You can start by using strips of cardboard or newspaper with a layer of grass clippings on top to make it look less like a dump site. Be sure to weight all the paper down so the neighborhood doesn't end up looking like one.

Wayne

we've been using the grass clippings, and it works great. :')) i think i read somewhere that you have to let it dry out though. um i'm guilty of not doing that. but i do keep it a little bit away from my plants, veges, a few inches. Medo

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to get my husband to figure out how to get the clippings since our mower automatically reshreds them and puts them on the lawn. But I'm sure there's got to be some way to bag them up.

My plants and I thank you!

we use hay type mulches especially the ones that come under the green mulch label, that is not straw! though straw can be very good if you want something that is long lasting.

just we preffer the nutrient values we get from a variety of hays. they include spoilt luceren hay, spoilt pasture grass hay, sugar cane mulch (made from the green tops at harvest tiem), we also went and raked some 1.5 meter tall grass that someone had slashed and used that, plus we are currently raking grass from a parkland area (not manicured park) that our local council slashes.

we mulch to around 8"s thick, it breaks down continually so we re-mulch at least twice a year, we also find we don't need added fertilisers, as we tuck all our rottable kitchen waste under the mulch so along with that we are getting a variety of nutrients and conserving the need for watering as the gardens stay moist longer and the plants grow strongly as their root runs are insulated against initially the heat, but also against the cold.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

Talking with people that have horses to feed I find that due to the drought throughout the USA last summer hay for feeding these animals is in short supply and very expensive. Unless you can find spoiled hay (which should be free) to use in the garden a better alternative would be straw which should be much less costly than hay.
Due to the rains this year the first cutting of hay may well be delayed and that will raise the cost of hay again.