How to Mulch Your Garden

I look forward to gardening season every year! I love having a garden and having fresh vegetables right outside my door.

We start our seeds indoors to transplant them later into our garden when the weather is warmer.

When the weather is warmer, we start outside with soil prep and then get our vegetable transplants planted and direct seeding sown.

As Spring continues we enjoy watching our seeds sprout and our plants grow.

The garden starts out with all the plants in nice rows. Then mid summer hits so do the weeds! Lots and lots of weeds.

Mulching helps suppress weeds.

Less weeds in the garden, less disease, more harvest.

It prevents soil erosion.

Mulching moderates soil temperature changes.

Organic mulches break down over time, adding nutrients and enriching your soil.

A well mulched garden will save you hours of weeding. A good layer of mulch between rows and plants will shade the soil preventing sunlight to reach the weed seeds to germinate and grow. The mulching also helps the soil withhold moisture underneath.

Types of Mulch for the Garden

Straw: We like to use straw in our garden for mulch. We bale our own straw, so it is more available to us, but it is our favorite mulch to use. It is easy to put down throughout the garden. It doesn't compact, breaks down slowly, and last for a long time. You can find mulch at your local farm store or from a local farmer.

Pine Straw: Pine straw is the pine needles that fall from the trees 

Leaves: Shredded leaves

Grass Clippings: Gather up grass clippings from your yard and put down in the walkways and around your plants in the garden. 

Landscape Fabric: There are a lot of different kids of landscape fabric to choose from. Lay down a strip of the landscape fabric material between each row or lay down a strip and plant your vegetable plants within the landscape fabric.

How to Mulch in the Garden

- Start by covering the walking rows with the mulch. It's so much easier not having to maintain the unplanted area of your garden. Place about 4 inches of mulch down. 

- Then mulch around the plants in the garden. Do this to keep the weed seeds from germinating and growing within your vegetable plants growing rows. Layer about 2 to 3 inches of mulch around the plants if using an organic type mulch. 

- Keep the mulched area clean, should any weeds get through the mulch. 

When the soil is covered with mulch, very few weed seeds are able to germinate. 

Weeding can definitely be time consuming and although mulching takes a bit of time in the beginning, it will save you so much time later in the season when the weeds are growing the most.