Hi, newspaper is usually used underneath other mulches so you wouldnt see it. I guess by some people's standards my leaf mulch or straw might be seen as messy but then I just think they look natural. I think it comes down to perception though, I've seen permaculture gardens that some would scoff at as untidy but I can appreciate the beauty and naturalness about them. I also think no one would ever walk into the woods and say, "look at all those messy leaves lying around" so I dont understand why some people see those same things in a garden and think they are messy.

woodchips are also fine to use as mulch, and something that most people could live with. It really doesnt matter how long it takes to break down, because while it's there it is moderating the soil temperature and retaining moisture but also blocking weeds. to feed the soil something it can use sooner, you need to get composting and you can use that around your plants while leaving the mulch in place.

You mulch soil to 1) aid in suppressing "weed" growth, 2) conserve soil moisture, 3) aid in keeping the soil cooler, and 4) aiding in replenishing the soil organic matter, none of these practices would make mulching "unattractive". Now there are those that think a mulch should be the center of attention, rather than the plants growing there, so they put in really garish material to bring out that they have mulches down. But a good mulch is unobtrusive, not noticeable, or helps (for all the reasons outlined above) the plants appearance.
The newspaper is used to suppress the growth of unwanted plants by preventing those plants from getting the sunlight they need to grow and that is then covered with some other mulch material to both hide the newspaper and hide it.

I use wood chips because I won't be tilling next year so it won't matter that they aren't decomposed. I'll just move them back, mix in compost and organic fertilizer and plant again.

If I did want to till an area, I would rake back the mulch and till in my additives.

There are no rules to this game. Make it up as you go along and learn from your's and other's mistakes. Some things don't work in all areas or soils.

Have fun

would some really finelly shredded wood chips have a chance to decay by the next season so i can till the whole thing?

if you want to till something in to amend the soil, then it's best to buy or make your own compost. finely shredded wood chips are not the best way to amend soil which is what you are trying to do. many organic gardeners dont till they simply add amendments and mulches to the top and let nature do the rest but if you feel you must work something in then compost is the best choice.

I have used wood chips over cardboard as a mulch, and they have both decomposed and been tilled in the following spring. I do use pretty small wood chips, though. They are almost like shreds. The only problem I have had is that the plastic packing tape does not degrade and I have to pull that out.

I mulch with many things - but usually the top layer is straw or compost. Once the plants get big enough, it is very hard to see the mulch through the plants. The benefits far outweigh the "ugliness", although I have had many compliments on my gardens that are mulched with straw. "How did you ever think of that!"and "Wow! What a great idea!" These gardens are in my front and back yards, both visible. As kimmsr said, the reason we mulch is to basically help the plants. Here in CA, I mulch extensively to aid in water retention. Even my neighbor, who is NOT organic, mulches, for the same reason. Saves a ton of water over the long hot summer! And my gardens look great! Use what you have, and it will be fine.

good luck!

Kathy

My motto is to use what you have. For the past few years I got free leaf mulch from our town & put it down between rows in my vegetable garden & around the base of my vegetables. Last summer we had a very long hot dry spell. It was a very busy summer leaving me little time to water. Mulch works. As another person said, you won't see the mulch after the plants take off. The mulch decays & adds nutrients to the soil & helps conserve water.

Whether any mulch would be digested any time soon depends on how active a Soil Food Web you have. Wood chips last a few years for me, but shredded leaves last only about 8 months because of the bacterial activity in the soil.

thank you for all the responses. my problem is i dont have anything on hand. its a small garden so i dont mind buying something,. i saw some big bags of peat moss at the garden center...would that decay by next season and be good addition to the soil?

Peat moss breaks down very slowly, and when it does, it adds little to no nutritional value. It also tends to dry up and blow away when used as a top mulch. (There is also a debate about it's sustainability and how farming it may cause irreparable damage to local ecosystems.)

