Many herbs do not require much fertilization at all, while many vegetables do. Over-fertilized herbs loose flavour or may seed earlier that desired, while under-fertilized vegetables may either produce poorly or become diseased. Hence planting herbs as vegetable ground cover creates a neurotic feeding dilemma that IMO outweighs any "living mulch" benefits.

For example, I have a nice patch of Italian Oregano that thrives in some of the most miserable soil in my backyard; but it adores that condition. A tomato seedling in that soil would not flourish, and a cucumber plant would probably die. Also, some herbs can be invasive--especially in fertile soil. And, of course, Mint as "mulch" would be a nightmare.

We have several types of Thyme growing as perennial ground cover, although it's in our flower bed and not our vegetable patch. Thyme is a nice low-growing herb--a little invasive--, but our Rudbeckia and Clematis grow fine in it. We bought the plants as starters.

I would avoid your friend's suggestion. For you run the chance of lessening your veggie harvest and making more work for yourself. Instead, why not allocate separate space for herbs and mulch your veggies with something else. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

This post was edited by uncle_t on Mon, Mar 25, 13 at 21:45

Herbs generally grow from tiny seeds, which means they don't have much energy reserves, which means they need to be treated gently when small.

If you normally plant your tomatoes by just 'throwing seed out there', or if you buy like half a pound of herb seed to spread around, you might do ok. Otherwise I would start them indoors, or, this late in the year, buy starts.

'Ground cover' describes a growth habit. It means a plant that spreads out and covers the ground. Basil doesn't really do that. You can still grow it though, just not as ground cover.

Probably your friend meant cilantro, the various flavors of thyme, and maybe oregano and marjoram. The last three don't come true from seed; you need starts. You can get nice sturdy ones in 6 packs for very cheap :).

Cilantro is an exception -- it has pretty big seeds, and if you have a lot of seed you can just throw it out. You have to keep it wet, though. Thyme, oregano, and marjoram are pretty drought-tolerant.

I can't advise you on peppers because they do not like my climate. Though I might try them in the greenhouse this year :).

Are you putting down a nice thick (6 inches) layer of mulch? That helps a lot in an arid climate.

We aren't just going to throw the seeds in the dirt this year. Seeds are in jiffy pods as we speak. Sounds like I just need to set aside some space for the herbs this year. We had thought of the mulch but wasn't sure how that would work. Also how many of y'all use drip irrigation? We did have a little trouble with the heat last year and had to build a sun screen. Don't want to do that this year I think it's what stunted our jalapeños.

Drip, soaker, all that stuff ROCKS :). If you have been watering with a sprinkler, or hand-watering with a hose, that could be part of your problem.

What are your questions about mulch? I cannot imagine gardening in AZ without it. I mean, not successfully ;).

Nila, We hand water using a hose. When I think of mulch I think of decorative wood chips. Are we talking about the same thing?

Hi fedwa:

Mulch is not decorative. It is a thick layer (where you live, 4-8 inches would be good) of material that doesn't break down quickly, and that shades the soil and decreases evaporation.

You can use wood chips, straw, leaves, corn stalks... I don't know what would be convenient and cheap or free in AZ.

Watering by hand is bad in an arid climate because it causes you to water too briefly, too often. You will not want to stand there for the hours a deep soak requires.

The most efficient use of water is to provide enough water at one go to soak the bed as far down as plant roots go. Maybe a foot. Then DON'T water until the plants really need it. This encourages the plants to grow deeper roots.

In my climate, with mature plants, this means about two hours of a pencil sized trickle, and then nothing for a month. Baby seedlings, OTOH, might need it twice a day in midsummer. As they get bigger, I water them less and less often until they are good with once a month too.

In your climate, and especially if your soil is sandy, you will have to water more often. Mulch and adding organic matter to the soil will help.

And put your drip or soaker hoses UNDER the mulch. Any water on top of the mulch is wasted.

Google 'xeriscape vegetables' for more info :).

