SHEEP wool is now used in lots of valuable ways for gardeners: as mulch, as tree and shrub mats, as protective duvets round pots in winter and in water-retaining pellets for containers and hanging baskets.

Yet farmers and crofters are getting so little for wool this year, some are burying it rather than sending it to market. As reported in The Herald earlier this month, crofters in Skye got £5.22 for 215kg of wool, a rate that wouldn’t cover their transport costs. So we gardeners can support farmers by increasing the demand for this invaluable, sustainable resource.

In the year when world leaders will assemble in Scotland for the Climate Change conference, we should show that gardeners are moving from CO2-emitting plastic and other synthetic materials to environmentally-friendly ones.

As I’ve often said in this column, mulching is the best way to care for our soil. It improves structure, retains moisture and reduces the need for weeding: our plants then grow in moist, nutritious ground. So, as we clear away summer crops, prevent nutrient leaching and compaction by laying a sustainable, not a plastic mulch.

I don’t have enough compost, duck-enriched straw, woodchip or leaf mould, so wool mulch is a great addition to my armoury. I’ve found after two years the mulch I bought from Chimney Sheep still works well. They also sell a cheaper jute mulch which is a solution for larger plots.

READ MORE: Rosemary Goring: Delinquent sheep leave a trail of destruction

This wool mulch is 2cm thick and works as a good winter duvet for pots. As we know, plastic pots provide little frost protection but after grouping the containers closely together, I wrap the mulch round the outer perimeter.

Not only that, but wool absorbs water that’s 1.5 times its own weight, so it makes good capillary matting. By laying pots on the wool mulch, it catches a lot of the water that runs straight through when the compost starts ageing. This water is gradually taken up by the container, so it is also useful with seedlings and transplants.

I’ve found wool shillies are a good soil cover in containers. Shillies are offcuts reduced to make small coke-sized bits of wool which are laid on the compost. I’ve used them in two planters containing pears and the shillies didn’t blow away as I had feared. Quite the reverse, the shillies absorb and retain rain water, while adding a small amount of fertiliser. They’ll gradually rot down and will need topping up.

We use mulches in lots of ways. I place mulch mats round newly planted roses grown from root cuttings and self-sown elms and birches we’ve found. They certainly need protection in their fairly rough new homes. But in a few years they’ll take control after a cosseted start in life. These mats work well wherever you plant new trees and shrubs, and there’s one for any size of plant.

Wool’s ability to absorb and retain water provides another benefit in container growing. Wool from a sheep’s belly and back end is compressed and formed into pellets. These are then mixed through compost acting just like water retaining gel, soaking up surplus water and emitting it as the compost dries.

And they’re much better than traditional synthetically manufactured gel capsules. Like all wool, they contain fertiliser. Rear end wool is particularly good. I remember scouring a field, armed with a trowel, collecting sheep droppings. They were put in an old onion bag, dumped in a bucket of water and offered me a fine liquid feed.

It’s estimated that sheep pellets have an NPK value of 9-1-2 as well as calcium, magnesium, iron, sulphur and trace microorganism. So sheep pellets feed, as well as water, container plants.

Plant of the week

Anemone ‘Fantasy Snow Angel’ is a compact Japanese anemone growing to only 45cm so better able to withstand autumn winds. It has white, semi-double flowers with pretty, wavy edges to the petals.