Discussing Mulch in the Garden

[BReeder!]

My garden was a mess of weeds last year. I was determined to prevent that from happening this year. I pull weeds, but I decided mulch was going to be the key to my plan moving forward. I'm hoping I don't regret it.

The idea is that mulch suppresses the weeds and prevents weed seeds from landing in moist fertile soil where they will sprout. The added benefits I recognize with mulch are moisture retention and thermal insulation for the soil and roots in that soil. There are potential cons though to using mulch in the garden. I've battled slugs in the past, and that was without mulch. Mulch is going to create an environment ideal for slugs - cool, moist and plenty of cover from birds. I may be creating a slug highway system throughout my garden. There's also the issue of preventing soil from warming up as fast in the Spring in future years (not much of a problem this year since I was well into Spring by the time I started mulching around planting areas).

I already have wood chips on the paths around my raised beds and on the main walking path. I incorporated long-term raised rows this year (I will not be tilling and rebuilding the mounds every year) which allows me to mulch heavily between them. I am using straw between the raised rows and in the raised beds as mulch. Wood chips seemed like a more carbon rich material that could potentially steal nutrients and is long-lasting so if I do decide to rearrange things in the future it would be difficult because I would need to remove the mulch rather than just work it into the soil. I also use unsifted compost to as a mulch and soil amendment all-in-one by top-dressing around plants with it.

What's experience with mulch in the garden?
What types of mulch do you prefer?
Do you mulch around plants or just walking paths?
Does mulch lead to increase slug populations/damage?
Other pros and cons of mulch in the garden?

 

[Ridgerunner]

My garden was a mess of weeds last year.

My gardens have a natural cycle. There is typically one time each spring when I first have everything planted out that the garden is weed and grass free. I don't mind weeds as much as I do grass. So, for maybe two weeks the garden looks great. Then life starts getting in the way, I can't keep up with weeds after that. It rains and stays too wet to work in there for a few days. I need to spend a day butchering chickens instead of working in there. I need to pick berries or make jam or jelly. I need to harvest and preserve something. A few days off to visit the grandkids. The garden is never weed free again until the next spring.

What types of mulch do you prefer? Do you mulch around plants or just walking paths?

Depends on what I'm doing and what's available. In some landscaping beds I use wood chips over landscaping cloth. In one I just use wood chips. The stuff in that one comes back from seeds or maybe from bulbs or roots so landscaping cloth is out of the question. The wood chips come from a utility clearing brush so I don't know what herbicides may be in it. I don't want those fresh herbicides around what I'm going to eat but so far it hasn't hurt my landscaping plants.

Every year I have to clean off the wood chips from the landscaping cloth. They rot and create enough dirt that grass and weeds can grow in them. I sift the wood chips that are left out and use that dirt as compost. After weathering for a year I use those old wood chips as mulch in the garden. After a year I figure any herbicides are gone.

I have a walkway along the side of my garden so I can walk around even if it is muddy. I put down landscaping cloth and cover that with wood chips. I tried covering it with wheat straw but it was too slick to walk on.

In the garden itself I spread newspaper around the plants and usually cover that with wheat straw or those year old wood chips. I have a problem with Bermuda grass, two or three layers of newspaper does a pretty good job of keeping it down. I often use cardboard between the rows instead of newspaper. The wheat straw or wood chips hold the newspaper or cardboard in place in the wind. I have used grass cuttings from mowing the lawn occasionally when I'm in a bind but it's not my top choice of mulch material. It tends to have grass seeds in it.

Does mulch lead to increase slug populations/damage?

Mulch gives certain pests a place to hide. Snails can be as bad as slugs. Squash bugs can hide in it, hard to get to. That doesn't mean they will be there, but that they can. You can't see if you have a vole problem. I thought mice would be a bigger problem than they are. Hardly ever see one.

Other pros and cons of mulch in the garden?

You mentioned a lot of the pros. It suppresses weeds. If weeds do grow they are pretty easy to pull as long as you don't wait until they are trees. Mulch can insulate the ground to keep it from getting too hot. Mulch conserves moisture in the soil. One advantage of that is that blossom end rot is usually caused by uneven moisture. Mulch can help stabilize moisture. When mulch rots, composts, or breaks down, whichever word you want to use, it becomes compost.

You mentioned that when carbons are in the soil they can tie up nitrogen as they break down. I figure if they are on newspaper that doesn't happen too much. I want some organic material in the soil. That promotes certain organisms that can really help the soil. I like a living soil.

I leave mulch on the garden over winter as much as I can. That suppresses weeds and grass. That means in the spring weeds and grass haven't taken over so it's much easier to prepare the ground for planting. If the mulch hasn't broken down enough to till or dig it in, rake it in a pile and use it for mulch again.