As for your original question, "looks good" is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. I think straw, grass and leaves look great under plants. Newspaper is sort of off-putting and inconvenient (it dries up and blows around) unless you put it under another mulch, in which case it's a wonderful weed block and moisture retainer.

Wood chips' longevity can be a plus - you can rake them aside and use them again next planting because they break down slowly. Some people voice concern that their slow and carbonaceous breakdown will leach some nitrogen out of the soil. Others say this is negligible.

I'd search the web, find gardens that look healthy and attractive to you, and try to emulate them. You may find some irreconcilable conflict between your (or your neighbor's) ideas of aesthetics and what's involved in being organic, though. The most beautiful gardens I've ever seen would probably make your average city dweller want to call the city to have them carted away as a nuisance.

Now, what are those neighbors going to think when we convince you to start a scary old compost pile? :)

i posted something earlier but i guess it didnt post.
i think i am going to go with leaves, i saw some pics and it seems pretty dark and doesnt stand out as much as straw.

i didnt save last seasons leaves so am i stuck? do they sell leaves?! where could i get that?

for next year how do i save my leaves to use as mulch? if i put them in an open pile, wont they already be mostly decompsed by the time i need to use them? my neihbor has a leaf pile from last fall and its already looking like 80% 'dirt'. so confused :)

ps you guys are great :)

I love the look of my straw and my almost weed free garden. It really is nice to work in. (not muddy in our monsoon season) I really like to use cardboard under the straw but I am not sure if cardboard is helping my soil.

Depending on the species of the trees that produced those leaves they could have been converted by bacteria into leaf mold which is almost as good as compost. For sources of leaves, from last year, check with your local unit of government because many do collect and pile these up from people that think of leaves as a waste product that must be disposed of as quickly as possible. These yards are a source of water pollution because the piles of leaves just get washed away by the rain. Next fall as you pick up leaves shred them then and use them as mulch at that time rather than try to store them over the winter.

I think shredded leaves (lawnmower shredded) look really nice as a mulch on the beds, and they leave the soil more beautiful than you would believe. I usually use straw on the paths and I personally like the way the garden looks with it. It gives it a mini-farm look.

If you don't have leaves in your yard, are there woods nearby, or a neighbor who doesn't want theirs? (People don't realize what gold they are!) In the case of woods, they'll still be lying on the ground now. You could rake them up, take them home, and run them over with the lawnmower. In the 25 years my organic gardening has evolved, I've never been more enthusiastic about anything than what leaves do for your soil. You can become a little soil obsessed when you see how gorgeous it can be!

ok well after checking out all my garden centers i found one that had cocoa shells. i read a few posts on here and we and our neibors dont have any pets, so we are ok there. and i read that it will be gone by next season, so i went ahead and bought a few bags of that. my only other choices were wood chips and peat moss.

i got home and it was about to rain so i decided to hurry and put it down so the rain could soak it. i got done as it started to rain so that worked good. and i love how it looks, its a real nice color. but in all the craziness i forgot to put down my newspaper first darnit!!

the only thing i wasnt sure was how thick i should put it on? i went with about 2 inches. with the plants that i started inside (tomato and pepper) i put the mulch all around the plant but where i planted seeds, i left the soil bare. am i supose to cover over the seeds or not?

for you guys that mulch with leaves, how do you save your leaves from the fall?

Our garden is enclosed by a fence, so we just spread them out inside it and close the gate. They don't move much. Before I discovered leaf mulching we used to pile them up in a square wire enclosure, about 5x5x6' tall. (We didn't shred them then, just piled them in whole to let them turn into leaf mold, which took several years, but was beautiful stuff too.)

My whole garden is mulched in bark mulch. I have single rows, double rows and plots.....they are all covered in mulch. I rarely till except to start a new area. Before planting, I pull the old mulch into the walkway and add compost, then plant. If it's seeds, I wait until they get their real leaves to put down new mulch....that cuts down on wilt and helps with slugs and other insects. I can also put in row covers and use the old mulch to hold it down. If I'm planting out plants, I mulch but keep it back from the plant until they've grown a bit.

