Mark A wrote:


I want to start to use a mulch to keep down weeds in a vegetable bed
and wondered what was the best form of mulch to use? We water our
vegetables using a sprinkler system so that really puts black plastic
out of the frame.


Whatever you have.. You could even use cardboard or newspaper but its
not very aestheticall pleasing for a garden. For BEST weed suppression
I'd recommend one of the proprietary artificial mulch fabrics such as
Phormisol. These have a blocking equivalent to black plastic for weeds
but are water permeable. As you mention black plastic it would suggest
you aim to cover a reasonable sized clear area and plant up, rather than
mulching around many established plants???



For natural mulches you cannot really beat chipped bark, but remember to
lay a little pelleted chicken manure or similar high N with it to
prevent Nitrogen lock up.
//
Jim