If your soil has a disease in it, like tomato blight, when it rains or you water with a sprinkler that disease can splash up on your plants, infecting them. If your soil doesn't have that disease in it of course that can't happen. If you do have that disease a layer of mulch will stop it from splashing up on your plants.

Mulching can take time. I never get as much of the garden mulched as I'd like. I'd like to mulch a lot more, that saves on weeding later.

Some plants self mulch. If you keep the weeds down until they get a chance to grow white potatoes, cabbage, and cauliflower will suppress any weeds that try to grow around them.

Of you plant vining plants like watermelons, winter squash, or pumpkins they can run all over, covering a huge area. That is close to impossible to keep weed free. I like to spread cardboard covered with mulch to keep those weeds and especially grass down where they are going to run.

I believe in mulch. If used right it can reduce weeding tremendously and provide a lot of compost in the garden.

 

[BReeder!]

My gardens have a natural cycle. There is typically one time each spring when I first have everything planted out that the garden is weed and grass free. I don't mind weeds as much as I do grass. So, for maybe two weeks the garden looks great. Then life starts getting in the way, I can't keep up with weeds after that. It rains and stays too wet to work in there for a few days. I need to spend a day butchering chickens instead of working in there. I need to pick berries or make jam or jelly. I need to harvest and preserve something. A few days off to visit the grandkids. The garden is never weed free again until the next spring.


Depends on what I'm doing and what's available. In some landscaping beds I use wood chips over landscaping cloth. In one I just use wood chips. The stuff in that one comes back from seeds or maybe from bulbs or roots so landscaping cloth is out of the question. The wood chips come from a utility clearing brush so I don't know what herbicides may be in it. I don't want those fresh herbicides around what I'm going to eat but so far it hasn't hurt my landscaping plants.

Every year I have to clean off the wood chips from the landscaping cloth. They rot and create enough dirt that grass and weeds can grow in them. I sift the wood chips that are left out and use that dirt as compost. After weathering for a year I use those old wood chips as mulch in the garden. After a year I figure any herbicides are gone.

I have a walkway along the side of my garden so I can walk around even if it is muddy. I put down landscaping cloth and cover that with wood chips. I tried covering it with wheat straw but it was too slick to walk on.

In the garden itself I spread newspaper around the plants and usually cover that with wheat straw or those year old wood chips. I have a problem with Bermuda grass, two or three layers of newspaper does a pretty good job of keeping it down. I often use cardboard between the rows instead of newspaper. The wheat straw or wood chips hold the newspaper or cardboard in place in the wind. I have used grass cuttings from mowing the lawn occasionally when I'm in a bind but it's not my top choice of mulch material. It tends to have grass seeds in it.


Mulch gives certain pests a place to hide. Snails can be as bad as slugs. Squash bugs can hide in it, hard to get to. That doesn't mean they will be there, but that they can. You can't see if you have a vole problem. I thought mice would be a bigger problem than they are. Hardly ever see one.


You mentioned a lot of the pros. It suppresses weeds. If weeds do grow they are pretty easy to pull as long as you don't wait until they are trees. Mulch can insulate the ground to keep it from getting too hot. Mulch conserves moisture in the soil. One advantage of that is that blossom end rot is usually caused by uneven moisture. Mulch can help stabilize moisture. When mulch rots, composts, or breaks down, whichever word you want to use, it becomes compost.

You mentioned that when carbons are in the soil they can tie up nitrogen as they break down. I figure if they are on newspaper that doesn't happen too much. I want some organic material in the soil. That promotes certain organisms that can really help the soil. I like a living soil.

I leave mulch on the garden over winter as much as I can. That suppresses weeds and grass. That means in the spring weeds and grass haven't taken over so it's much easier to prepare the ground for planting. If the mulch hasn't broken down enough to till or dig it in, rake it in a pile and use it for mulch again.

If your soil has a disease in it, like tomato blight, when it rains or you water with a sprinkler that disease can splash up on your plants, infecting them. If your soil doesn't have that disease in it of course that can't happen. If you do have that disease a layer of mulch will stop it from splashing up on your plants.

Mulching can take time. I never get as much of the garden mulched as I'd like. I'd like to mulch a lot more, that saves on weeding later.

Some plants self mulch. If you keep the weeds down until they get a chance to grow white potatoes, cabbage, and cauliflower will suppress any weeds that try to grow around them.

Of you plant vining plants like watermelons, winter squash, or pumpkins they can run all over, covering a huge area. That is close to impossible to keep weed free. I like to spread cardboard covered with mulch to keep those weeds and especially grass down where they are going to run.

