December 22, 2024

VIDEO: Use Mulch to Reduce Weeds, Save Water & Feed Your Plants


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Organic mulches are essential for a healthy, productive vegetable garden, locking in soil moisture, suppressing weeds and feeding plants as they rot down.

There are lots of different materials that work well as organic mulch. Mulching is a great way to use up garden trimmings such as shredded prunings and grass clippings for instance.

In this video we show you how to choose the best mulching materials for your crops, how to apply them and how to mulch both established crops and bare soil.

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25 thoughts on “VIDEO: Use Mulch to Reduce Weeds, Save Water & Feed Your Plants

  1. I've had a backyard vegetable garden for many years but just started mulching this year and the difference is amazing. I live near the ocean so my mulch of choice is dry seaweed, eel grass specifically. I also have a pine hedge on the property and I am using the dry brown needles also. Once they are brown and dry, they don't add any acidity to the soil. My tomatoes are loving this plus it keeps the soil from splashing onto the leaves when it rains and spreading disease. Also did the green beans – no more muddy beans. Nice video, I have watched them all, always something to learn.

  2. So glad to see a good video on mulch. I mulch everything with anything i can get my hands on. One more advantage of mulch is that it keeps the soil cool which is very healthy for the soil life, especially in hotter, dryer climates. A vast, vast number of essential critters actually die off en masse above certain temperature thresholds. It also means that if the soil is humid and cool underneath, it is better able to infiltrate water as dry, hot soil turns water repellant and stays that way for a long time. Hours, days! and even deeper into the soil. This is what causes most of the flooding issues around the world. The soil wants it, but because of the way we treat our agricultural and garden soil, it is unable to take it up and it has to run off to somewhere. To the streams into the rivers to the sea, taking with it all our toxic gunk. Obviously not infiltrating down to the aqifers to replenish the groundwater level. Do your part to improve water infiltration! Please! Thank you. 🙂

  3. Suppose I want to create a flower bed in the middle of the lawn. Should I put down cardboard in the fall and cover it with mulch, and then plant the bed the next spring? Will that successfully kill all the grass?

  4. For 2 years now i save all my coffie grounds&egg shells which ground together eventually mixing with organic potting soil , & earth worm castings, eventually turning in with my regular garden soil . Afer all that should i feed my plants anything extra?

  5. All these things sound fantastic, but the standard advice here in the UK seems to be that any mulch other than compost attracts hordes of slugs (see e.g. Charles Dowding). That was an interesting point about not applying early in the season to counteract slugs; my garden looks parched at the moment and I bet it could benefit from a mulch. At what point in the year is best to start mulching in the UK? We're in Sussex, it's pretty dry here.

  6. i have a hardwood bush, and i take the the old hardwood bark from falling trees, i just break it up with my hands and apply it to the flower bed. my question is , do i have to shred the bark really fine or is it fine the way i'm doing it?

  7. mulching was my biggest mind-blowing experience while gardening its incredible. there's nothing else like it. you just throw down dead things onto the earth and up comes life, nature funny like that

  8. Once our plants are about 5 inches tall we put them in the garden with wood chips around them. We never water after that. Everything stays moist. Just make sure you have at least 4" of chips down. Remember, after a few years the chips will compost into dirt and you will have to replace them. Also recall that wood chips should be at least 83% green leaves or needles, not bark or shredded pallets. Real wood chips. Straw works well also, but has to be replaced more often.

  9. Last year I mulched my vegetable garden with wood chips (learned about it from Back to Eden).   Was good in some ways but frustrating in others.   Not sure if I should keep or switch to something else for mulch.   Curious what you thought of wood chips as mulch in garden.  My garden in 16×16 so its not to massive to change.  I rotate crops so areas without wood chips (carrot patch from last year) would need wood chips this year (plan to plant zucc in that space) and likewise I need to remove chips from where carrots will go this year (where zuccs where last year).   Comments appreciated.

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