Who said you wouldn't be able to do it? I searched and can't find anything...

I strongly recommend you mulch your plants. They will reward you by being happier, healthier, and growing faster. Mulching 2-3 inches thick with leaves, grass clippings, shredded wood chips, newspaper, etc. will keep your soil temperature stable and keep your soil moist so you don't have to water nearly as much.

Congrats...Your plants look great.............I knew you could do it ..............

I second Violet's suggestion! With temperatures as high as yours go, I don't see how your plants will survive if not mulched with something. I'd start with corrugated cardboard, which you can get from grocery stores free. Cut a 3-5" hole for the stem and slit the cardboard from the edge to the hole. Carefully place it around each plant. Overlapping with the cardboard next to it is fine. Water it with a hose until it's soggy and then mulch again with any of the materials that V. suggests. If you can't find any other mulch materials right away, mulch with more layers of wet cardboard to keep your soil cool and moist and gradually add what you can find.

I agree, you've made a great start! I'd be proud, too!

Great work! You are certain to be an inspiration to gardeners everywhere who live in climates I personally, couldn't live in. (I'm a northern boy who can take -20F much easier than 100+F anyday)

Nobody here said it couldn't be done. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. It is mostly friends and neighbors. People that came by and saw my started seeds and thought I was nuts. Even people that grew up in AZ (as I did not, I'm from CA)didn't think it could be done. My mulch is a work in progress. I've been waiting for my composting to get to a good point before I place it around my plants. I will go out and check it tonight. I am just afraid of muddying up my garden with all that cardboard and such. But, I will do it if it makes me yield veggies and fruits.

You're off to a great start. You will encounter occasional difficulties as we all do. Just keep trying and work out solutions appropriate to your situation and your preferences. There are many ways of mulching, for example. You can devise one which works and satisfies your aesthetic requirements.

Jim

Okay, so today, I used a lot of my compost that was at the bottom of my homemade barrel. I figure it will finish composting in the ground right? I put it under holes that I set up for my new flowers and covered that with bagged soil. Everything looks fine and dandy so early tomorrow morning, I will do the same in my garden. I'll place the compost around my veggies/fruits and cover that with more soil. There is no hay or grass in my area, just tons of chipped granite. Can this be used as mulch?

While there's nothing wrong with putting compost, even unfinished compost, around your plants, it's not going to be the moisture barrier you need. You know how a piece of metal and a piece of wood, both sitting in the hot sun, feel different? The metal will be burning hot and the wood not so bad. That's the issue here. Bare soil dries out really fast in direct sunlight and high heat. However, if you put a layer of something between the sun and the soil, then the soil won't dry out nearly as fast. You need to put down a layer of something that won't dry out much even in hot sun, just like the wood won't be as hot as the metal.

Thick cardboard is a good choice. So are all of those other things Violet mentioned (leaves, grass clippings, shredded wood chips, newspaper). While adding compost is nice, it won't change (much) how fast the soil dries out.

I can understand your wariness at putting down a bunch of cardboard. I was uneasy too when I started my mulch project. I almost didn't keep the picture.

{{gwi:67032}}

But in the end it worked out great I like the look of it and the mulch really help hold the moisture in. My weeding time has been dramatically reduced as well. Here's a picture of the finished product and as you can see, it looks nice even though I've got 3 kinds of mulch going on. If you were very worried about appearance you could cut it down to one.

{{gwi:67033}}

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Blog

Wow, that is a lot of pizza! Were your cartons covered with straw or clippings? How long did it take to brake down? I agree, I need mulch. I think today I will place an ad on craigslist or freecylce asking for grass clippings or straw. For now, the reason I composted is because there was tons of shredded cardboard in there from a giant swing set we bought my daughter. But I did bury it. So, I guess it can't do its job if I bury it right? I don't mind the look of straw or clippings, so I hope someone will answer my ad.

So, I guess it can't do its job if I bury it right?

Of course it can. If you use cardboard, you need to cover it with something to hold it down and for aesthetic purposes whether it be soil, straw, shredded leaves, grass clippings, buckwheat hulls, cedar mulch, etc. It will still surpress weeds from sprouting, prevent migrating seeds from taking hold, help maintain soil temperature and maintain soil moisture.

Yeah, I'm an avid recycler but our curbside doesn't take cardboard so it builds up in the shed.

They are covered with three different things, on the far right, grass clippings, straw in the middle, and leaves from last fall on the far left. So far it hasn't broken down but it's well on its' way.

My big problem was weeds, for you it's sun so getting anything down around those plants will help.

Just a word of caution. If you use grass clippings for mulch or compost, be sure you don't include grass that's been treated with weed-killer or other chemicals that will kill your plants or make you ill.

I was going to ask for grass clippings from Freecycle, too, but you never know what you'll get, and even if you asked, some folks don't even know what chemicals lawn companies use on their lawns. So I decided not to ask for grass clippings, though I really need green organics for composting all my leaves. My kitchen scraps are only about a coffee-can full each week, and that ain't gonna do it!

Have you checked with your county extension office? Don't know what county you are in or I'd track it down for you on the web. ;) This link will take you to the state's list of local offices.

They are an excellent source of local and regional info and I'll bet they can put you on to local sources of mulching materials. Local landscapers are also good info sources. You don't have to buy their products but you can still get good ideas for materials from them. ;)

Also check out University of Arizona's Southwest Gardening Info" for tons of great info.

Lastly, posting on the Arizona Gardening Forum here at GW might get you some local mulch resource tips. Good luck. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Arizona Gardening

Thank you for all of the advice. I consult with that U of A website constantly. I saw someone post it a couple weeks ago, bookmarked it, and go back to it all the time. Very useful tool. And about the grass clipping, very good point about the toxins and week killers. That would just break my heart if I got my plants all looking their best, then killed them with plant destroyers.

Just a few thoughts, which I am sure are redundant but here goes...

1 - I can't see location but make sure you keep any woody mulches well away from your house. AZ termites are nasty (Lived in PHX for 5 years and I remember the horror stories!)
2 - Natural mulch is what you want, it breaks down and helps your soil. Second best, I'd guess, is chipped rubber product, the white sort, since it will hold moisture and reflect heat. If you do decorative gravel...well I'd say don't. Even white gravel will add heat to your soil in AZ. Plus in order to stop the rock from working its way into your soil you need landscape fabric which adds a whole new level of ugh to tilling etc next year. Plus when monsoon season hits the stuff will often float and if you have any hilliness on your property you will spend a fair bit of time raking it back into place...

Just a few thoughts...

Beautiful pictures! Now, who said you couldn't do it? I am in line to kick their butt. This forum is about how you CAN do it! And it looks like you did!