I don't know what coast hay is but Mulching large vegetable is good.Hay has a disadvantage in that it may have seeds. So I prefer straw/brown leave. As we know mulcing's advantages are: Prevent weed growth. Keeb soil moist. It can also prevent water from running on sloped surfaces.Keep roots cool(In zone with high temps).

The old gardening adage is:

MULCH IT; MULCH IT MULCH IT!

g'day jerry,

use whatever mulch you can get, there is no downsides. our favourites are the hay type mulches as they add nutrients as they break down.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

If coast hay = coastal hay, you should be aware that it is cut Bermuda grass. If it has seeds in it, it would be the last hay in the world I'd want to mulch my garden with! There are hundreds of GardenWeb posts about Bermuda grass, which sounds nearly uneradicable and can snuff out a garden!

I suggest that you keep looking for a mulch that won't be so dangerous to your garden! I do understand why you'd think coast hay might be a way to go -- it's relatively cheap and available, and I, personally, prefer hay to other mulches. But I can't afford it any longer so make do with the millions of oak and other hardwood leaves on the property.

Yep, if it's coastal hay, don't use it, Jerry. The seeds won't come true (if they're even viable) due to coastal bermuda being a hybrid, but it's so tough that even stem joints that have been cut for six months can still sprout. Coastal isn't quite as badly invasive as regular bermuda, but it's still tough stuff to get out of a veggie garden.

I use a 6" layer of leaves from the past fall to mulch my heirlooms. It breaks down and feeds the plants during the season. Most importantly, tomatoes, especially heirlooms, need a thick layer of mulch to prevent splashing of soil on the plant's leaves, which causes disease. Mulch also keeps the soil cool, which tomatoes love. Cool soil and tons of sun on the plants, equals giant, happy tomatoes. Give it a try!

IN MY OPNION, CHOPPED UP OR SEMI-COMPOSTED LEAVES OF ALL KINDS(EXCEPT BLACK WALNUT) IS THE BEST VEGGIES GARDEN MULCH. IT IS OK TO BE MIXED WITH PINE NEEDLES. ACTUALLY, PINE NEEDLES ARE ALSO OK MULCH. THE BAD SIDE OF IT IS THAT
IT WILL TAKE THEM LONGER TIME TO DECAY THAN MOST LEAVES.
OAK LEAVE IS IN THE SAME PROBLEM CATEGORY AS PINE NEEDLES. THEY BOTH HAVE A PROTECTIVE LAYER, RESISTING DECOMPOSITION.
fOR THIS REASON THEY ARE GOOD FOR SHRUBS ANF TREES MULCHING.
TODAY I GOT A LOAD OF RIVER/WHITE BIRCH LEAVS, JUST PERFECT FOR VEGGIE GARDEN MULCH. I MAY SPRINKLE SOME PINE STRAW ON THEMM AS WEIGHT.
\

I use year-round mulching. I use Bermuda hay because Bermuda grass is plant propagated, not seed propagated. If you have any seeds in Bermuda hay, it will be weed seeds. If you lay the mulch on 6-8 inches deep, you won't have to worry about weed seeds sprouting. I would not garden without it.

I planted my first real garden this year and used pinestraw and oak leaves, plus some grass clippings. So far it seems to have worked well. I am concerned about too much acidity and add lime from time to time but the stuff I have chosen seems to like it.

I second the leaves as a mulch. We put leaves along our strawberry rows, around our fruit trees, we use it to cover our winter crops, etc. The great part, it's free! But with everything there is always a downside, and with leaves, they blow away. If you are not able to chop them up or spread a thin layer of straw or bark chips or the like, they will blow.

I use grass clippings, leaves, etc....whatever I can get my hands on...if those are not available then I resort to purchased mulch...prefer the finer bark mulch since it breaks down faster.

Peggy

I mulched my potatoes with wheat straw... big mistake. It had so many seeds in it my potatoes are the weediest part of my garden :)

So... yes, you should mulch. You have to do two things to keep a garden happy: water and weed. Mulch keeps the ground moister longer, so you have to water less. And if you put a barrier under it, mulch will keep the weeds off. Which is nice, if you don't fancy weeding or have a heavy weed load.

I'm off to buy tons of pine bark so I can newspaper and pine bark my vegetable plot right now :)

Question for you all who mulch with leaves:
I have leaves (mix of oak and maple mostly). HOW can one chop them up? Are we talking spreading a pile on the only flat surface here which is my lawn, then running the lawnmower back & forth a bit?

graficaamy

Yes, that's one way to chop up leaves, but I have a reversible leaf-blower that chops them up as it sucks them in. It's pretty light-weight so isn't terribly difficult to handle and it reduces the leaves in volume to about a quarter of what they were whole.

I guess because the leaf-pieces are small and compact when damp, I've never had a problem with the chopped leaf-mulch blowing off the bed. A little soil gets splashed on them or they sort of settle down hung together like pieces of a puzzle.

I'm about to acquire a few bags of leaves from a friend (I don't get any in my yard...can you believe it?) and I'm hoping to shred them to use as mulch. My plan is to either run the lawn mower over them a few times, or to us a chipper/shredder (since I plan to borrow one soon to chip up a brush pile).

Granted, I haven't tried this yet, but I think both approaches have promise.

I really like to use grass clippings and/or leaves to hold down the newspaper I put around tomatoes and peppers. The newspaper really stops the weeds, but will blow off if not held down with something. I guess the clippings and leaves might be enough without the newspaper, but I've had weeds come through where the mulch isn't thick enough, when I don't use the paper.

Chuck