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The answer to weed control and moisture retention is MULCH.

What kind of mulch varies with what is available to you. If you've got leaves, use leaves. Lots of people collect leaves in fall (in bags) and hoard them for use in the growing season. Trees mine nutrients from deep in the soil and store them in their leaves, so when they break down in the soil, they give nutrients. You can put them down whole, or shredded (run a lawnmower over them against a wall to keep them confined). If you want to lay down several layers of moistened newspaper directly on the soil, then cover them with leaves, fine. If you don't, and you have enough leaves to make a reasonable layer, that's fine, too. (Black walnut leaves should be composted, not used as mulch, as it has an ingredient called juglone that stunts growth in other plants; oak leaves are acidic, so keep that in mind: they're fine if your soil is alkaline (pH over 7), or if certain plants like acidic soil (pH under 6.5).

If you want to use grass clippings as mulch, you'll have to dry them out before you can use them as mulch, or they'll rot and stink.

Straw or grass hay can be used. Some people think straw is better because it has fewer seeds, but that isn't always true. Some straw is full of seeds. Some hay that is cut early hasn't had time to mature the weeds, and it has less. If you have chickens, open a bale of straw or hay in their yard and let them work it over for a couple of weeks. They will eat every seed they can find, and add a little manure. Then rake it up and use it as mulch. If you do get seedlings of either, pull them up when they're young sprouts and just lay them across the top of the mulch.

Weeds make fine mulch, esp if they haven't flowered yet. Some people rip/cut the heads off and put them in the garbage, and leave the rest as mulch. Generally, if you put down the weeds thick enough, not much sprouts; if you put a thin layer down, the seeds will sprout. Use reasonable judgment here.

Pine and fir needs are okay for things that like acid soil, like blueberries and cranberries. But they break down VERY slowly due to the waxy coating, and they tend to produce acidic soil, like oak leaves.

Some people will say not to use mulch because it will rob the soil of nitrogen, which the plants need to grow. But used as mulch, the leaves/hay/straw will only use the nitrogen of the part of the soil they TOUCH, which is just the surface. They don't rob the soil of any useful amount of nitrogen unless they are MIXED INTO the soil.

Sue

Great info sue,

At the end where you say do not mix the mulch into the soil, does that apply for when you till your garden for the next planting or season?

Yes...Thanks so much for the info!!! Would it be ok to use pine mulch as well? My neighbor had a tree cut a few weeks ago and the company left her a big pile of shavings. Would this adversely affect the soil in any way?

If you mulch, punch holes thru the mulch, then plant in those holes. If you mulch, use Sluggo. If you do not mulch, seed thickly so the vegetables will form a canopy and self-mulch. (works well with lettuce).

To mulch for one year: use leaves. They will disappear in one season. next year you can seed directly. Cardboard and newspaper are similar.

To mulch for three years: use wood chips. You will be able to direct seed there in 2014.

To mulch for a couple of months: use grass clippings.

I dislike straw because of the weed seeds.

My neighbor had a tree cut a few weeks ago and the company left her a big pile of shavings. Would this adversely affect the soil in any way?

Yes it can as glib commented. Wood chip mulches are generally NOT recommended for use in a vegetable garden and especially not fresh wood chips as they are too hot and can kill plants as they decompose. Note that Sue didn't list it in the recommended vegetable garden mulches.

Well aged wood chips (1-2+ years) can be used if no other options are available. They are better than no mulch at all.

There are literally 100's of discussions here on various mulches and especially over on the Sol & Mulch forum here at GW if you wish to browse through them.

Wood chips are what is called a decorative mulch. It's primary goal is appearance, not soil and plant benefits. It is not as effective at moisture control nor weed suppression as one of the many organic material mulches such as leaf mold, compost, straw, hay, pine straw, grass clippings, shredded leaves, etc. etc. And all of them can easily be tilled into the soil for soil improvement at the end of the growing season. Wood chip mulches cannot.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: What to use for mulch discussions

Actually, despite its inferiority I use wood chips. I decide that a little less production is OK, if I can avoid weeding some beds for a few years.

Yes, there will be no turning it in, precious little nitrogen from decomposition, and in my acid soil, extra doses of wood ash to balance the acidity. Finally, as Dave says, the fully composted chips will not make a top soil as fine as shredded leaves, and they do not attract earthworms all that much, so the soil tilth to a depth of a few inches, too, is inferior.

If I make a pile of leaves or manure on my lawn, after clearing and reseeding, the grass will come back much stronger. If I make a pile of chips, the spot is dead for a while. Incidentally, a pile of fresh chips will stay hot for a short time, one month at most. The chips I use have been typically overwintered.

But wood chips are free and less work, and that is their great advantage. Placed on rich soil, they will still help a number of summer veggies like squash, tomato or potato, and even a few cool season veggies, such as cardoon or collard. For perennial veggies, strawberry, ostrich fern or asparagus, they are great. They will hinder lettuce and a variety of small other crops, such as radish or carrot, and they should not be used there.

Of course, herb beds, flowerbeds, fruit trees and vines all get lots of them. They will provide adequate amounts of every nutrient except nitrogen, over a long time, and for woody plants, they will even provide adequate nitrogen. I also mix them with my kitchen scraps to make sure as much nitrogen as possible is absorbed.