I use what ever I can find cheap. Just yesterday I used Rye straw I bought three years ago at $20 for 2 huge round bails and still have enough for a 4th year. I also went to the local county compost site and bought 2 yards of Park grade wood chips for only $10 per yard to use in the rows. At some point in the last 25 years I've used leaves, grass cuttings, card board, newspapers, old carpet, plastic mulch and even landscape fabric.

On my garlic I use leaves every year and it works great with no weeds at all.

No,no, no to plastic. I use a layer of mixed wood chips from a local arborist. But pine straw has the added benefit of suppressing seed germination allelopathically. As long as you aren't sowing directly, it can be extra helpful.

Rhizo, I just looked up pine straw and it’s much more expensive than I realized. Is the weed suppression that significant and worth the cost for someone who doesn’t want to frequently weed, or would other mulch still offer decent weed suppression?

Anything I can get free. I use homemade compost and semi rotted leaves. But honestly, raised beds aren't usually very big so how about just weeding? The seed stock in the soil will become exhausted and if you pull frequently when weeds are small it isn't such a chore. You will be checking your crops often anyway. Just get rid of weed seedlings then.

Neal, absolutely use anything that is readily available. My wood chips are free! They all help keep weed seeds from germinating by shading the soil.

Since most weeds you get (unless it's a newly made garden bed) come from being blown in and rooting down through your mulch. So with that said.. any mulch... besides rotting down and adding organic matter to the soil.... does two things in regards to weeds. One... they make pulling weeds easy. Two... they suppress some weed germination/growth.

So I used wood mulch, shredded leaves, straw, and pine straw over the years in the veggie garden.... I have found that I had the least amount of weeds when using straw and then pine straw. Most likely because the mulch is fluffy and really reduces the chances of weed seeds getting to a spot in the mulch where that they can germinate and gets some roots down without drying out. Now on the flip side, I found that the soil drys out quicker using straw or pine straw. So there's not perfect fix... but anything organic on top will help with weeds.

I usually end up using leaves since I get them free!

grass clippings

Cardboard and anything you can get free (or real cheap) laid on top. But make sure you don’t get HAY which is an entirely different product than straw.

Do you know a professional tree trimmer? Somebody who works for the park department? Sometimes you can get wood chips free from those people.

for the folks that use cardboard under the mulch.... are you doing that to keep the weeds from growing up from the soil?

Yes.

What weeds are coming up from your veggie beds year after year? Not blowing in

plastic mulch is a quick and easy solution but it has to be placed before planting. if you don’t have time to pull weeds or hunt down and place organic mulch then mulch plastic is the way to go. most large scale organic veggie growers (farmers) use it.

Floral uk is correct on exhausting seeds to a point. To clarify on my first post I don't mulch all my vegetable gardens. I have 4 with the biggest at 65' x 200' and unfeasible to mulch along with my 50' x 40' asparagus patch. I do mulch my tomatoes and peppers and some other select rows but that is about it.

The rest without mulch I use disciplined cultivation never exceeding a depth of 1" into the soil exhausting the seed population as Floral UK stated. Going deeper for any reason brings up deeper new seeds to germinate and more weeds.

The weeds can be killed easily by topping and covering the weeds before they completely develop their first set of True leaves. All they're energy comes from the seed and haven't set in the roots needed to grow back and they're done.

Disciplined means not waiting until weeds are 3" or 6" high, you already lost the battle, you must start early and continue the process, at least a couple times per week and soon you'll walk through the garden without weeds.

I set my tiller to only scrape the soil less then an inch, so I'm cultivating and not tilling. I suggest getting a hoop hoe and once you've learned to use it effectively it is a breeze. I can do a 65 foot row in 5 minutes and by the middle of June maybe 2 minutes because very few weeds come up and I nip them in the bud.

For the record I'm in my mid 60's, and I've seen women in their mid 80's with perfect weed free gardens. No excuses.

I just wanted to comment on the plastic mulch. When most people hear the term "mulch" they think of some sort of shredded material and immediately assume that plastic mulch is similar to the rubber mulch made from shredded tires that is an anathema to any serious gardener.

