The best piece of advice I got over ten years ago, in regards to weeds in my home garden came from a friend of my mom who always has the most pristine garden. Each row between his plants were always clean, and never seemed to have sprouts or bugs. I assumed he must be hand-weeding, but when I asked he told me “nope, I just go out every day with a hoe and turn the soil—haven’t had to bend over to pick a weed or mulch a day in my life.” Genius, I thought! Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the time to follow his best practice, and there are other benefits to mulching a vegetable garden beyond a clean-looking garden and being weed-free.
So while I love his technique, and I try my best to start my season out using it, mulching a vegetable garden is still a great idea. It can improve the quality of your garden and help your plants.
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Mulching a vegetable garden with success – every time
Before we get into the details of mulching a vegetable garden, what is mulch, exactly? And how is it helpful? There are a lot of different kinds of mulch, which we’ll get to in a moment. As for why mulching is helpful, well, there are a lot of answers to that, too.
The biggest benefit for most gardeners is that mulching a vegetable garden will help control weeds. Mulching also helps the soil retain moisture, it keeps plant roots cooler in the summer and warmer as the temperature drops, and it can help discourage some pests. Beyond that, as mulch breaks down, it adds nutrients to the soil.
Now onto those ideas for mulching a vegetable garden…
1. Weed your garden first. Like many things in life, your garden will benefit most from mulch if it is clean and weed-free first. Before you mulch, take some time to clean up your garden, getting rid of any unwanted growth. It’s also not a bad idea to treat your soil before you mulch, if you need to. It’s a little extra work up front, but it will save you some time and effort over the season.
2. Use organic mulch. Anything from dried leaves to straw to grass clippings to compost works as mulch. Sawdust and wood chips from untreated, undiseased wood can work, as well. Pine needles work amazing but can make the soil acidic.
3. Mulch early. The sooner you mulch, the sooner you start getting those benefits, so ideally, spread your mulch as soon as you plant your garden.
4. Mulch late. Adding a layer of mulch at the end of the season can help nourish the soil for the next season and also prevent early spring weeds.
5. Mulch often – maybe. Some types of mulch, like grass clippings, break down quickly, so keep an eye on things. You may find you need to reapply your mulch at some point during the growing season.
6. Add a two or three-inch layer of mulch. You need enough to prevent weeds from growing, but not so much that the soil won’t get water.
7. Don’t crowd your vegetables. Mulching a vegetable garden will backfire on you if you pile up the mulch too close to your seedlings. They need a little room to breathe and grow. Keep a circumference of about an inch around your plants if you are mulching early in the season.
The nice thing about mulching is that you get some pretty big rewards for not too much work. And as a bonus, it can be an aesthetically pleasing addition to your garden. Just make sure the materials you use in your mulch are free of disease (for me, I love straw which is usually safe).
What have you noticed as the biggest benefits of using mulch in your garden? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear about your experience.
Discover 10 top tips for growing, harvesting, and enjoying fruits, vegetables, herbs and more from your home garden—when you access the FREEBIE How to Grow a Vegetable Garden, right now!
In Michigan I grew a large patch of heirloom tomatoes. I got free newspaper from the neighbors so I put 4 layers thick of newspaper around the plants and covered it with straw so it didn’t blow away. It looked good and best of all, after the initial watering, I never had weeds, never watered, never staked the tomatoes, they sprawled on the clean straw. So plant and pick was all I had to do. Great since I had a full time job and raised my kids and cared for aging parents.
I’m very new to vegetable growing although have lovely flower beds. Big problem with slugs and have started tomatoes, cucumber, carrots etc in a sealed bottom mini on the ground type of cloche. It has zipper openings. Luckily no slugs and everything growing well but don’t know that to do now. I’ve bought grow bags for the tomatoes, surely they’ll be ok outside now 14 “ plus tall?
Love reading all the advise. Mulched the flower beds with shredded tree bark but some slugs still got through hence the adapted plastic cloches. Any advise would be great. Raised beds?
Slugs are terrible. I have the same problem. One solution I’ve found works well: Take a shallow dish or bowl – one the slugs can crawl into easily, but not out so much. Fill it with beer. Place it in the problem area at night. The beer attracts the slugs for some reason. They get into the dish, but once in the beer, can’t get out. Works like a charm!