I believe in mulch. If used right it can reduce weeding tremendously and provide a lot of compost in the garden.

You mention newspaper and cardboard. I'm not against either as long as they are free of plastics - I hate finding bits of crumbling plastic in my garden. I can only imagine that micro-plastics are making their way into the food I eat. No, thank you! I do not use them though. I never have much newspaper on hand except waxed sales flyers which I just stick into the recycling bin. With cardboard, we get plenty of boxes throughout the year, but I don't keep them around waiting for when it's time to mulch. With that said, all the mulch in my garden is directly on the soil. Thistle works its way through and we pull it. It has been keeping most other weeds down though. Only deep rooted perennial weeds have been a real issue. Grass does threaten to seed into the mulch occasionally, but a steel rake quickly uproots the grass and then it dies out. I'm not sure yet if the straw mulch is as effective as the hardwood chips as this is my first year adding straw on the beds and between rows.

 

[BReeder!]

Does anybody else drop trimmings and pulled weeds between rows to add to the mulch?
When pruning or weeding I sometimes just toss the plant matter at my feet as long as it doesn't contain seeds or appear diseased.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Does anybody else drop trimmings and pulled weeds between rows to add to the mulch?
When pruning or weeding I sometimes just toss the plant matter at my feet as long as it doesn't contain seeds or appear diseased.

I do as long as no seeds, disease, or is not the type of stuff that may try to root. I do really dislike Bermuda grass or Johnson grass. Nutgrass is also on that list.

 

[BReeder!]

Wondering if anybody out there has other creative ideas to suppress weeds. I've seen old planks laid between rows of plants in a bed. That seemed interesting, but might be another slug highway.
I also have a mulcher/shredder. It takes a long time to get a good pile of mulch using it, but it shreds leaves quickly. Come Fall, should I use shredded leaves or whole leaves as mulch over the garden? I was leaning towards shredded because they break down faster into a layer of compost and they allow water to drain through by not matting as much as whole leaves. However, the whole leaves matting together may act as a better weed barrier.

 

[Wolfie2]

I try to keep a thin layer of leaves on my garden. I pick them up in the fall when the ridh folk in their fsncy houses beg 'em up in the fall for the trash man to haull to the landfill. I will put a thin layer (about 2 " deep) and when it gets broken down by us working in the garden, add another layer. A layer too deep tends to soak up too much water when I have to run a sprinkler. It also tends to harbor more pests such as pill bugs and snails.

 

[BReeder!]

I'm starting to think that the straw I used around plants and between rows is attracting rabbits to the garden. My garden is fenced in and there's wire attached to the fence. Rabbits are clever though and will dig under the wire or find and way around it they possibly can. I continue to rabbit proof as much as possible, but I've had three sets of baby rabbits in my raised beds already this Spring. They dig a hidden hole under the straw to keep the babies hidden and warm. I've moved these babies when I find them. They are already furred out when I find them so I just move them out of the garden under cover of plants and let the mother find them and take them somewhere else. Today I caught a rabbit starting to dig new hole in the cucumber row and it made a nest looking area by pushing the straw away in a circle. I chased it out of the garden and watched as it squeezed itself through 2"x4" wire. I didn't think adult rabbits would get through the 2" gaps but it forced it's way through bend the wire a bit. I'll be putting finer wire on that side of the garden soon. The other sides have chicken wire or hardware cloth.

 

[wishingbee]

I'm in the same climate as Charles Dowding so I've started using his method with decent success. He mulches with compost- he's in a zone 8 climate with plenty of slugs. He tried the Ruth Stout method (mulching with straw) and found he was creating a slug paradise. So he started experimenting and found compost works wonderfully.

 

[BReeder!]

I'm in the same climate as Charles Dowding so I've started using his method with decent success. He mulches with compost- he's in a zone 8 climate with plenty of slugs. He tried the Ruth Stout method (mulching with straw) and found he was creating a slug paradise. So he started experimenting and found compost works wonderfully.

I'm in zone 5 in IL near Chicago. I do mulch with unsifted compost too. It's not as effective at weed control though unless regularly layered on because new seeds seem to land on top and they find compost is a happy place for germination. This year, I put compost down in most areas of the garden and then straw. The straw keeps seeds from landing in the compost or soil while the compost smothers anything below. My potatoes get mulched with compost regularly though, building their mounds up while feeding the plants and suppressing the weeds all at once. In the rest of the garden, if I don't put something over the compost it becomes a forest of weeds eventually thanks to the wind and birds dropping seeds in.