Old hay since we grow and bale our own or wheat straw when I can get it. Also used chopped fall leaves like Jack mentioned.

Lots of suggestions and opinions in there previous discussions. Why? Because they work very well and improve the soil at the same time.

http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/favorite-best-mulch

Dave

Yep, I even have favorite organic mulches for particular crops. Thick layers of my own homemade hay that I cut from tall grass and weeds for solanacae plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc... as it provides good protection from splashes of water coming up off the soil. Compost for cucurbits because I can find and remove bugs easier from around the base of plants where they like to hide. Pine needles for blueberries, and a thin layer of tiny wood chips around such perennial plantings like figs and where the herbs self sow.

Depends. I've had nothing but trouble with both leaves and wood chips. We have horrible ant problem where we live, and they really like the wood chips and leaves to nest under. Thus, anywhere that I have that mulch, if you even so much as touch the plants, you'll have ants crawling all up your arms!! The other day I bumped into a fire ant nest. Not fun.

My favorite are straw, hay, or pine needles. Compost is nice as well.

Preferably straw. I don't like grass clippings because it's not dry in the first place and then ad some wet weather and it can start to rot. Plus my yard grass clippings have to much crab grass in it. I use leaves to mulch over my fall garlic and onion bulbs and that's about it when it comes to leaves. I use cardboard between my carrot rows because straw would never work because they take way too long to germinate and establish themselves so straw would cover them and by the time they're big enough to use straw on them the weeds are already taken over

I just mulch with compost. And with square foot gardening, there are very few weeds. So when the potatoes need hilling I just add more compost, when I harvest something I add more compost, and when i plant something new, I add more compost. There is at least an inch of compost covering everything, at all times.

I use whatever is free and on-hand. I try to stockpile shredded leaves in the fall and I pick up old straw bales that people toss out when they are done using them for Halloween decorations for use during the next growing season. I also use grass clippings, old chinchilla bedding, compost... I even use weeds that I pull up/hoe off around plants sometimes.

Rodney

Definitely leaf mulch is my preferred mulch - I fill one bin of my compost bins (3x3x3) with leaves and let them rot over the winter. While we have a lot of fruit trees and one very large Katsura tree in the front, I still need to “steal” some leaves from my neighbours as we have curbside leaf collection so I will be making the rounds with my wheelbarrow!

I also have an electric chipper/shredder for all my branch prunings (mainly fruit trees) and that goes on my flower beds and paths between raised veggie beds. I just find that the raccoons like to dig into it as they find some bugs that live in the chips. I’ve tried doing cardboard mulching to get rid of a bindweed infestation but the raccoons just dug it up and made a huge mess with cardboard everywhere!

I believe in keeping as much garden debris on my property rather than getting rid of it - the only exception is weed seeds and perennial weed roots such as bindweed which go into our curbside green bin.

Leaf mulch, whether composted or not. Half of my lot is covered with trees, and between January and May (yes, that's when our leaves fall) I make piles of fallen leaves and miscellaneous trimmings. I run a mower over each pile and I get a half-yard of good mulch from each pile. Let it sit moistened in the heat, for a month or so, with occasional turning, and it's mostly composted. I get 3-4 yards of compost that way each season. Most is used for mulch, but I save a yard or so for the end of the season, which I dig deeply into beds. My storage unit is 55 gallon garbage cans. I have about ten of those.

I all about the (FREE). I have several large pine trees and use the pine straw it makes a good mulch.

In the summer for my raised beds I use straw plus shredded leaves with grass clippings and coffee grounds from Starbucks sprinkled on the top. In the winter I cover the beds in about six inches of shredded leaves with coffee grounds on top.

Sadly, I don't live in an area where abundant, fresh Long Leaf Pine straw is available, because that was my favorite mulch. That it creates an acid soil is a myth, but it is known to allelopathically inhibit the germination of grassy weed seeds. I used to apply it after the garden seeds were up, just in case.

We use a mulching mower on our grass and let the clipping fall where they can do the most good....right back on the lawn's soil. Fall leaves also get mowed in place and most of them end up on the lawn, as well.

I rely exclusively on mixed wood mulch for my ornamental beds and gardens. We usually get two full loads per year delivered for free when one of the tree care companies I use is in the area.

The worms work hard all year at churning the chips into the soil, we don't do much tilling.

I first read about using pine straw for mulch in Mother Earth News. I agree with you about the pine straw being acid, it is totally a myth. The only time pine needles are acid is when they are green and on the tree when they fall to the ground and turn brown they go neutral like any thing else.

Every other year I mulch with mushroom soil. My supplier mixes manure with last years leaves.