Hi Carol!

It's good to hear from you. And, you know, you ARE practically a whole state away cause you are so far up in the northeastern corner, and I am so far south I am surrounded on three sides by Texas!

My mulching methods vary depending on the crop and the weather.

COOL SEASON CROPS: In general, I don't mulch cool season crops like carrots or onions too heavily at first since they like cool soil. I'll put maybe a half-inch or so of mulch on the ground, just enough to keep weed seeds from sprouting. After it warms up some...like maybe in late April here, I'll add more. EXCEPT...if we are expecting a really, really bitter Artic cold spell to come roaring down across the state, then I will take handfuls of either hay, straw or leaves.....whichever ones I have handy....and drop them lightly and loosely, on top of the cool season crops, leaves and all, to protect them from the bitter cold. If it is going to snow (and you know that we do have an occasional late April or even very early May snow here, though not often), I will throw old blankets over the mulched cool season crops.

As the season goes on, and the ground gets warmer, I keep adding more mulch. I use a grass catcher to catch the grass clippings when I mow, so I can continually add clippings to the beds. (It would be better for the lawn if I left the clippings there, but the lawn is bermuda and I hate bermuda, so I don't care about it!)

WARM SEASON CROPS: For me, these are harder. First of all, I am on a slope and all my neighbors' grass and weed seeds wash down the hill and into the garden, so I can't live without mulch, unless I am going to spend all day every day pulling weeds.

For beds that have large plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, swiss chard, okra, and melons, I use the woven fabric weed block. I put it down before I plant, cut holes and plant right through it. I have to mulch right away, of course, or seeds sprout underneath it and start growing. Still, I only put a little mulch on top of the fabric mulch when I plant warm season crops in late March to late April and I don't add much more until our soil temp starts hitting 75 or 80 degrees. As the summer goes on, I add more and more and more mulch until I have it at least 4" deep. I use anything and everything I can get my hands on. Sometimes my "old farmer" and "old rancher" (and I say that very affectionately) neighbors give me old hay and I use it on top of the fabric mulch. Sometimes seeds sprout from that hay, but I just yank them out as soon as I see them.

The hard part with using the fabric mulch is that I have to remove it if I want to till amendment into the soil. I try to reuse it for several years, 'cause it isn't cheap. I buy it at Sam's or Costco and get it on pretty large rolls (200' x 4' or 6', depending on what they have).

It is especially important to me to mulch the pathways because that is where I have the biggest weed problem. Since I walk on the pathways which compacts the soil AND because it is unimproved clay, weeds that sprout there are almost impossible to pull up. Sometimes in the pathways I just lay down several thicknesses of newspaper or cardboard and cover it with chopped leaves or grass clippings or whatever. Since I don't walk on the raised beds, by contrast, the soil is loose and not compacted and any weeds that sprout are easy to pull out.

I STILL have problems with bermuda grass trying to creep into the garden by coming under the fence and rooting into the mulch. I would really, really love to put down a wide "path" about 6' wide outside the garden fence, put down weedblock and mulch, and try to keep the grass at least 6' away from the garden. I doubt I'll ever get around to doing that though.

When I first started mulching my entire veggie garden our second year here, my gardening neighbors gave me a hard time about the "trash" and "junk" I was putting into the garden. Now, though, they have seen how well it works so I don't get the grief from them any more. They have noticed that with all the mulch, they hardly ever see me out weeding.

I DO spend a lot of time and money mulching, but it is so much better than spending tons of time weeding. As the mulch breaks down, it feeds the soil, so it is all good.

Some crops, though, are so small and so close together, that fabric mulch doesn't work for them. I am thinking of plants like onions, carrots, spinach, even beans. I just mulch them heavily with pine bark fines or chopped leaves. With any luck at all, weeds don't sprout much at all before I harvest. Of course, once the carrots and onions are pulled up, weeds will sprout where they grew. So, I usually till the organic mulch material into the soil to enrich it, lay down fabric mulch and then plant my fall tomatoes there in late June to early July. These, of course, I have to mulch heavily right away because the ground is already so hot. I usually use hay or straw at this point because it is "in season" and cheap (unless there is a drought).

Before I started buying the woven cloth mulch, I just used newspaper and cardboard. Both are great for the soil and help to attract earthworms. I just find it faster to unroll, cut and pin down the weedblock fabric. If you use weedblock fabric, be sure to buy the higher-quality (and, unfortunately, more expensive) woven fabric and NOT the cheaper stuff that is perforated with little holes to "let the water through". It does let the water through, and also the weeds and grass, so it it virtually useless and a total waste of money.

Carol, I could not live without mulch. My ground stays cooler so I have to water less, which is a huge issue here in the summer of course. I hardly weed at all in comparison to what I used to do. The garden always looks neat and under control. And, as the mulching materials break down, they enrich the beds. So, it is a win-win situation all the way around.

Dawn

Dawn:

The electrical company came and trimmed the tree line running up the electrical poles. They mulched the wood down into piles. Could I use this as mulch in the garden? Leaves are a plenty here, how much is too much in a garden or flower bed?

Thanks,

Renee

Renee,

You absolutely can use the mulched wood in the garden. However, keep a couple of things in mind.

If the wood was only recently chipped into mulch, it will work fine on the surface of the soil as a mulching material.

If it was chipped into mulch 6 months to 1 year ago or longer, you probably could till it into the soil to add organic material to the soil. Adding organic material to the soil increases drainage and also helps soil hold moisture. The mulch that is tilled into the soil also feeds the soil as it breaks down, and will help attract earthworms.

You don't want to till freshly chipped wood directly into the soil as soon as it is chipped or shredded, though, as it can actually pull nitrogen out of the soil for its own usage as it breaks down. This could result in a temporary nitrogen shortage for your plants. Once the wood chips have sat a few months and decomposed some on their own, then they can be tilled into the soil.

I like to add mulch in the spring and summer and then till that partly-decomposed mulch into the soil in the winter.

Be careful handling the mulch. When the electric company "clear-cuts" the area underneath and beside power lines, they cut up EVERYTHING. This means that not only do you have mulched-up trees but also poison ivy, greenbrier, etc. So, wear gloves to protect your hands!

Watch carefully because some things may sprout from this mulch. If you see small plants sprouting from the mulch, pull them up (wearing gloves!) while they are still small.

On the other hand....one year I mulched my shrub beds with this kind of locally-produced (and free!) mulch and a lovely red oak sprouted near the house. I left that one there. Unfortunately, quite a few mulberries sprouted from that same mulch and I pulled them up!

Finally, the electric company usually doesn't treat the trees or mulch with any sort of chemical as they are taking them out, so you probably are safe there. However, our electric coop usually sprays the area with a very srong herbicide to keep tree stumps from resprouting. If yours does the same thing, be sure they didn't spray the mulch with that herbicide or the mulch could carry that herbicide into your garden.

If you aren't sure about the safety of the mulch, only use it in ornamental beds. Or, add it to your compost pile and compost it for a year or two.

Dawn

Woo Hoo, I am going to get the mulch - it has been well over a year and there are piles of it everywhere.

Lucky You!!!!!!