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Hot, dry weather means lots of watering. It takes time and can be costly, but a simple technique – mulching – offers a simple way to conserve precious soil moisture.
Covering moist soil reduces evaporation, erosion and weed competition, which means less work for you! Use organic mulches and you’ll improve your soil at the same time.
In this short video we’ll share all the benefits of mulching and the best mulches to use in your garden this summer.
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I'm in Denver, CO and tried mulching for the first time this year in my garden. Works amazing but I have pincher bugs (earwigs) EVERYWHERE! Any thoughts to kill them off without harming good bugs? Thank you for your videos – I learned so much over the winter and my garden is showing it!
Here in on the Wet West Coast of Canada we had a weird dry spell in spring and I added mulch but then after losing so many new seedlings to slugs and pill bugs I removed it all so that I could better monitor them. Its July and lots of previously chewed plants have been either replaced or have recovered and growing large. It is not uncommon for us to be wet until mid-July and then have a hot late summer so I have my eye on mulches to throw on once the ground needs watering every day and no more slugs are found.
I'm doing big woodchips since I live in a very windy area, but I have issues with squash bugs and scorpions trying to hide in it…
What is "Strulch"?
I don't use any mulch, because in my experience it doesn't stop weeds and increases our severe slug overpopulation. Last year the slugs ate almost all of our pumpkins and courgettes before we could harvest them, despite our anti-slug measures (two types of organic slug pellets, beer traps, a weekly slug hunt, garlic + coffee grounds borders and some protective mesh tubes). We have our own compost and huge amounts of grass clippings (from the orchard and playground area), but only use it in winter, to fertilise the garden. This year we've been able to harvest two courgettes (and a whole lot of other veggies) so far, and have not lost any to the slugs yet.
I have used straw, it worked wonderfully. I’m going to try compost this year and see how it works. Slugs where a problem with the straw one time but you never know year to year
i have ample amounts of straw from my chickens bedding and run covering , so there is chicken pooh in it , would this be ok to use as mulch or should i wait until it is well rotted ?
I have a long beech hedge, I rake and collect them in bags for the dump council recylcling depot but some of it I shred after to clean up. I get a few compast bags of it, peirce the bag with holes and put away till next year to break down. Then I mix it with bought composted bark chippings to mulch my garden. I always run out of it though. I cant chip the hedge clippings themselves they are to tough but all the leaves are fine for the shredder when they have fallen after winter, I get a bag or two of these shredded too.. They are half broken down anyway.
This is my first year growing, I’m using containers and large planters. It is so wet at the moment, despite lots of drainage holes the soil is very saturated and Iv lost some plants. Would mulching help prevent the soil from becoming too wet or make it all a bit worse by tapping in the moisture?
Hey Friend! Nice job! Like #604 and sub.
We have used bark mulch, straw and wood chips, but I think my go-to from now on will be shredded leaves. They are abundant, work amazingly well to add nutrients to the soil and they're free! A truly terrific trifecta! We have a hand-held leaf shredder that is easy to use, so I can always have a pile of shredded leaves at the ready. Always enjoy your vids! Continued blessings, daisy@MapleHill101
Came her via zero waste tv. Great tips!
Remove a slug or two from gorging on your veg in the late evening and place it in the middle of the lawn, then split it in half with the sharp edge of a spade, wait two to three hours for its family to congregate on canniblising its corpse. Next use the non-sharp part of the spade to flatten the whole family into the dirt. Before breakfast repeat this action. Alternatively use methods recommended by the Guardian.
You have gained yourself a sub because you get to the point of the subject matter (unlike others) and you are clear and concise.
Thank you for all your hard work.
This might be a dumb question, but if the bed is covered in mulch (I will most likely be using grass clippings and leaves) how do you go about adding fertilizer? I generally add it every 4-6 weeks, do I just manually pull back all the mulch, fertilize and then replace it? We also have drip irrigation in place, I assume I lay the mulch around the tubing but not on top? How close to the tubing can I get?
I have been using coco chips. It is great for holding moisture and keeping weeds down as so far, in the three years I’ve been using them, I have seen no slugs and weeds have not been an issue. The only down side is they are a little pricey and do require replacement or spucing every two years or so. I just push it aside while I till and then push it back. Also once it’s kind of lost its color it can tilled it into the soil and it is a good alternative to peat moss. It really does retain water very well!
My favourite one is sugar cane mulch and the plants love it!
I have learned that fir needles are good mulch on acid loving plants: Blueberries, and Rhodedenrons, azaleas, ansd tomatoes. Fir is not good near lawns so can reduce the grass weeds on plants that love acidic soils.
Marianne
I always bought mulch from garden centers but I'd really like to try dry grass or straw mulch next year ! Thanks for the good advice ❤
Being in an extremely hot and dry part of Texas, I use wheat straw. It's ready available around here and compost into the soil good for next year.
Where do you buy the big bag of compost…?
I’ve used various mulches and don’t have much problem with slugs. Having only been running my vegie patch since April 2020, my query is about how much to water. Living in Central Victoria in Australia, summer can get very hot indeed and winter can get down to around the low minuses. I think I’m guessing the watering amount reasonably well but learning at the same time with some failures, but not too many thankfully. I’ve had such a productive vegie patch. I love it. And it’s so true that the food you grow yourself is so much better tasting than store bought.
We worry about the weed content of grass clippings because our lawn suffers from the assault of dandelions and other broadleaf weeds that we can’t seem to get ahead of…
Any suggestions? Western Canada Nov. 2021
I use pea straw because that the only mulch I can weight bear to my apartment balcony. I would like to try woodchips or compost but they usually sell in bulk and it is too heavy for me to carry around.
New to gardening and have turned to YouTube at the begining of this year,well growing more then bushes that are left from previous tenant.
I want to grow veg. So I found a good couple of chaps on here to help me,one being Tony at simplify gardening, hew- not sure of his last name and then yourself.
All 3 have given me very good information on lots of things. I have recently brought hews new book out and yours,waiting for Amazon to deliver me it today, and Tony has a new book out in 3 weeks that I'm gonna get the audio version to start with and then a paper copy once money allows.
I tried to mulch with straw from local shop and have got lots of pesky little shoots growing from it….don't want that thanks They are taking goodness my plants need. So I contacted Tony and he suggested what he uses,went back to the same local shop and asked if they could order it in for me,and so I sent £4 on a tiny bag and got things I didn't want spent £10 and got a huge bale of rapeseed horse bedding, and omg the difference.
I have taken all the old off the plants,still getting shoots 6weeks later from the old stuff but eventually I know they will go. And with the new I have doubled what I had used the other on and still only used half the bale. I still have more to go so I expect I will use it all or most of it by the end of the year but would definitely buy it again.
The old stuff I took off has come in handy with the new composter tho. So not gone to waste.
I have mulch my porch my place gets bugs.im trying to move