Use mulch or not?

[redneck647]

So I know this might be a dumb question but.
I have never used mulch and none of the gardeners I was around growing up really used it. So is it worth using? I'm really considering it but I'm afraid of unforeseen problems trying something new.
I understand it helps keep the weeds out but wouldn't it also have an effect of seeds planted in the garden? And I'm guessing it might become a pain when I keep planting through the season?
Also I know it would hold water in my clay soil which is known to dry out in the middle of summer but for the rest of the season my soil usually stays damp and I sometimes have problems with too much water. Wouldn't the mulch make that worse?
Lastly my garden in on a hill and has a slight slope to it. I'm still working on shaping it but for now how much trouble would I have keeping mulch where its supposed to be and not washing down to the bottom in a storm?

[rainbowgardener]

Every one has different styles/ philosophies, but personally I am definitely PRO mulch.

You understand when we say mulch we aren't particularly talking about the bark chips they sell as mulch in the stores. Mulch is anything organic you cover your soil with. I like to use a mixture of "green" and "brown" mulches (in the sense composters use those words). Green is soft, moist, Nitrogen rich. Brown is hard, dry, Carbon rich. So for example grass clippings plus fall leaves is a green/brown mix. Grass clippings by themselves tend to mat down. Fall leaves by themselves take a long time to break down. But together they stay loose and break down well and make a complete soil amendment. So your mulch is feeding your soil all through the season. I just keep piling more on top. You want it to be 3-6 inches deep. (Another green/brown mix is pulled weeds plus shredded newspaper.)

If you are planting seeds, don't put your mulch on until the seeds are well sprouted and then keep an area right around your plants clear for awhile. If you want to plant more seeds later in the season, just push your mulch away from your planting row.

Makes life so much easier -- mostly eliminates weeding, watering and fertilizing in your garden. My garden where I was before I moved, where I had been gardening for years and years, I never used any fertilizer, just compost and mulch. Now that I have moved to a place that has never been gardened, for the first year I may need to use something more concentrated and quick release like alfalfa meal, fish emulsion, etc.

But you are right, if you have much of a slope, you would need to have some kind of edging to keep the mulch in place.

[jal_ut]

rainbowgardener has you covered on the mulch thing. I do not mulch my garden since I garden a large space it is not practical to do so. For a small area it would certainly be a good thing.

http://utahpests.usu.edu/IPM/htm/orname ... nails-utah

[B-T-S]

We use straw for mulch, our garden is close to 1 acre and we mulch everything! We probably used 7 to 8 round bales of straw (aprox 1000lb bales) last year, we put down a super thick layer of straw in the spring and we never weed again!. It also helps hold in the moisture, we plant everything on hills so we don't half to worry about anything rotting.
I added on a few pictures of last years garden with straw.
Good luck

[j3707]

Wow BTS, you don't mess around! I'm glad it works well for you.

redneck - I planted one bed in mulch a few years ago and found I had created the ideal slug habitat. Keep that in mind if slugs are a problem where you live.

[rainbowgardener]

I have not had that problem . Were you using bark mulch ? Slugs do like wood . If you do get slugs in your mulch , I think giving it a good dusting of diatomaceous earth would help.

[B-T-S]

Luckily we have never had problems with slugs, but I am sure there are ways to get rid of them, I just don't know since we have never had them.

We are lucky and we get all of our straw for free from some friends that are farmers, we are very lucky and I know not everyone has that privilege.

We are going to buy a straw shredder this year, but that depends on how serious you are and your garden size.

You can skip the video to 6 minutes to see it in action.
https://youtu.be/5mdQx-2FdwM

[Gary350]

I never use mulch it is less work and less costly. I experimented with hay mulch many years ago hay is full of weed seeds and grass seeds so that made it harder to deal with all the extra 1000s of weeds and grass that grew in my garden.

Best thing for me is to hoe 2 times a week. A 5 to 10 minute walk through the garden is all it takes to remove small weeds. I only hoe near the plants about 6" radius around each plant. Do this about every 3 days and there is very few weeds to remove. Small weeds are easier to hoe than large weeds. If you do it right this works better than mulch. You only want to break the soil surface. Use the hoe like a scraper not an axe, not a shovel. You want to leave the soil surface with a 1" layer of dry broken up soil. The dry surface soil on top acts like shade for the harder soil below. Hard soil below stays moist and the dry soil on top will not sprout and grow weeds seeds.

