With the hot temps, dry weather usually follows and my thoughts go toward getting some mulch around the plants to help keep the weeds down and conserve some of that precious soil moisture through the hot summer. You can use just about anything to pile up on the ground around the plants to prevent the weeds from sprouting and help conserve water. A few types of mulch that I’m going to talk about today are; leaves, grass, straw, sawdust, woodchips, plastic film, and even old carpet. I have used all of them and I would say my favorite is straw, but I’ll get into that a little later.
- Leaves- With a little forethought to the next year’s garden, leaves can be bagged up and stored through the winter. Leaves are readily available to most people and if not, your neighbors or friends that don’t want what they rake up will probably be more than willing to let you have them. They are fairly easy to collect with a leaf blower or rake and can easily be transported around the yard on a stretched out tarp. If it is not illegal in your area, you could collect them from the curb where water piles them up after a big rain and many small towns have a spot for the residents to dump yard waste that you could collect from. With leaves you have to be careful and not let them mat together and prevent water from getting to your plants. Chopping them up a bit with a lawnmower before application should help prevent this.
- Grass- Grass is an excellent source of nitrogen and organic matter for a garden. One would have to be careful to not use grass from treated lawns if growing organically is a priority. Grass does need to be reapplied throughout the growing season to maintain good coverage.
- Straw- My all-time favorite! I like straw so much because it is easily
available to me and I don’t have to pick it up at the end of the growing
season. Straw is easy to get in the Midwest. If you look around you’ll be able to find a farmer that has a barn full and selling it fairly cheap, $3-4 USD. One square bale will usually be enough to cover a 4’wide by 30’ long row depending on the crop. Put it on nice and thick and you shouldn’t have to reapply until next year. With straw, there is a possibility of having wheat start in your garden but it is not much and can be easily pulled.
- Sawdust- Sawdust may be hard to come by but you can’t beat it for crops that are planted fairly close together, like lettuce or onions. One word of caution, don’t till it in or you can tie up all your nitrogen for the decomposition process. If it is just sitting on top of the soil it won’t normally cause problems for a deeper rooted plant, and you can eliminate this concern by adding a high nitrogen crop with it. Not only can you find sawdust at a sawmill, but many business like cabinet shops produce sawdust that usually goes to the dumpster. I even collected about a drum sized trash bag from a small shop that made brooms Wood Chips!
- Wood Chips- Wood chips are just as good as sawdust and will be better if you are gardening on a slight hill and have light erosion problems. This can be purchased, but it may not be economical depending on the size of your garden. Ideally you would want large chunks all the way down to sawdust so there is always some nutrients being composted into the soil. Just think of all landscaping around using wood chips!
- Plastic Film- This is something that can be ordered online and the more you buy the cheaper it gets. I used some last year and found that it kept the weeds down, but since we were going through the worst drought in years, it seemed I just couldn’t put enough water down even with soaker hoses underneath. Fortunately, when I put plants in, I make a small concave area around each plant and by setting the plants up this way, I could easily water with a hose and all the water got dumped around the base of each plant. It was just so dry that the surrounding dirt would wick the moisture away from the area you watered as fast as you could apply it.
- Carpet- If you look hard enough you can find it free for the taking, though you might need to put in a small bit of labor to haul off. Carpet will last awhile and can remain in place throughout the winter. With used carpet, you do run the risk of toxins being introduced into the soil through remaining adhesive stuck to the underside. Carpet works good for garden pathways to keep your feet clean after a rain and for the quick strolls to grab something for diner!
I hope this helps you find your mulch of choice and don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you have along the way.
Red Rooster Farms 