I like grass clippings because they do breakdown easily and are cheap. They breakdown a little fast though so I prefer wheat straw. Wheat straw prices jumped way up recently so what I do is drive around the rich neighborhoods and collect them after Thanksgiving when people throw them out from their Halloween/Thanksgiving displays.

I wet them down and encourage any seeds to germinate so they wont when I put them down come next June.

It lasts longer than the grass clippings so I usually put it over the grass clippings. I do NOT use hay. Just too many weed seeds in hay even with trying to presprout them.

Fall leaves, shredded, is my favorite but most of them end up in the compost and wife's flower beds.

Hay is much easier to get large quantities of as we mow our own. 2nd or 3rd mowings of hay have far less seeds and I use a bale from the previous year with very few problems as it has already started to spoil (compost) and killed what weed seeds it has.

This pic of one of my tomato beds shows a good 8" of hay mulch and with it that thick weeds are no problem.

{{gwi:10965}}

I generally don't like wood chip mulches in the vegetable garden simply because they interfere with tilling but I sure wouldn't throw the cedar mulch away! That's a waste. Just let it continue to decompose over the winter and till it in in the spring. If you don't want to leave it in the garden for some reason then rake it into a pile somewhere out of the way and let it compost there.

Dave

Grass clippings in the "green season" and fallen leaves the rest of the time. After winter is over, any remaining mulch gets turned into the soil with the fresh grass from the first few cuts of the season. The prepped beds get a new topping of grass which is again turned in about a week before planting.

My county recycling center offers free mulch all summer. They will dump a trailerload at no cost onsite (their site)and I put it over laid-down sheets of newspaper around all my plants. I love the "free" part!

While I conditon the soil extensively in the fall and leave the 'blanket' on during the winter, in season I use no mulch.

A picking from last week:
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8315/p1000598zj1.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1384587}}

Another vote for grass clippings. The price is right!

I also dig it into the soil at the end of the year.

My favorite mulch is for several reasons like they are free, do an excellent job of conserving moisture, keeping the soil temp down and consistent, and controlling unwanted weeds and grass. I put my soak hoses down after the plants are big enough, and before putting the mulch on. They break down by late summer / early fall and are not in the way of planting my fall crop of greens to eat on till a little after the first of the year when I mow, mulch and turn them under along with shredded leaves, home made compost and composted horse manure.

A close second is . It is a basically sterile cultivar that has very few, if any, seeds. In fact, I have never had a seed sprout from any that I used, nor any that was still live enough to take root. It does a really good job, but does not break down quite as well, but I can shred it up with my mower and turn it under.
Bill P.

I use the loose hay left aroud the hay stack first. Normally mostly alfalfa. Then I use grass clippings, any other old hay I may have. Have never had any problems. This year I used some grass clippings from the first cutting when they were cleaning the ball fields. Guess they must of let some go to seed last fall. As I've had some grass come up. Overall never no problems. Jay

Black Plastic mulch has a ton of advantages over other mulch forms. I can't even imagine the cost of covering three acres with any plant based material. Passibly the greaterst advantage is the soil warming effect. I wouldn't be harvesting melons for another few weeks without it.

to all of those adding grass clippings, does this add a large amount of nitrogen to your soil? i know that when you mow your lawn, if you have a mulching mower, the best way to fertilize your lawn is to allow the mower to blow the lawn clippings back on to the lawn...it's the best source of nitrogen out there. so...how is the nitrogen content of your soil when you add lawn clippings?

i wish i could add leaves but i have silk trees and they have very fine leaves, so it isn't an option for me.

I used straw (not hay because of seeds), chopped up fall leaves, and fresh collected seaweed as mulch for my garden.

These items "work" for me, as they slowly break down into the soil to replenish lost nutrients as tomatoes (all I grow) are heavy feeders, and to create a barrier against soil borne diseases.

~ Tom

I use grass clippings. I add a thin layer every week or so. I also throw a little compost and some coffee grounds in my beds occasionally. I only have about 75 sq ft of growing area, so it's free and easy.
I am a little concerned about grass and weeds sprouting, but it hasn't really happened.
Grass clippings are great. I compost them, use them as mulch and even to control weeds. Earlier this year, grass was growing along my garden fence and I added a really thick, moist layer of grass clippings on top of the growth and it burned it up.

pete

Andrea:
I use oat straw, bought in Elk Grove at a feed place off of Grant Line Road. (I can't remember the name right now, but if you e-mail me, I'll look it up for you)
This year, I tried something new. I've always foliar fed my plants, but this year I also bought a cubic yard of what was called "humus" from a soil place (although I could see ground fiberboard in it, so who knows what it all contained). I put about an inch of it around my plants, then about six inches of my usual straw on top of that. My plants have never been so green and lush! All of them got to be 7+ feet tall by June. Of course now they are only green on top, with crispy leaves on the bottom from the nematodes/ verticillium, but I was amazed at how the humus helped. And also in the heat it makes such a HUGE difference to keep the roots cool. I learned years ago, even if you water daily, the plants just aren't happy if their roots get hot. Mulch mulch mulch!
Carla in Sac

I use spoiled feed hay from a local horse supply store, I believe it is timothy hay. I never get any sprouting seeds and I have been using this hay for about 20 years, perhaps because the hay is spoiled (has some mold). The price is low, only $3.25 per long bale.

Tom

I use wet newspaper covered in fresh grass clippings when I first plant. I add grass clippings throughout the summer. The newspaper keeps the fresh grass clippings from burning the roots of the plants and prevents rooting and sprouting of grass seeds and is a nice Carbon clmplement to the high nitrogen of the greaa clippings. Till it in in the fall and it improves soil fertility and tilth.

My garden is only 1/3 acre.

Shredded leaves mixed with grass clippings spread over a couple inches of compost.

I use baled pine shavings. Cheap, easy, clean, light weight. A bale does the whole patch. Since I side-dress the plants with 10-10-10 when planting, loss of nitrogen not a problem. It all gets dug in next spring when the patch is used for squash, beets, etc. and the tomatoes move to another part of the garden. Don't have a lawn so grass clipings not an option.

My favorite mulch is more composted horse manure and bark fines topped with grass clippings.

i use very finely shredded coconut coir. I plant most of my tomatoes in containers and the coir seems to help keep that top layer from drying out thru the day. Plus it doubles as the same material i start my seeds with earlier in the year.