As the season goes on, I have to add mulch because my soil it so active that it'll go throught 4" in no time. I usually have to remulch my tomatoes 3 times.

I have drip systems under the mulch and add fertilizer by pulling back the mulch and adding or by using a liquid type. I'm thinking of trying strip fertilizing this fall.

Weeds do occur but usually they are not rooted well and are easy to pull up. That's something I do while running the drip system instead of standing there holding a hose.

I love the look of bare soil but find this method less work with no less produce. And I'm getting old so less work is good.

Ma Nature abhors bare soil, soil exposed to the elements, to the ravages of the sun, wind, and rain and that is why she will plant "weeds", to cover her soil.

My buddy (30 years of gardening at his place) keeps after me to read a book called "THE NO WORK GARDEN". His garden looks a bit cluttered but he seems to be able to start sooner than I can and keeps things growing until the first HARD freeze. He never seems to have a single weed; I need to give him a few, lol :-)

My neighbor buys many, many bags of redwood mulch every year. She puts it down every spring, then rakes it up every fall. No matter how much I try to convince her otherwise, she thinks this is the "proper" way to garden. On the bright side, I have convinced her to give it all to me. I put most of it in my compost pile, and some of it on my gardens. I prefer to mulch with compost and straw, so I have a great source of partially composted material! Her loss, my gain. I get all her leaves, too! Put 'em through the chipper, pile them up, and mulch in the fall and spring. My plants are happy, my water bill is low, which makes my DH happy, and I'm happy that I have more money to spend on plants!!

Use what you have!

Kathy

Here's a link to a potager garden thats been mulched with straw. You can see the photos of the young garden at first and scroll down to see it matured. I think it is just stunning and gorgeous, amazingly tidy, and it is in the front yard.
I have my garden mulched with straw and I'm really happy with the look. (but its nothing like these photos ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: potager mulched with straw

Leaf Mulcher here. I prefer the look of leaves over the bark mulches and like what it does to my soil whereas bark mulch doesn't do much. The only aesthetic issue I have is that when collecting from different areas, you get different colors of leaves. This can look odd for a bit until the leaves start to break down.

im going to be ready for next year with my leaves for sure!
so keeping the leaves in the bag for many months is ok...it wont like rot in there?

Leafmulcher has some great points, and it looks so healthy and vibrant!

tinabanana, I'm a little late reading your post but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth. I have been using shredded leaves for years as mulch with great results. Our area picks up bags of leaves on recycling days so I just go out early that day pick up the bags and bring them home. I have had several homeowners ask what I'm doing when I pick up their bags so I explain the advantages of using the leaves as mulch. They usually just nod and smile at me like I'm some kind of nut. Then next spring I'll see them mulching their gardens with store bought products--you tell me who is nuts! Last year one fellow was delivering his leaves to me--bonus!
I usually collect 80 to 100 bags (lots of veggie and flower gardens) and may shred them in the fall or in the spring, whenever I find time. After shredding I just put them back in the bags they came in and store them in the shade til I need them. The only disadvantage is that you must apply every year, but their decomposition in the garden adds to the quality of your soil. Hope this helps.

thx for replying, i still wasnt sure if keeping them in the bag was ok. altho now i think i will build a little enclosure behind my shed and just throw the leaves in there.

i do love how the coco shells look but im sure the leaves would do so much more for the soil. so next year im going to give it a try with the leaves.

Leaves ARE the best thing you can do for your garden. I sometimes leave mine in bags until they are almost completely broken down. The only problem is they are a bit unsightly and the bags get pretty thin and will break easily.
JMO,
Tom

should i mow over the leaves before i put them down, so they are in smaller peices, or are whole leaves ok as mulch?

Whole leaves just take longer to break down. Some break down in a couple of months anyhow. I never shred mine, but you seem more worried about appearances than I. I figure it looks better than weeds, no matter what.
JMO,
Tom