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Photo Credit: Jennifer Bradley Lenet

Once your cannas have seen better days, cut up the leaves and use them for mulch.

Mulch is magic to any garden, especially during a drought. After all, what is mulch but an insulator? It cools and moderates the soil temperature during hot days and cold nights. It encourages beneficial microbial activity and aids in fighting disease. And earthworms like it, too – they work their way through the comfortable soil, breaking up organic matter and improving aeration, water percolation and nutrient movement throughout.

Want more good news about mulch? Mulching your garden hastens root growth, conditions your soil and decreases water requirements by up to 50 percent! The simple act of covering the bare dirt also prevents the germination of unwanted seeds and reduces your weeding time by up to two-thirds! (And those seeds that do sprout are much easier plucked out of deep, soft mulch than dirt.)

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Photo Credit: Mark A. Miller

For a more finished look, you can use a little store-bought mulch to lightly cover up your homegrown version.

The downside of mulch is the increasing cost of transportation and its affect on global warming (some mulch products involve deforestation). So what can you do to maintain the benefits of mulch while offsetting your carbon credits in your garden? The answer’s easy: Get some of your mulch from your own garden plants.

As you whack away at your overgrown hedge or yank those tall herbaceous weeds from your garden, think “instant mulch!” Plants with large, lush leaves – like cannas, comfrey and hydrangeas – are especially useful for mulching, and they’ll turn any dry, cracked soil into loamy love for your parched plants. That said, do steer clear of plants with seeds ripe for the planting – unless you want that particular plant to grow in another area of your garden.

Rather than just laying the leaves right on your soil, use hedge clippers to cut up the larger leaves into big handfuls. Or consider going over them with your lawn mower – especially if you’ve got large, fleshy leaves or small branches. (Be sure to wear protective goggles, closed-toe shoes and gloves when using the mower to mulch large piles of leaves.) Save the large stems and branches for fire kindling, or rent a chipper to turn those branches into bark mulch for paths and plants at a fraction of the cost of store-bought materials.