INDUSTRY INSIDERS: Strulch Straw Mulch

5 Minute Read

Join us for this edition of Industry Insiders with Jackie Whiteley, owner and director of Strulch, to find out more about this gardening essential and how they came to patent it.

Strulch is manufactured in Britain, entirely from locally sourced quality wheat straw with added iron minerals. The patented process stabilises and colours the straw producing an easy-to-use garden mulch. For use on borders, raised beds, around cultivated fruit and on vegetable plots.

Leave on beds for more than one year or work into the soil at the end of the season to improve soil structure and drainage.

Read on as we ask Strulch's owner and director, Jackie Whitely a few questions about this incredible gardening essential.

What is your role at Strulch and what does a typical day look like for you?
I have run the business since we began to market Strulch in 2005; we are a small family run business, so I turn my hand to everything that is needed. On a normal day I speak with new customers; take orders and deal with queries. I organise deliveries and enjoy the creativity of marketing our ‘baby’. Strulch has changed our lives since its inception.

How did you come up with the idea for Strulch?

The patented process for Strulch was developed at Leeds University by my husband Dr Geoff Whiteley. He is a Soil Scientist by training. He noticed that straw was preserved in the ground and realised that he could replicate the mineralisation that was happening naturally in the ground.

Plenty of gardeners have told us that Strulch is an essential product all gardeners should be using, can you tell us why is Strulch such a good product for all-round gardening?
Plant health is important whether you are growing flowers or vegetables. Strulch inhibits germination so plants are not competing with weeds for nutrients and gardeners spend much less time weeding. The mulch also keeps moisture in the soil in dry periods keeping watering to a minimum.

The texture of the mulch and added minerals are unpleasant to slugs and snails this deters them from crossing the mulch so valuable plants are protected. As Strulch has a neutral pH it can be used anywhere in the garden. It will not alter the soil’s pH.

What is the full lifecycle of Strulch from start to finish?
Strulch is made from quality wheat straw grown in the UK. Strulch is manufactured using solar energy and is made and bagged instantly and sent on its way to customers.

Do you have a garden at home?
Yes, we have a garden and many of the images we use in marketing are from our own garden. We have a herbaceous border as well as raised beds and pots which all benefit from Strulch.

Could you give us one of your personal gardening tips?
When you are applying Strulch you need to remove all weeds, including perennial weeds before you spread it.

What advice would you give to new gardeners?
Preparing the ground is time well spent. Weeding and then feeding the soil with organic matter such as compost or manure if the ground hasn’t been tended recently and water new plants regularly until they are well established.

Tell us a bit more about Strulch and any future plans?
As a company, we are on a mission to encourage mulching as it is good gardening practice. We also want people to know that Strulch encourages wildlife in the garden as worms and other soil animals proliferate under Strulch providing a food source for birds and hedgehogs. We would like to see Strulch in the dictionary ’to Strulch the garden’ as a verb like hoovering the carpet. We would know we have arrived!