I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

General Schvantzkoph wrote:

I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.




Mulch does so much for a garden. It help retains water, prevents water
from splashing up on the leaves, repels slugs and snails, dissuades
weeds, promotes a better environment for beneficial insects...etc etc.

Straw would work great. Perhaps peat combined with the straw would be
better than peat alone. In order to stop the slugs and snails, you need
to ensure there are rough surfaces among the mulch (the rough surface
tears up the soft bellies of the buggers). Bark mulch is okay as long as
it's "mulch" and not bark chips or nuggets. The slugs would just make
houses out of them.

I use cedar mulch on everything. Awesome stuff.

..

Zone 5a in Canada's Far East

General Schvantzkoph wrote:
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.


We use newspaper, three layers, covered with grass clippings and chopped
up leaves. Straw should work fine but you should check the pH of your
soil before adding peat moss, peat moss is pretty acidic. HTH

George

"General Schvantzkoph" wrote in message
news
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

Straw is full of seeds and could cost more than you might like to spend to
get good coverage.

Peat moss blows away easily.

Getting all those bales of straw or peat to your location may be a problem
unless you have access to a truck or pay for delivery.

Leaf mold is good mulching material and it/s often free for the hauling, but
you still need a truck.

Grass clippings are free and conveniently located near your garden.

My garden is a bit smaller than yours (40' x 16'). I plant in 4' wide beds
with ~2' wide strips of grass in between the beds. It/s easy to maintain
and highly productive. Once the plants begin to mature, they produce their
own 'weed controling, moisture conserving mulch' as the foliage from the
high-density planting shades the ground. Weeds between the beds are
controlled with the lawn mower.

You got to be careful with grass. You can kill you plants with N burns
when you heap on fresh grass clippings.

"General Schvantzkoph" wrote in message
news
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

my 2 cents worth, I agree with bark as being a bad idea, even for a flower
garden. I have had trouble with it in every house where it has been. People
have given you some good advice on mulches, I am going to throw in a few
alternatives for you to consider. Spent mushroom compost I have found to be
a good mulch and it is cheap (or sometimes free) as it is a waste product
from mushroom farms. Untreated sawdust also makes for a thick weed barrier.
It can be a problem absorbing rain when you want it on the garden. I have
tried alternating layers of saw dust and used coffee grounds which are very
good at suppressing weeds and grasses though I have not used them on vege
gardens. Best of all both come free. If you have stables near by you can get
free the stable scrapings of horse shit mixed with either straw or wood
shavings. My rule of thumb is if it is free and a waste by product that it
preferable to paying. I am using saw dust, coffee grounds and stable
scraping round my garden at present. I have even seen people use kitchen
waste, potato peels, orange peels, tea bags and the like as mulch.

rob

"General Schvantzkoph" wrote in message
news
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.



You are looking at 4 to 8 cubic yards depending on how thick you lay it and
if you do the paths. I don't now about where you are but enough peat moss
for that garden would cost a bomb where I am. I agree that bark or wood
chip is not suitable except for paths.

Look around your area for sources of material. Hay, straw, spent mushroom
compost, rotted ground-up tree trimmings are just a few possibilities.
Check out the price including delivery. Hay that is too spoiled for animal
consumption may be quite cheap and can make fine mulch.

Look carefully at the material and where it came from. It is possible that
it contains seeds and rubbish that you don't want, it is also possible that
it is fine, there are no hard and fast rules. Consider straw, it depends on
what crop the straw is derived from, how well it was taken off when
harvested and what weeds (if any) were cut along with it.

David

General Schvantzkoph wrote:
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

Grass clippings are a good, renewable source of mulch that disappears
within the season. The cons, at least at my place, is that they seem to
attract voles in a way no other mulch does. It is the best mulch to be
added under existing plants, because it is light and fluffy and does
not hurt them.

Leaf mold has the same qualities as clippings (renewable, disappears),
and makes the best soil in my experience. That is where I like to plant
my greens next year. Because some leaves tend to mat it is not so easy
to add under existing plants, and also leaves at the top tend to blow
and cover seedlings.

Wood chips last much longer (two years, and the biggest chunks much
longer than that), and acidify the soil. On ground that has been
covered with wood chips, you can only plant selected vegetables, which
stand coarse, acid soil, for maybe three years. Greens and cabbages
will struggle there. They ultimately make good humus though, simply
because when you mulch with them you are adding a lot more mass. If you
have thin soil, you could consider using it on a fraction of your
garden.

Manure contains too many seeds, though I lay it before covering with
one of the other mulches here. So does straw. Peat moss is for
billionaires.

Cardboard, covered with a thin layer of mulch, is also pretty good and
mostly disappears within the year. Or use newspapers if you have them.
The only con is that you have to level the ground underneath very well.
If not, water will initially run to the lowest point, and also there
will be seedlings that are below the cardboard. I use cardboard with
radicchio, which has big taproots and survives the winter here. In the
spring I need to kill it. It will push through anything except
cardboard.

simy1 wrote:


Cardboard, covered with a thin layer of mulch, is also pretty good and
mostly disappears within the year.


