placing straw over garden????
Hubby placed straw over top of garden (@2-3" thick)..plants haven't even come up yet..this isn't the thing to do, is it????? He wanted to keep the cold out and heat in..temps here about 40-50 degrees at night...HELP!!! I think he planted seeds too early, too...
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rainbowgardener
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You didn't say anything about what part of the world you are gardening in and that part about keeping the cold out and heat in was a little confusing to me. We do have gardeners writing in from Australia and parts of the world where it is now fall and getting colder. Is that you or are you in spring and warming up?
But no generally you don't put down the mulch until after your plants are sprouted and a few inches tall. Laying down mulch then helps keep the weed seeds in the soil from sprouting. By the same token it will make it a lot harder for your planted seeds to sprout also.
If you are in spring and warming up, but not all the way warm yet, putting the mulch down before the soil has warmed up, keeps it from warming up, keeps it colder. The heat is coming from above, not from underneath!
So you put down mulch later once the soil is warm enough, to help keep the soil cooler and moister through the summer.
But no generally you don't put down the mulch until after your plants are sprouted and a few inches tall. Laying down mulch then helps keep the weed seeds in the soil from sprouting. By the same token it will make it a lot harder for your planted seeds to sprout also.
If you are in spring and warming up, but not all the way warm yet, putting the mulch down before the soil has warmed up, keeps it from warming up, keeps it colder. The heat is coming from above, not from underneath!
So you put down mulch later once the soil is warm enough, to help keep the soil cooler and moister through the summer.We put down straw first then planted the vegetable plants- and altough it was a pain to move the straw to dig, it seemed to work better for us than planting the smaller plants (or seeds) first, then putting the straw on top of the plants.
When we put the straw down after the plants were planted, they did sprout up through the straw- my suggestion would be to watch the plants and move the straw around as needed.
It defintely helps keep the weeds down and the moisture in- especially in the hot summer months when there isn't a lot of rain.
When we put the straw down after the plants were planted, they did sprout up through the straw- my suggestion would be to watch the plants and move the straw around as needed.
It defintely helps keep the weeds down and the moisture in- especially in the hot summer months when there isn't a lot of rain.
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rainbowgardener
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
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Putting straw down and then planting plants into it, just moving the straw to make a place for them, is fine if the plants are not teeny-tiny. The way I read the OP, it sounded like they planted seeds ('plants haven't even come up yet") and then mulched straw over them. Not so good. The point (well one point) of the straw is to suppress the growth of weed seeds; works on plant seeds also. Some may make it, but definitely made it harder for them.
One thing I would add to these replies is for young plants that you are trying to protect from frost damage.
If the plants are completely covered by straw then they have good frost protection.....but....if some of the plant is above straw level then they are more prone to frost damage.
This is the reason that strawberry growers never straw up the plants until they are sure that the frost risk is past.
The straw acts as a thermal barrier and prevents the earths residual warmth from rising up to the plants exposed heads.
If the plants are completely covered by straw then they have good frost protection.....but....if some of the plant is above straw level then they are more prone to frost damage.
This is the reason that strawberry growers never straw up the plants until they are sure that the frost risk is past.
The straw acts as a thermal barrier and prevents the earths residual warmth from rising up to the plants exposed heads.