On 25 May 2003 06:30:28 -0500, Aaron Baugher
wrote:

I think people worry too much about the water-shedding qualities of
thick mulch. Yes, in a hard rain, the water won't all soak though.
But the mulch also prevents evaporation, so it's hard to say which
effect is stronger. I know that I've never pulled back several inches
of compacted grass clippings and found dry soil underneath. It's
always moist or even muddy.

I've been using grass clippings for mulch for several years now with
good success. I leave the grass clippings in a heap for a few weeks
before using them. I have a good size lawn area to mow, and always
have two or three grass heaps on the go.

When planting potatoes in my main garden area, I plant them quite
shallow and then put a good layer of clippings over the bed. As the
plants grow I shovel more clipping around the plant. I also grow
potatoes around the base of some of my fruit trees. With these I don't
plant them in the soil but just lay them on top. I then shovel a good
layer of lawn clipping mulch over the potatoes. With these also, as
the plants grow I shovel on more mulch.

Harvesting the potatoes around the fruit trees is easy as there's no
heavy digging. After harvesting the potatoes around the fruit trees, I
take away about half the well broken down mulch to dig into a garden
bed. I then lay some more seed potatoes on the remaining decomposed
clippings and cover with more fresh mulch.


Trevor