Mulching

[fxcruiser]

Does anyone use Peat moss in a veggie garden? Good idea or not? Thanx

[Marlingardener]

Peat moss doesn't add many nutrients to a garden--it's mostly used to lighten soil. It also seems like an expensive kind of mulch.
I garden in Central Texas, and I use grass clippings for mulch in the vegetable garden. I let the clippings dry out for a couple of days, then spread them around the plants. The clippings that don't break down get turned in after the final harvest.
The clippings will form a mat, especially after a hard rain (remember what those were?) but a quick pass with a rake fluffs them up again and makes them permeable.

[fxcruiser]

Thank-you! had a bunch of it left over from flower beds and thought it would be a good way to use it. I am in DFW area near the airport.

[jal_ut]

Peat has no nutrients to offer, however it can be used as mulch to help hold moisture and possibly discourage weed seedlings. It is not going to hurt anything.

[tk421storm]

Anyone else have a recommendation for a veggie-friendly mulch? I used regular cedar mulch last year, but have since learned that cedar mulch can suck nitrogen up out of the ground, and can be hard on annuals.

[rainbowgardener]

One of the things we learned when we had the book club discussion of Teaming with Microbes, was that veggies and other annuals tend to do better with a higher nitrogen mulch, whereas trees and shrubs do better with a higher carbon, more fungal mulch. So for veggies, grass clippings, coffee grounds, pulled weeds, cotton seed meal, alfalfa, kelp, etc. Not everyone has it available, but I have discovered that the duckweed that covers our big pond is very high nitrogen. It is great for heating up my compost pile, but this year I may also try it as mulch.

[DoubleDogFarm]

If you look at peat in the strictly dollars and cents.

$17.29 for a bale 3.8 cu ft.

27 cu ft (1 yard) divided by 3.8 = 7.10

$17.29 x 7.10 = $122.76 per yard.

Check local prices, I live on a island.

Most compost / mulch can be purchased in the $30-$60 range.

Eric

[gardenbean]

Hope you all don't mind if I chime in (I'm a newbie here and please correct me if I am wrong) but right now I am using a mushroom compost mulch (3.84 per bag ) until I am able to get a steady supply of grass clippings, leafs. etc.

Is this ok?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Your mushroom compost is perfectly fine.


Eric

[OzarkAggie]

I mulch my leaves and find that nothing else is really any better. But any carboniferous material attracts nitrogen.

I just moved into my house in 2009 - too late to do anything but mulch leaves. I added nitrogen to stabilize and just piled it up for last year's garden.

This year I'm putting in some new beds and while I'm doing that I'll mulch the leaves as I cut the grass for the first time which is nitrogen rich and adds enough moisture to light off a composting action.

The bonus that comes with leaf mulch is that worms love the stuff and by using it on your garden the worms will aerate the soil and enrich the fertility.

[Joshua]

im a newb and only gardening for a full year, but wont using grass clippings and leaves in the garden make for a bunch of weeds from all the seeds.

[gardenbean]

No, grass clippings won't leave seeds and eventually the clippings will work themsevles into the soil. I use Mushroom Compost for my mulch, along with my own compost that I have "made". I try to use those mulches that have the biggest bang for my garden and so far my home compost works the best. Along with coffee grounds that I collect from my local StarBucks. I work those into my soil and wow does my garden love that. (And so do the veggiest too! )

[SOB]

im a newb and only gardening for a full year, but wont using grass clippings and leaves in the garden make for a bunch of weeds from all the seeds.

If the grass has went to seed when it is cut and was then placed in the garden, yes, you could get grass growing.

Leaves don't have any seeds...

[WinglessAngel]

im a big fan of the coffee ground method for gardens with veggies and greens(i say that bec some people grow just flowers etc) and my fiance and I are both heavy coffee drinkers so its not hard to just take the filter and dump the grounds in a bucket at your feet by the coffee pot and throw out the filter...why clogg up your trash can with it when u can feed your garden with it? that's just me i guess, but then again a lot of people prob don't know about feeding with coffee grounds and used tea leaves though

[rainbowgardener]

Agree with above, there's no way grass clippings can have seeds unless the grass has gone to seed when you mow. And usually that would mean the grass was 2 feet tall and you would scythe it or something not mow. Leaves don't have seeds also. I mulch with both in my yard. They don't add weeds they subtract (suppress) them.

Re the coffee grounds, they are a great, high nitrogen additive for your compost pile. All our coffee grounds with the filter go in the compost pile. To mulch with, just spreading them on top of the soil, they tend to crust over and repel water. I sometimes fork a little bit of coffee grounds into the soil in containers, but I don't just leave it on top.