What are you mulching your veggies with?

[garden5]

I myself am using grass clippings. I've heard some say that they will grow grass in your garden, but I haven't found that to be the case. I lay them on top of my garden, and then I don't till the rows till fall.

The tilling issue when you have a mulch is really the reason why I don't put it over my entire garden. You see, my garden is so wide that I can't help but to walk down through the rows to tie, prune, and harvest. By stomping around, I end up compacting the soil, so I in turn till (hoe) the paths in-between rows 3 or 4 times a month. If I mulched the rows, I'd still have to till them to fix the damage I do by trompsing around in there. But....the tilling would disrupt the mulch, thus defeating the purpose. So, this year I'm going to mulch where I don't walk and till where I do.

How do you guys handle the mulch/hoe issue?

[gixxerific]

How do you guys handle the mulch/hoe issue?

I have the same issue, if the mulch is thick enough. I will rake the mulch out of the way than hoe up the ground than replace the mulch. Or wait until I have another load of clippings ready for deployment.

[TZ -OH6]

I had to cover my leaf mulch with grass clippings. Tthe dark leaves held the heat from a hot sunny day and scorched some of the leaves on my peppers.