds taking scraps of wool left on barbed wire fences to furnish their nests. Take apart a disused nest and you're likely to find a mixture of moss, twigs, dead leaves, feathers and wool bound together to make a safe platform for eggs and chicks. In late winter, fill a fat ball dispenser with wool and watch the birds pull out little whisps, airlifting them to their chosen nesting place.
Best product to use: Twool Woolly Water Keeper
Hedgehogs will also take wool for their nests, so provide a secondary source of wool at ground level for them to forage from.
9. Improving drainage
Putting crocks at the bottom of pots is one of those gardening traditions we blindly continue without question. In my experience, crocks - shards of broken pot - are more likely to block drainage holes than keep them clear. What's more, a heap of them at the bottom of a pot creates a humid haven for slugs and snails to hide in. Rather than crocks, use a piece of wool felt at the bottom of your containers. It will keep the compost in, allow excess water out and hold some moisture in reserve for days when you don't get around to watering.
Best product to use: Hortiwool Garden Wool Pad
If you have old blankets or sweaters made from pure wool, you can cut these up and use them too. Avoid using wool that's mixed with artificial fibres as these won't decompose and may leave plastic fragments in your soil.
10. Replacing plastic pots
Most gardeners have more plastic pots than they know what to do with. For the most part, they can't be recycled, so we continue using them until the break and have to go to landfill. In place of plastic pots, try using pots made of knitted wool. Thousands of tiny holes in the jersey fabric encourage the development of fine feeding roots, which are 'air pruned' when they get to the outer edge. When your plants are established and ready to go outside, the whole plant can be planted in the ground.
Best product to use: Biodegradable Wool Pots, Pack of 10
If you leave the rim of your wool pot standing proud above the soil surface, slugs and snails will be disinclined to approach and munch through your tender plants at the base.