After hoeing around plants I run the tiller through the garden very fast. I plant my rows about 10" wider than my tiller. I start my tiller and walk it through the garden as fast as it will go I almost need to run to keep up. All this does is break up the surface it does not dig deep. Once or twice through the garden as fast as I can walk with the tiller does 95% of the weeding between rows. After you finish doing this do not walk in the garden until the next time you need to remove weeds. When the rain stops about first week of June I don't need to weed again until the next time it rains maybe 2 or 3 weeks. July I might weed 1 time that month if it rains. I never water my garden either, early on if you force your plants to grow deep roots in search of water they will be well prepared for the dry season. If you water your garden it promotes shallow roots. When it is hot and dry I have no weeds and garden plants do good.

I only hoe my garden about 2 weeks in April, the month of May, and first 2 weeks of June. All the 65 day crops can be harvested late June and early July. Some plants last until frost kills them about Halloween. Some plants like beans and squash get replanted in July. Late season crops get planted Aug and Sept. My garden is going to be 60x60 ft this year.

Your geographical location, weather conditions, and soil will be different than ours so all the suggestions we all have many not all work for you. Gardening involves a lot of common sense thinking. Just think a few minutes about what we are doing, what people near you are doing and decide what will work for you.

[rainbowgardener]

Hay has a lot of weed seeds. Straw does not.

and Gary, haven't you posted about having to put tons of compost and organic matter on your soil, 5-6 truckloads of leaves on the garden every year, etc etc. If you weren't tilling all the time, probably wouldn't have to do so much of that. Many people think that tilling is hard on the soil. It disrupts the fungal and other life of the soil, leaves the soil open to erosion by wind and water, releases oxygen and water from the soil, uses fossil fuels for tillers. Tilling is mainly for weed control and if you mulch you don't have weeds to control.

But you are right. Every garden is different, different soil, different climate, different sun exposure, etc. Each of us has to figure out by some combination of reading and trial and error, what works best in our own garden.

[tomc]

I think the reduction of weeds is over-sold with mulch. Non-hay mulch can reduce weeds to a degree. Unless you have Ruth Stouts resource, you are not likely to lay it on heavy enough. She went to great lengths to secure spoiled hay in large enough quantity for her small garden. See
B-T-S' post.

Where this IS important to my garden (in Ohio clay) is it is what I have to make my soil friable. In short, no mulch, no garden. I would be making pottery without it.

[Marlingardener]

In short, no mulch, no garden. I would be making pottery without it.

Tom, I love that!
We mulch some things--tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, the flower beds, and if we have a lot of grass clippings, the potatoes. We use grass because that is what we have, and with seven vegetable gardens now, and three large flower beds, buying mulch would make us sell the farm!
We mow often enough that the grass doesn't have seed heads, and I have to fluff the clippings periodically to keep them from matting down and making a thatch roof on the soil. But an hour or two in the garden fluffing and communing isn't a bad thing .
When a section of a vegetable garden is finished, we till in the clippings. In the flower beds, we just let them rot down without our help.
B-T-S, I sincerely envy anyone who can get all those bales for free!

[j3707]

rainbowgardener - I used straw. The Pacific Northwest is slug country...we have to fend them off every spring no matter what. I haven't tried diatomaceous earth, but have heard it loses effectiveness when it gets wet.

[applestar]

I read that quack grass, when pulled and dried, contains a substance that kills or repels slugs. So one of the things I do is NOT entirely get rid of quack grass, and as they grow and spread, pull and leave on the edge of the garden beds to dry out, then use them as part of the mulch.

[j3707]

Well, I had a quote typed out, but lost the post. The gist of it is, a regional gardening guru (Steve Solomon) does not recommend permanent mulch gardens for the Pacific Northwest. In his experience, they become a haven for certain bugs (and slugs) that will attack the veggies. "A steady and unstoppable increase" he says. Apparently our weather makes permanent mulch gardening a real challenge.

[imafan26]

I do use some mulch but not on everything. I have a lot of weeds and snails and it is true, snails love mulch. It keeps everything moist. I also use interplanting to control weeds and because I don't have a lot of garden space. Interplanting makes the best use of limited garden space. I like to mulch potted plants and self watering containers because I don't want weeds competing with the plants in the pots and it helps retain water since pots can dry out fast.