Chocolate shells and its not even Easter! (Sunshine Of Africa Cocoa Shell Garden Mulch)

Member Name: Meggysmum

Product:	Sunshine Of Africa Cocoa Shell Garden Mulch
Date:	25/06/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely colour and smell and they do the job.

Disadvantages: Avoid with dogs or young children.

It's that time of year again, the sun has actually appeared so I seem to spend endless amounts of time with a watering can in my hand so my poor plants don't keel over and die on me.

I am not a fan of watering my plants although I like my garden to look nice. A few years ago I remember watching one of the countless gardening programmes that were then in vogue on the telly which was extolling the virtues of using a mulch. I had never heard of mulching before but it is simply surrounding your plants with a layer of something to help prevent evaporation of water from the soils surface. This helps the plants to thrive as the soil has retained more moisture.

Over the next couple of years I tried a few methods and found bark was the easiest, grass cuttings are good but look a bit messy! After a while the bark looked a bit "washed out" so I decided to look for something else. On a trip to the local garden centre I spotted bags of Cocoa Shells and thought they would be worth a try.

Each bag was 70l and was not particularly heavy to move. The shells are organic and are a by-product of the chocolate industry. I read the instructions which told me to use 1-2 inches spread amongst my plants and to water well after laying it down. The most important thing to mention here is that dogs MUST be kept away from this stuff for the first few weeks. This is because they contain a chemical that is harmful to dogs if swallowed. I do not have a dog and was only using it on my back garden so I didn't have to worry but I wouldn't use it on my front beds because of the risk to passing dogs and I am sure dog owners will avoid the product because of this.

I watered the beds really well before laying the shells down. The shells are very lightweight and I thought they would blow away. They smell divine, just like chocolate! They are quite a dark brown colour which looked lovely against the plants. The instructions tell you to water them in well. I did this which intensified the smell but also caused the shells to sort of bind together to form a mat. This is useful as it stops them blowing about.

These shells work well as a mulch. They release nutrients into the soil as well as retain moisture. I found the smell was quite strong for about 2 weeks and then gradually faded. What I also liked was the fact that the shells got darker in colour over time which kept the flowerbeds looking neat, unlike the bark which gets paler. I did notice that I seemed to have less slugs as well but that may have been coincidence. I felt that there was definately a reduced need to water. The plants amongst the shells stayed happy all summer!

I couldn't find these shells in my local garden centre last year but I have just placed an order on the internet at £8.50 a bag.

I found these shells to be an excellent product and to a self-confessed chocolate addict they make gardening more appealing. I would be wary if you had young children as they may be attracted by the smell. However the strong smell would certainly overpower some of the more subtle fragrances in your garden for the first couple of weeks.

Summary: A novel product for your garden.