Cocoa Shell
COCOA SHELL - 'Sunshine of Africa' cocoa shell garden mulch is a superb organic product, derived from the chocolate manufacturing process. It is an alternative to bark, a little bit more expensive, but a far better mulch - more effective, more aesthetic and much more beneficial to the ground and your plants.
Sunshine of Africa Cocoa Shell
Cocoa Shell is a superb garden mulch and soil conditioner. The vaste majority of the product is used as a garden mulch, although some gardeners dig it into sandy or clay soils as it is excellent at moisture retention and breaking up heavy soils. As a mulch it is used as a top cover in any beds, generally after planting, although it is simple to plant through the mulch.
| What is Cocoa Shell?
Cocoa shell is the shell of the cocoa bean. Cocoa beans are about the size of a broad bean, dark brown in colour and grown mainly in West Africa. The beans are shipped whole into the UK, roasted and de-shelled. The 'nib' (inside bit) is used to make all the chocolate products we so love, we take the shell, remove the dust and bag it for use by gardeners. (Any nasty African creepy crawlies are destroyed by the roasting process).
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What is it used for? Cocoa Shell is an excellent mulch and soil conditioner. Once it is spread in your garden (ideally 2"/5cm deep) it acts as a superb moisture retentive and weed suppressing mulch. It also releases many useful nutrients that will keep all your plants happy and healthy. Cocoa shell also offers a good level of protection against slugs and snails and even cats tend to stay off your mulched borders. Many gardeners dig in the mulch at the end of the season because the composted cocoa shell helps to break up heavy soils and promotes healthy root growth the following year.
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| How is it applied?
Cocoa Shell is very easy to apply. Plant your bedding etc., remove the most obvious weeds and put down the cocoa shell to a depth of 5cm (2"). Spread the shell as evenly as possible using your hands, a rake, spade etc. It really needs 5cm (2") for it to work properly, so don't be too stingy!! Once the cocoa shell id down water it in with a hose and sprayer or watering can; to give you an idea you would need one watering can to one bag. This releases a natural gum which binds the shells together to form a loosely knitted porous mat. This 'mat' allows water through, bulbs to grow through, plants to expand etc etc, but prevents weeds from coming up and reduces water evaporation from the soil surface.
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| What to expect
Adding any mulch is good for the garden but Cocoa Shell is the best mulch on the market. And here is why: 1. It looks much better than other mulches. It begins life as a reddy brown colour but after time darkens to give a rich brown colour that stays for its life. Bark tends to bleach in the sun giving an uneven and untidy appearance. Cocoa Shell gives a lovely contrast to foliage and flowers. 2. Cocoa Shell is packed full of healthy nutrients for all your plants. See below for a link to the technical specifications, but it has a Nitrogen:Phosphorous:Potash of 3:1:3, which is better than any other mulch. It means it has enough Nitrogen within itself to compost down, whereas bark robs the soil of Nitrogen as it composts and hence deprives plants of this nutrient. 3. It works better than the other mulches. It is better at weed suppression because of the loosely knitted porous mat, and for the same reason better at keeping moisture in the ground (up to 50% better in independent tests). So for a low maintenance option cocoa shell is the best mulch 4. The texture deters slugs and snails. The texture is not dissimilar to broken egg shells, and hence slugs and snails do not like it. As such it is a very environmentally nematode deterrent. Many Hosta growers use it on top of pots for this reason, and as any Hosta lovers know, this plant is favourite dish of these slimey pests! 5. Most cats do not like the texture either, so again it is a cat friendly way to keep them off your borders.
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| Is it more expensive than bark?
Yes, but only slightly. The bags are generally bigger because it is a light product and because smaller bags just don't cover a sensible area. So per litre or per ground cover metre, it is only slightly more expensive than bark. But good products cost more money than poorer products - you get what you pay for!
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