What do you feed your lawn? I assume thats where you get the grass clippings. If the grass is being fed a lot of nitrogen I might want to stay away from it. 10-10-10 is generally a good vegtable fertilizer but you probably don't need it. liquid chicken manure usually 3-1-2 or something like that might be a better choice but it depends completly on your soil.

As far as using the mulch I think it shouldn't hurt but I'm not sure. It depends a lot on when you apply the mulch. When you first plant it's fine its during the fruiting flowering stage that you don't want to much nitrogen.

Just my two cents....

If you go to an organic you can get about the same balance but at half the rate, for ex 4-5-4 or something like that. Or, you can stop fertilizing altogether. I mulch heavily, still give tomatoes a bit of processed turkey manure fertilizer, but have stopped feeding peppers.

I used to use cocao mulch because I couldn't find straw in my area. It does add a bit of acidity but tomatoes tend to like acidic soil anyway. I finally found it this year by asking the local garden center. Turns out you can buy it in compressed bags (squared ones like peat moss) that have the staw steralized and ready to use. It's a big expensive at $14 but it covers up to 250ft^2 so I would ask. It's the most commonly used mulch for veggies. Put weed guard fabric around plants and straw all around the plant.

I use rows for other veggies and put the straw in between the rows. It does work to prevent weeds.

I also add crushed dried left over egg shells at the bottom of the whole to add calcium and prevent inrot.

I recently have been trying new types of organic mulches. I used to use the black plastic mulch, but I hate the idea of ripping it up and trashing it year after year. Last year I tried some paper mulch with limited success and this year I tried a different brand with even worse results - it got ripped up by the wind gusts and broke some leaves off of my plants.

I couldn't leave the soil bare, so I looked around at what I could find locally in the way of hay or straw. A garden center near me was selling bales of salt marsh hay and I bought a few - was worth a shot, I figured. So far I love it. It lays down easy, doesn't blow around in the wind really, and breaks down fairly slow from what I've seen. Also it's natually weed seed free and does a real good job, so far, with suppressing weeds.

From what I've read salt hay is kind of hard to find, but so far it's working out well. I bet any form of hay or straw will work about the same, possibly with more or less weed seeds depending on the type.

Hi,

Straw is a good mulch, but don't use hay, it has a lot of weed seeds. If you can find the bagged straw like kskasia mentions that's a good alternative. No weed seeds and goes down nicely.

Good luck!

we have lots of pine needles around, they tend to stay down and bind together into a nice mat - still lets the air and water through, and I keep telling myself that critters dont like the sharp needles. The benefit is that there are no seeds to worry about. Leaves are good too, but they tend to fly away with the wind if they are dry. Not sure if needles or leaves add much nitrogen since the one I collect have been down on the ground for months before I get them.