It works, but some of the advantages of it are negated by letting it bake in the sun and volatilize out of some of the good aspects of it.

In the end you still get the soil structure help and some of the good acids/microbial action/etc will leech down into your "regular soil"...but it enjoys a slower breakdown you're not going to get as well simply placing it unprotected on the soil surface.

Since it does hold a good amount of water it will have some positive mulch-like action, but it won't do anything for weed suppression. Aside from the lack of weed suppression and quicker breakdown of some of the good aspects...it's kinda expensive mulching material.

Then straw it is. I am making my own compost concoction w/used coffee grounds, straw, horse manure, kitchen scraps & leaves. It's good stuff but it's taking so long to break down so I bought this compost from Mother's Organics.

Oh well...my wife will have to understand...

Compost can be used as mulch, but as nc pointed out to put down enough to be effective the cost can get to be prohibitive. When compost, or any other material, is put down 2 plus inches thick it will suppress "weed" growth from the soil underneath although new "weeds" may find the compost a really nice media to germinate in. As mulch compost will tend to dry out too much and then you may find it difficult to rewet, and compost needs to be evenly moist for the bacteria to work in it.
1/2 inch of compost on your soil covered with another mulch material deep enough to suppress "weed" growth is the best use of compost.

Lots of people amend soil by side-dressing with compost as a mulch. However due to the problems state above it's best to cover the compost with something else - leaves, straw, wood chips, bark mulch, etc. Best of both worlds.

Can you get a little wood mulch of some kind that would look acceptable and sprinkle it on top?

I regularly use my compost as mulch and it does ok for weed suppression. I have horses and use my own stall leavings--a combination of manure, urine and pelleted wood bedding. It's "mostly composted" when I put it on the beds. I put on couple inches that I refresh 2-3 times a year. For my the beds in the front of the house where I want a neater look I'll put a very thin layer of purchased mulch on the top the compost--I like the look of pine bark fines. I have no idea what's "organically correct" but my plants are very, very happy.

Florida has a huge number of horses and with a little research and digging you might be able to find some free sources for compost.

This post was edited by subk3 on Tue, Jan 22, 13 at 21:52