An article connects with my experiences. It gives tips for facing challenges and gardening. It inspires me and teaches me how to be strong and graceful in gardening and life.
Your blog is my go-to source for all things garden-related. Whether it’s learning about new plant varieties, tackling garden pests, or getting ideas for landscaping, you’ve got it all covered. I appreciate the sense of community here, where fellow garden enthusiasts can come together and share their experiences. Keep up the fantastic work!
This is such a great article. Mulching is so underestimated. It cuts down on weeding significantly and it’s a great way to use organic material like chopped leaves.
This blog post provides an excellent compilation of mulching ideas that are proven to work in vegetable gardens. The information is well-organized, practical, and accompanied by insightful explanations and considerations. By incorporating these mulching techniques, gardeners can improve their vegetable garden’s health, reduce maintenance, and achieve more abundant and successful harvests. Thank you for sharing such valuable insights and ideas!
I use shredded brown paper bags and it works amazingly. I cut off end of bag tho as u don’t want the glue. When mulched the paper will remain in place and absorb moisture. When irrigated it stays put. Living in windy Idaho this is important Cheap mulch and recycling. No ink either. To me this is a perfect mulch. To shred easily cut bag down one side, cut around base. Discard base and fold bag lengthwise to fit into shredder. I do all this winter and store shreds in a large garbage bag. I do have leaf/ grass compose but this brown bag compost is my fav.
Such a beautiful article.
I love the technic of gardening. It’s very much benefited method. I love this article.
These are great! My son loves playing in the water outside as well, but we’ll definitely have to try out the messy play. Thanks a lot…
These are great! My son loves playing in the water outside as well, but we’ll definitely have to try out the messy play. Thanks ….
What great ideas all of them!! I really love the chalk, you could have hours of fun with that! thank you for good information.
I have seen from mulching is healthy soil. When I moved here 3 years ago much of the garden areas were clay like,i have realy very like you ,you carry on
Every time I spread straw I get grass sprouting, am I using the wrong mulch?
Same here.
Me also, also I read that straw can have herbicides on it from farmers spraying the grain before harvest – very concerning to me.
Yes I stopped using straw for same reason— now I use only cardboard with shredded wood chips on top, leaves and grass clippings only.
Click on the given link to read more such post.https://getblogour.com/wood-mulching/
Thank you
I mulch every year but I have very aggressive weeds nothing seems to work
Lay cardboard down than mulch on top preferably with something that has NO seeds—- like shredded tree limbs.
Thanks for sharing the information and it is very useful to me.
We use several layers of newspaper covered with an inch or two of hardwood wood mulch. Has worked great for many years. After we plant the garden, we compost in a barrel. Spread it before we plant the next year. In the winter, we dig a ditch in the garden. We dump all of the kitchen scraps into one end. We cover it by starting another ditch next to it. By spring we have covered the whole garden. Then spread last summer’s compost, till it in and we are ready to start all over again.
Thanks for the informative article! My friend recently mulched her snake gourd plants. However, after a couple of days of rain, the mulch attracted lots of fungi. I suggested her to use fungicide which eliminated most of the fungus. But she lost those plants, probably because of varying temperatures (hot scorching summer with sudden rains in between)
I have 5 very large pine trees, 3 white pine and 2 spruce. They shed tons of needles. I have always wondered if I could use those for mulch.
We have a ton of pine needles too at our summer cabin and I’ve had mixed success. Great mulch, but a bit acidic. I wrote about using it for compost here which you might find helpful.
https://foodgardening.mequoda.com/daily/composting/is-pine-needle-compost-too-acidic-for-vegetable-gardens/
Yes—- work great with strawberry plants
I use whatever is handy for mulch. I’ve had good luck with Watsonia blades but they only go so far before I run out. Newspaper has been great. Full pages, 4 to 6 sheets thick, have kept out the weeds through the summer and kept on over winter make a weed free start in spring. Don’t use colored pages. Shredded mail works nicely also. I love not having to fight a garden full of weeds, especially first thing in spring.
Love that idea, I haven’t used newspaper but it seems like it would be very effective!
The biggest benefit I have seen from mulching is healthy soil. When I moved here 3 years ago much of the garden areas were clay like, after mulching the last couple of years this Spring the dirt was dark and porous!
Yes! Lots of people who have or had a lot of clay swear by mulching and adding compost every year!