Nate, it sounds like the following is too late, since your work has already begun, but for what it's worth: We had 4 new roofs (entire house) and everything that that entailed (remove old roofs, put on new + gutters & downspouts) and new stucco siding on one side of the house's addition (hence, remove all old stucco, too). Contractor also created a new profile for the eave over that side of the house; also made and installed a copper overhang for the window on that side. Not all of this was done at the same time; still, a lot of construction materials and debris. Used the same contractor and his small crew for everything. The crew was able to do the roofing job by accessing all the roofs from the patio; the main issue was roof debris that ended up on the ground. They were exceedingly careful and neat but even now, I do find the occasional nail and bits of roofing material. For the stucco work, however, they needed to erect and safely access scaffolding. I asked the contractor to try to protect a daylily bed directly under the side of the house needing that work. For various reasons, I couldn't dig up the plants in it, even though it contained some daylilies I value a lot (eg LAST SNOWFLAKE, NEON FLAMINGO, COWBOY SCARF, MABOU, Jack Carpenter patterns, and more), so he set up the scaffolding on a large piece of plywood that was placed on cinder blocks on either end of the bed (and with two blocks supporting the mid part of the wood). The crew had to access the scaffolding of course, so one end of the bed got badly trampled & the soil very compacted. Even so, given what had to be done to the house, and the time they spent doing it, the daylilies sailed through everything in near perfect condition. There was a lot of bent and torn foliage, but it was late autumn anyway so that didn't matter. Plus, it was the crowns I'd been concerned about. We plan to use the same guys to paint the house's exterior next spring. Since I don't know exactly which month that will be, I expect to have to dig up the entire bed. Even so, I'll ask the contractor to once again place scaffolding on plywood on cinder blocks. The idea will be to protect the soil from compaction so that I can use that bed again as soon as the work is done.

Straw worked great for me. However, I wouldn't use it starting new lawns... Had straw down the block for weeks, and also unhappy neighbors.

Actually straw or weed cloth keeps the berries out of the dirt and helps to keep slugs from eating them. After throwing away my 1st harvest due to dirty mushy berries I installed weed cloth cutting holes for the plants to come through. The only problem is I have is that I have to keep cutting holes for the new plants spreading out. But this is just my experience (I'm a newbie also) yours may vary. Wormsign

I've read a lot on the topic of mulching and, over the years, I've tried just about everything. I've tried no mulch, black plastic mulch, landscape fabric, paper mulch, wood chips, compost, chopped leaves, and hay. Here's my observations over the years on the subject. 1.) Any mulch is better than no mulch: Yes, you should mulch. It helps keep moisture levels more consistent which helps reduce occurrence of BER and other plant stress symptoms. Any mulch should slow the release of moisture through evaporation. 2.) The type of mulch you use depends on your style of gardening. I prefer to stay organic and to make use of materials available to me so I use hay I get from a farmer friend in NJ and chopped leaves put out to the curb by neighbors in the fall. The benefit to organic mulches is you can either go no-till and just layer every year (what I'm trying again this year) or you can leave the mulch in place and till into the soil in the fall. 3.) A good mulch can save you a lot of time and headaches. Any mulch should suppress weeds and soil borne diseases which should allow you to spend more time harvesting, and less time spraying and weeding. Using a good mulch will help keep weeds down (if you're busy like myself, this is a must) and should minimize soil splashing onto the leaves of your plants, which will reduce the occurrence of certain foliage diseases. 4.) Mulch can feed your plants; These are called "feeding mulches" appropriately enough. The idea is that these mulches break down over the course of the season and release nutrients to the plants. The benefit is obvious here, but if you want a more controlled release of nutrients or do not want to do organic gardening, you may be best with plastic or landscape fabric. I personally have switched to no-till organic mulching throughout the year - based on the results I've seen from a small experimental bed. With a little asking around I've been able to find good mulch material in the quantities I need every year and generally for free. As mentioned above, grass clippings, if layered in finer layers will do a good job of blocking weeds and won't stop the penetration of rainwater, etc. Just make sure the depth of your mulch is sufficient to both slow water loss and block weeds. Moral of the story, use what you have available that works best for you (money-wise, time-wise, etc.), but just use something. Naked soil is a big no-no.