Hello everyone. I started up a garden this summer, a bit late, but with time to squeeze some things in, as well as enough time for fall crops. I also transplanted my potted peppers into this new garden space. Anyway, I was growing my peppers in Al's 5-1-1 mix. For those not familiar, it is mostly pine bark fines. So, after popping my peppers into the garden, I used the potting mix for mulch just around the peppers. Needless to say, the soil underneath stays nice & moist. Everywhere else, well, it dries up fast, and hard rains make a sort of hardpan layer on top, which then makes water roll off easily. I'm thinking I'd like to mulch the whole shootin match.

With that said, I'd like to know your thoughts on using the pine bark mulch for the whole garden. To sum it up, this pine bark mulch is basically partially decomposed pine bark fines. The particle size is from small fines, up to 3/4". My plan would be to mulch the whole thing, about 1" or 2" thick, and then in spring, use my bow rake to scrape it all off, hand turn compost into my soil, and reapply the mulch, plus top it off for whatever is lost. From my understanding, the pine bark does not rob nitrogen, and will actually not lower the pH much at all. I figure whatever tiny fines don't get scraped up can just be turned right into my soil every spring.

Ok, should I do that, will veggie seeds like cukes, peas, bean, etc. still beable to pop through pretty easy? For planting, I would basically scoop the mulch aside, plant, then put it back.

As for my choice if pine bark mulch, well, it just seems like good stuff. I have cedar bark mulch around my landscape, and it is about half the cost of pine bark mulch, but I dunno which would be better. I'm not really into using stuff like newspaper or cardboard, and I mulch cut my lawn, so no grass clippings. I plan to mulch up my fall leaves and compost them, although I suppose those could be mulch too, but I'd think they'd break down too fast on me. I value everyone's opinions, and I thank you in advance.

Joe