Last year was my first attempt at using mulch. I put down cardboard and covered it with free wood chips from the city recycling center. I was amazed at how little I had to water and I had no problems with weeds. The only thing that managed to grow up through the seems was bermuda grass which might as well be a weed. By this spring, all the cardboard had broken down and there were many times more worms this year than last when I turned the ground with a shovel and fork. The only problem is the pile of mulch that has to be moved around when putting more cardboard down this spring. But that's a small price to pay for the benefits. Without the mulch, I would have had to water at least every other day here in West Texas. I watered once a week with the mulch. And the best thing about it was it was all free except the gas to and from the recycling center, but I would have that expense going to the store to buy another kind of mulch too.

Grass clippings can harbor rust and infect your garlic crop with that disease if they are used for mulch. Both myself and a friend had this happen. No rust after we stopped using the grass clippings. Also, yes, it is normal for the feeder roots to seek out heat, moisture and nutrition in the top layer of the soil. Here where the winters are relatively mild, I believe that the roots grow all winter. My early, soft-neck varieties get pretty sad looking without a good dose of high nitrogen fertilizer in late winter or early spring. I have already fed and mulched two times this year. All-in-all, it appears that I will be having a good harvest this year if we don't have late rains as we have had the past two or three years.

I'm going to try something similar.... I was given a banana of unknown species. It was re-gifted several times and was in a pot, about 4-5 feet tall when I planted it in a raised bed with lots of peat and other organic matter. It exploded. Grew to 16-18 feet, and other than the HUGE leaves being shredded by hurricane-force winds, the plant is happy as it can be. The pseudostem is a foot in diameter with half a dozen goodly sized pups. Early December and the lowest temp so far has been 36F, so it is still producing new leaves. It's in a protected place with the greenhouse and hot tub to the north and east and warmth-retaining patio stones all around. My plan is to surround the bed with low wire fencing and fill with leaves and pine needles. The question is should the main stalk be cut back before or after a killing freeze?

Newspaper is fine either shredded or used in multiple sheets overlapped in the lay out. Some pre-soak 4-5 sheets at a time, lay them out and then overlap them with the next 4-5 sheets. It's easier to get them wet before laying them down than after. Wood chip mulches don't generally belong in vegetable gardens as they can cause nitrogen binding issues. You'll find many discussions about this problem over on the Soil & Mulch forum. If you choose to use the cypress then as Bill suggested, it really needs to be raked aside and removed at seasons end, NOT tilled in. There are many really great veggie garden mulches available that not only keep down weeds but also improve the soil at the same time and any one of them is far better than any wood chip mulch - straw, hay, compost, leaf mold, chopped fall leaves, grass clippings, etc. Consider using your newspaper topped with one of them instead and save the cedar mulch for its purpose - decorative mulching in a flower bed. Dave