I put landscape fabric under my cedar mulch. It's been out there for two
years now and show no sign of disappearing any time soon.

..

In article ,
General Schvantzkoph wrote:

I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

Landscaping fabric... topped with pine shavings.

Of all the mulches I've tried, pine shavings (or bags of leaves that can
be scavenged from all over town) have worked the best. :-)
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

In article ,
cloud dreamer wrote:

General Schvantzkoph wrote:

I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.




Mulch does so much for a garden. It help retains water, prevents water
from splashing up on the leaves, repels slugs and snails, dissuades
weeds, promotes a better environment for beneficial insects...etc etc.

Straw would work great. Perhaps peat combined with the straw would be
better than peat alone. In order to stop the slugs and snails, you need
to ensure there are rough surfaces among the mulch (the rough surface
tears up the soft bellies of the buggers). Bark mulch is okay as long as
it's "mulch" and not bark chips or nuggets. The slugs would just make
houses out of them.

I use cedar mulch on everything. Awesome stuff.

Cedar? Really?
Cedar shavings killed anything I ever tried them with, including
tomatoes. ;-( That's why I switched to pine.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

In article ,
George Shirley wrote:

General Schvantzkoph wrote:
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.


We use newspaper, three layers, covered with grass clippings and chopped
up leaves. Straw should work fine but you should check the pH of your
soil before adding peat moss, peat moss is pretty acidic. HTH

George

Be cautious with straw or hay.
It tends to be full of weed seeds.

I've had grass clippings take root if they had any joints/rhizome
remnants.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

In article ,
"TQ" ToweringQs AT adelphia.net wrote:

"General Schvantzkoph" wrote in message
news
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

Straw is full of seeds and could cost more than you might like to spend to
get good coverage.

Peat moss blows away easily.

Getting all those bales of straw or peat to your location may be a problem
unless you have access to a truck or pay for delivery.

Leaf mold is good mulching material and it/s often free for the hauling, but
you still need a truck.

Nah. ;-) People throw out bags of leaves all over town all the time.
Just cruise the ritzier parts of town where folks pay to have people
rake leaves. The bags are on the curb and you can toss some in the
trunk, back seat and passenger side.


Grass clippings are free and conveniently located near your garden.

Just make sure it's just clippings, and not strands of grass. Since I
have bermuda, it's been a problem to try to use them. I had to quit.
The damned things took root.


My garden is a bit smaller than yours (40' x 16'). I plant in 4' wide beds
with ~2' wide strips of grass in between the beds. It/s easy to maintain
and highly productive. Once the plants begin to mature, they produce their
own 'weed controling, moisture conserving mulch' as the foliage from the
high-density planting shades the ground. Weeds between the beds are
controlled with the lawn mower.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:31:28 -0700, simy1 wrote:


General Schvantzkoph wrote:
I've just put in a big garden, 60'x14', with tomatoes, peppers, herbs,
musk melons, peas, cucumbers, and strawberries. It's weed free at the
moment but that can't last. Any suggestions mulch? I'm thinking straw or
peat moss. I'm told that bark mulch is a bad idea.

Grass clippings are a good, renewable source of mulch that disappears
within the season. The cons, at least at my place, is that they seem to
attract voles in a way no other mulch does. It is the best mulch to be
added under existing plants, because it is light and fluffy and does
not hurt them.

Leaf mold has the same qualities as clippings (renewable, disappears),
and makes the best soil in my experience. That is where I like to plant
my greens next year. Because some leaves tend to mat it is not so easy
to add under existing plants, and also leaves at the top tend to blow
and cover seedlings.

Wood chips last much longer (two years, and the biggest chunks much
longer than that), and acidify the soil. On ground that has been
covered with wood chips, you can only plant selected vegetables, which
stand coarse, acid soil, for maybe three years. Greens and cabbages
will struggle there. They ultimately make good humus though, simply
because when you mulch with them you are adding a lot more mass. If you
have thin soil, you could consider using it on a fraction of your
garden.

Manure contains too many seeds, though I lay it before covering with
one of the other mulches here. So does straw. Peat moss is for
billionaires.

Cardboard, covered with a thin layer of mulch, is also pretty good and
mostly disappears within the year. Or use newspapers if you have them.
The only con is that you have to level the ground underneath very well.
If not, water will initially run to the lowest point, and also there
will be seedlings that are below the cardboard. I use cardboard with
radicchio, which has big taproots and survives the winter here. In the
spring I need to kill it. It will push through anything except
cardboard.

I do have a giant pile of leaf mulch next to the garden, I've been piling
my leaves there for over 20 years, maybe it's time to use it.

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:

In article ,
cloud dreamer wrote:


I use cedar mulch on everything. Awesome stuff.


Cedar? Really?
Cedar shavings killed anything I ever tried them with, including
tomatoes. ;-( That's why I switched to pine.


That is a myth. Something else killed the tomatoes, not the cedar shavings.

http://agebb.missouri.edu/hort/meg/a.../v7n3/meg6.htm
http://www.garden-yard.com/garden-mu...h_Debunked.php

..

Zone 5a in Canada's Far East.