It is not. Plastic mulch is a thin sheet of plastic that is used to cover the areas between planting rows to keep weeds to a minimum and help to maintain soil moisture. But it can do a lot more. It can help to increase soil temps so it can extend the growing season by warming the soil earlier and maintaining soil warmth later. It also is available in colors that can reflect light and encourage better development and production of certain crops, especially heat lovers like melons, okra and most Solanaceae. Metallic plastic mulches are reputed to repel certain insect pests as well. And you can get them embedded with drip irrigation capacity as well.

As to how practical these plastic mulches may be for a raised bed I can't say. They tend to be used frequently for larger agricultural applications. But there is no reason to dismiss them out of hand just because they are plastic.

Thank you for that comment gardengal. as You did explain the plastic mulch well, would you also be willing to offer a recommendation for mulch I could and should be using? I only grow peppers, onions and tomatoes.

I used rubber mulch because I got tired of replacing it. My plants LOVE it. And it comes with a 12 year warranty. You pay a little more up front but it looks great and lasts a long time.

To all, I have a web site archived addressing mulch and soil and all the myths associated `with soil and mulches by Linda Chalker, Phd, Washington state university. I find her expertise on the subject very interesting and prefer to learn from others who have devoted a life time of study to make my choices.

https://puyallup.wsu.edu/lcs/

She has an entire section devoted to mulch of all types include rubber, and an expanded section on wood mulches and also addresses the myths floating around about each. She is the expert.

I use shredded leaves in the fall and straw - which can be bought in bales in any garden center or big box hardware store - in the summer. Both are cheap and readily available. To them I add used coffee grounds from the local Starbucks. This combination creates earthworm heaven, as well has the usual prevention of evaporation and making it very hard for weed seeds to sprout. My goal is that I want it to decompose on top of the bed which provides a new layer of compost eventually with no extra effort or expense on my part.

One note on the straw - the difference between straw and hay is that hay has seeds and straw does not... in theory. Make sure to physically inspect any bales and reject any with seed pods. If not, you will become an unwilling hay farmer.

Ive heads of this before. Does Starbucks give grounds for free? Which quantities would you suggest per tomato or pepper plant?

Richard,

is this the type of straw you’d recommend?

https://www.truevalue.com/ez-straw-seeding-mulch-with-tack-500-sq-ft-coverage

If there is actually anyplace rubber mulch is good, it would be the worst for a vegetable garden, simply because of all the digging, raking, planting seeds in furrows, etc. It would get mixed in rapidly, then all you have is a bunch of rubber in your soil.

Same with wood chips, unless you rake them off before doing the next thing. This is why degradable mulches like leaves and grass clippings are so great for the garden.

Neal - it depends on the store (and your local COVID restrictions), but yes - many Starbucks and other coffee houses will collect their grounds in a bin in the store in case gardeners want them. Check with your local shops. If they don't currently save them, see if they will save them for you if you promise to pick them up at a given time.

How much you get depends on the volume of business the store does (and how long they hold on to them before chucking them in the big bin in the back of the store). My local store here in Western PA only does moderate business - I might get a couple of 13 gallon kitchen sized bags at a time. When I lived in DC, I would regularly haul away four of five 30 gallon big black trash bags full of grounds. (Washington is fueled by coffee, obviously.)

As for straw - that is much more processed that what I get, although I am sure it would work just fine. Most garden centers will have bales of straw - just like you would find sitting out in a farmer's field, for around $5 a bale. That is actually more than I need for a whole summer in my small backyard garden. I usually end up throwing the last of it down with the shredded fall leaves at the end of the season. But remember - no seeds!

As for application, put down the leaves or straw first, and then sprinkle coffee grounds on top when you get them. I often re-apply every two or three weeks. Essentially you are creating a compost pile / worm bin on top of your garden soil. Don't put the coffee grounds on or in the soil. You specifically want them to interact with the carbon-rich straw/leaves on top and feed the bacteria that will break all of that down over the summer and fall.

Another good addition is grass clippings - mix those in to the straw/leaves because unlike coffee grounds they won't just slip down with the rain.

What you are doing is essentially mimicking the natural process of debris falling from trees and landing on the forest floor. That forms a natural mulch as it slowly breaks down into a layer of compost, as more leaves and twigs fall from above starting the process all over again. That is how the earth builds soil naturally over time.

Thanks @kevn9048 for that link, interesting stuff on that site.