When I began my garden in March, I did not plan to use so many different types of mulch; I just used what was available and it just happened. First, I had a good pickup load of last fall’s maple leaves which I had tried to compost over the winter but they only partially biodegraded. Once my sweet corn was up about three inches tall, I spread the leaves between the rows. My corn is about knee-high now in mid-May and weed free. I’ve thrown some aged horse manure on top of the leaf mulch and worked a furrow of both into the soil and planted Butternut squash between every other corn row. This leaves me enough empty rows to harvest corn from and after that hopefully the squash will form a living mulch over the leaf mulch and also provide a late season crop.
I had put a bale of straw up against our north-facing crawl space entrance to help insulate the crawl space and water pipes last winter. I laid an old throw rug, rubberized bottom up, on top of the straw bale to keep the weather from degrading the straw. This spring that straw went over a strawberry patch of about 25 plants, along a row of bush beans (once they were three inches tall) and over a plot of late potatoes. I put only straw over the late potatoes, which they have now emerged through, but for the beans and strawberries I put two ply of newsprint under the straw. If I did not use the newspaper, it would just have been a waste product to be hauled to the recycling bin. Newsprint and straw or grass clippings seem to work well as combination mulches. The paper is a difficult barrier for weeds and grass to break through but would blow off without the straw or grass to weight it down. Before I put the top mulch on, I wetted the paper down with a garden hose to get it to mold to the soil. I also used newspaper and cardboard weighted down with soil on the edges to protect plants during a light late frost.
I decided to buy some black plastic for plants which like especially hot soil for their roots such as peppers, sweet potatoes and cantaloupe. I could have also used it for cucumbers and tomatoes, but I didn’t. I am trying some large rocks and bricks around my tomatoes and the cukes are planted along with a couple zucchini to form a living mulch under my pole beans. For the plants in black plastic (except for the bell peppers ), I put an old soaker hose down, covered it with the plastic and made a furrow with a hoe down either side of the plastic, tucked the edges of the plastic in the furrows, and then filled in the furrows with dirt to secure the plastic mulch. I’ve had problems with that old soaker hose blowing out large leaks from my water pressure. I have to tear a hole into the plastic at the leak, slit a piece of old garden hose and use radiator clamps to fix the garden hose over the leaks. In hindsight I probably would have been better off doing my sweet potatoes and cantaloupe like I did my peppers and skipping the soaker hose altogether. For the peppers, in addition to the two side furrows I also made a third furrow down the middle, then put the black plastic down and planted into the middle furrow. The middle furrow forms a trough which catches any water from garden hose or rain and delivers it straight to the plant holes.
Carrots are notoriously slow to germinate; the weeds always come up first and then the carrots are lost to one giant mess of a weed patch. This year I tried a trick an old farmer had told me and planted my carrots under boards. Each day I flipped the boards to one side to see if the seed had sprouted, then sprinkled with a hose and pressed the boards back in place. When the carrots did sprout, I laid the boards to the sides of the carrots to suppress any weeds between the rows. I am very impressed with the results to date and plan to keep an eye out for any surplus unpainted and untreated lumber that I might happen upon. Wood is organic, heavy enough that it doesn’t blow away; it lasts for years so you don’t have to find new material each year and no weeds or grass grows through it. If you need to thin a crop like carrots or beets, or pick a row of bush beans you can place a stool’s legs on the planks on either side of the row and work sitting rather than kneeling. One other advantage is that fishing worms congregate right under the boards for easy picking.
So in conclusion, I have used three types of mulch: organic (like grass, leaves, newsprint, wood, cardboard and straw), inorganic (like black plastic, old carpet, and large rocks or bricks) and living mulch (leafy vining ground covers like cucumbers, cantaloupe, squash and sweet potatoes) to mulch my garden, conserve moisture and suppress weeds.
I had put a bale of straw up against our north-facing crawl space entrance to help insulate the crawl space and water pipes last winter. I laid an old throw rug, rubberized bottom up, on top of the straw bale to keep the weather from degrading the straw. This spring that straw went over a strawberry patch of about 25 plants, along a row of bush beans (once they were three inches tall) and over a plot of late potatoes. I put only straw over the late potatoes, which they have now emerged through, but for the beans and strawberries I put two ply of newsprint under the straw. If I did not use the newspaper, it would just have been a waste product to be hauled to the recycling bin. Newsprint and straw or grass clippings seem to work well as combination mulches. The paper is a difficult barrier for weeds and grass to break through but would blow off without the straw or grass to weight it down. Before I put the top mulch on, I wetted the paper down with a garden hose to get it to mold to the soil. I also used newspaper and cardboard weighted down with soil on the edges to protect plants during a light late frost.
I decided to buy some black plastic for plants which like especially hot soil for their roots such as peppers, sweet potatoes and cantaloupe. I could have also used it for cucumbers and tomatoes, but I didn’t. I am trying some large rocks and bricks around my tomatoes and the cukes are planted along with a couple zucchini to form a living mulch under my pole beans. For the plants in black plastic (except for the bell peppers ), I put an old soaker hose down, covered it with the plastic and made a furrow with a hoe down either side of the plastic, tucked the edges of the plastic in the furrows, and then filled in the furrows with dirt to secure the plastic mulch. I’ve had problems with that old soaker hose blowing out large leaks from my water pressure. I have to tear a hole into the plastic at the leak, slit a piece of old garden hose and use radiator clamps to fix the garden hose over the leaks. In hindsight I probably would have been better off doing my sweet potatoes and cantaloupe like I did my peppers and skipping the soaker hose altogether. For the peppers, in addition to the two side furrows I also made a third furrow down the middle, then put the black plastic down and planted into the middle furrow. The middle furrow forms a trough which catches any water from garden hose or rain and delivers it straight to the plant holes.
Carrots are notoriously slow to germinate; the weeds always come up first and then the carrots are lost to one giant mess of a weed patch. This year I tried a trick an old farmer had told me and planted my carrots under boards. Each day I flipped the boards to one side to see if the seed had sprouted, then sprinkled with a hose and pressed the boards back in place. When the carrots did sprout, I laid the boards to the sides of the carrots to suppress any weeds between the rows. I am very impressed with the results to date and plan to keep an eye out for any surplus unpainted and untreated lumber that I might happen upon. Wood is organic, heavy enough that it doesn’t blow away; it lasts for years so you don’t have to find new material each year and no weeds or grass grows through it. If you need to thin a crop like carrots or beets, or pick a row of bush beans you can place a stool’s legs on the planks on either side of the row and work sitting rather than kneeling. One other advantage is that fishing worms congregate right under the boards for easy picking.
So in conclusion, I have used three types of mulch: organic (like grass, leaves, newsprint, wood, cardboard and straw), inorganic (like black plastic, old carpet, and large rocks or bricks) and living mulch (leafy vining ground covers like cucumbers, cantaloupe, squash and sweet potatoes) to mulch my garden, conserve moisture and suppress weeds.