Nila,
Thanks for the great advice I only have one thing that needs to be addressed. We are doing all our plants from seeds that we have starting in our dining room lol. Just so I have this right, I need to continue to grow them in jiffy pods until they are taller than 4 to 8 inches because of the mulch layer that I need to lay down? I suppose they would have to be 12 to 16 inches prior to planting. IâÂÂm only asking because this is the first year we are growing from seed. We usually get starter plants. I think we will use straw that seems to be the cheapest. I have a soaker hose that should work.

Also for the group, I have never grown green beans but seem to remember my mother stringing lines for the bean plant to hang on. Will lattus work?

You all are awesome IâÂÂm really getting excited and canâÂÂt wait to harvest and can some veggies.

Don't worry you don't have to grow your transplants so huge!

Just pull the mulch away from the soil surface before you put the plants in. For one plant, make a hole in the mulch, plant in the bare soil underneath, and leave the mulch sloping up and away from the plant on all sides. For row, make a canyon in the mulch :).

You can cover the soil with a little of the mulch right after planting -- half an inch or an inch or whatever you can get away with. Then, as the plants grow, you can pull more mulch closer to them. And the mulch will shrink, due to drying and compaction and biodegrading. By the time the plants are big 6-8 inches might be 3-4.

The more mulch you can get close to the plants' stems, over their roots, the happier they will be. But you gotta leave the leaves sticking out :).

When you lay out the soaker hose, before the mulch and before the plants, put the hose right where the plants will be.

When you plant out your starts, you can even tunnel under the hose with your trowel and get their tiny root balls right there in the wateriest area :). That's what I did today with my beans.

And sure, you can grow bean on lattice. Just attach it to something securely so it doesn't blow over and uproot the plants along with it. Beans have TINY root systems -- no anchorage.

I keep my herbs in large pots near my back door so it's easy to get to them in the winter. I did try in my early years a small 3x3 raised bed with only herbs and they went SO wild, I didn't know what was what!( I can tell the difference now), but 5 years after I tore them out, a few of them keep coming up! (lemon verbena, I think)
By all means, grow your basil in with your tomatoes! They love each other!
Beans can grow up anything sturdy! You can use t-poles with string or wire, a bamboo teepee (my fav, but our wind isn't too bad during the summer), an old ladder (if you want cute!) You'll want it to be not much higher than you can reach, 6 ft or so , cause it'll keep going UP and you can't reach them! These guys get too mature, which makes the plant think that it's life is done, and it stops producing.
Anyway, Have fun and Happy gardening! Nancy

I tried the tomato & basil loving each other, for a whie te did fine, but the tomatoes got huge and shaded out he basil, it didn't kll it, but it did not thrive lke the basil in it's own bed. Just wondering.

All great advice, thanks everyone. I will probably have to get starter basil plants since we are running behind. We do however have little green plants starting to break the dirt in our jiffy pods. The beans seem to have come up first. I'm really ready to plant these suckers lol.

Ok so I took Nila's advice and used Straw as Mulch. Onmy proble now is I think Im growing Straw. My seeds are coming in but there seems to be plants shooting up between my rows. This could be a huge issues yes?

Oh, dear, I am so sorry to hear that :(. That was my experience using straw, but so many people here like it that I thought maybe it was a fluke.

A claw cultivator is probably the easiest way to get the sprouts out. I think there's a good chance you can do it without removing the straw. Hopefully all the straw seeds have sprouted by now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cultivator example

Nila, No worries. I have been reading up on it and from what I understand it is pretty easy to remove once it has a little height. Worst comes to worst we will have a nice crop of wheat lol. How is your garden coming along?

Well, good luck with the wheat crop ;).

Aw, thanks for asking about my garden :). My established plants and beans are very excited about the truckloads of compost and wood chip mulch my crew have been spreading.

My squashes are complaining that i started them too early. the temps are ok, but they are not getting enough sun and consequently are being eaten by aphids :(.