• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

What do you use for mulch?

I use the same old stuff every year. Free wood chips from the tree dump to put around the fruit trees and the asparagus bed. I use truck loads of grass clippings on anything garden related. It acts as mulch all year long and then gets tilled into the soil. After the soil has been tilled for the last time in the fall I spend all winter dumping a mixture of composted grass,leaves,straw and horse manure on all the garden spots. Then in the spring it all gets tilled into the soil.
 
I am trying to covert over to raised beds so I won't have to do all the tilling when I am to old to do it. At the rate I am building raised beds I may be dead before the project is completed.
 
     After I plant in spring, I top my beds with ~2" of compost and another 2-4" of leaf mold. I never have weed problems except for around the edges where grass and creeping charley infiltrate from the surrounding lawn. They don't make it far into the beds and are easy enough to pull out, though.
     It seems like a good combo. My soil tends to stay uncompacted and full of life and I think I only had to water two or three times this summer. (It was really dry.) Best of all it's completely free. I just have to spend a few hours turning my compost pile each season. And leaf mold requires almost no effort whatsoever to produce. Just vacuum the lawn with the mower and wet the shredded leaves down with the hose as you dump them in the compost bin. That's it. Ready to use in the spring!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top