I use straw mulch. Apparently better than hay as it is less weedy. Some of my beds are mulched some are not ( because I ran out) plants in the mulched bed do much better. Definitely mulch.

Agree. Definitely mulch. I use hay because I have plenty of it but there are lots of options so just use what you can get plenty of.

Dave

Ok. Is there a certain kind of mulch I should put down? Cedar?

Depending on time of year, I like to use chopped leaves (fall, early spring), grass clippings (summer), or unfinished compost (any time I need it). Right now I am using unfinished compost on my fall plantings of Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli and Cauliflower. I top all of my vacant beds with chopped leaves mixed with some grass clippings in the fall and either transplant thru it in the spring, till it in, or pull it back to direct sow things like radish or beans.

My favorite mulch is to let the yard grow tall. When the grass/weeds are about 1' - 1 1/2' tall, take a swing blade (a short sickle type tool) and cut it before it goes to seed. It's rich in nitrogen and other nutrients, very flexible and easy to apply, allows the soil to breathe, and doesn't mat, nor repel water.

Everything mentioned above works fine, and even regular compost, put down about 2" thick, works as a good mulch.

After my spring pea plants were done, I pulled them up and chopped them into 6-inch pieces, let them dry out, and now I'm using them as mulch for my fall pea plants.

"Ok. Is there a certain kind of mulch I should put down? Cedar?"

As you can see from the responses we aren't talking about wood chip mulches. Wood chips are the least effective, least beneficial of the many mulches available. They are better than no mulch at all but way down on the list IMO.

Type 'mulch' in the search bar for this form and you can read through many previous discussions about using them.

Dave

Okay. Thanks. I was kind of confused. Thank you for all of the advice.

Do not use mulch, use compost.

Ditto the bagged leaf recommendation.. They are.readily available in the fall at curbside in our nearby subdivisions. Bagged leaves usually contain fewer weed seeds than other types of organic mulches IMO. I do have to give the leaf bags a close look to attempt to eliminate bags with garbage, rocks and other unwanted items. Chopped leaves work best as noted above but are usually a little harder to find. I usually collect far more than needed. Unused bags are great compost after a year or two.

If the goal is to incorporate the mulch in the soil, cedar mulch is the worst. It won't degrade, and will last a long time. If, on the other hand, the goal is to lay mulch that will remain on top, in order to hold in water and insulate, cedar mulch is great for the same reason.

I too used chopped leaves, if just that I have a load of leaves. I hadn't thought about the fact that they carry no weed seeds. That's a good observation.

I always believed in mulch.

But now I think that in early Spring, it is best not to use any mulch. The soil will then warm up nicely.

Dad and I did an experiment once. I mulched and he didn't. I couldn't believe his tomatoes. I couldn't believe my tomatoes. So no mulch for me (or my tomatoes) in the early part of the season.

Re mulch versus compost, if this is a pre-season treatment, mulch is a lot easier to obtain. In the course of many months, it will do in situ composting. That is, it'll compost itself just sitting there. If this is pre-planting treatment, certainly compost is the way to go.

"My favorite mulch is to let the yard grow tall. When the grass/weeds are
about 1' - 11/2' tall, take a swing blade (a short sickle type tool)
and cut it before it goes to seed."

I like the concept, and used it once when I gardened in a vacant field... but if I tried that in my suburban yard, the neighbors would probably freak out. Nothing like tall grass to bring out the Lawn Police. ;-) I do let the grass get a little long before mowing, though, and add the clippings to the garden. The worms dispose of them very quickly.

Right now I am harvesting mulch from the garden itself, in the form of pulled weeds. After they have dried out enough to ensure they won't re-sprout, we gather them up & place them under the larger tomato plants. I hate removing nutrients from the garden for anything other than food, so the weeds get recycled unless they are full of seed. Wish I could do that with purslane, but the darned things just won't die... I've got a bumper crop of those this year. :-(

"Ditto the bagged leaf recommendation.. They are.readily available in the
fall at curbside in our nearby subdivisions. Bagged leaves usually
contain fewer weed seeds than other types of organic mulches IMO. I do
have to give the leaf bags a close look to attempt to eliminate bags
with garbage, rocks and other unwanted items."

Those bagged leaves contain little to no weed seed, but watch out for cigarette butts. Tobacco products can introduce diseases into the garden which can infect other Solanaceae (such as your peppers).

Cigarette butts? You mean the trees are catching a smoke when we're not watching them? No human with a cigarette is allowed anywhere on my property, much less throwing butts in my leaves. A neighbor has a lawn service with a worker who chooses to fling an occasional butt on my lawn. It ends up back on their lawn.

But yes, if you get leaves from somewhere else, it's a possibility.

'...but watch out for cigarette butts. Tobacco products can introduce diseases into the garden...'

So true, zeedman.

And so many people think they are not littering when they drop their butts. Or they don't care.

Thank you for all the advice.

tete-a-tete, Around here in the spring the thing to do is get the soil warmed and dried out some...not mulch. Later it can be alright on some things.

That was my point.