One of the biggest complaints I hear about gardening is that it takes up too much time. All the weeding and watering sure does take up a lot of time. I used to spend hours in my small gardens, pulling weeds, watering religiously, checking plant progress and trying to troubleshoot. I became discouraged because this gardening thing really was taking up too much time. I had kids to care for, a home to take care of, I didn’t even have a job outside the home to add to the mix but I knew if I did, gardening could never happen. I hear this so often, and want to encourage you that there are things you can do to help reduce time spent performing basic tasks.
One thing I have found to be a huge time saver is using some sort of a ground cover – a mulch – to cover the dirt and smother weeds. Over the years I have used various mulches – wood chips, compost, newspaper, cardboard, grass clippings, weeds pulled from others beds, animal bedding (aged at least 8 months), old feed bags, fresh straw, moldy hay, leaves. I have had various levels of success, which I will get into in a minute.
Using a mulch performs several different functions:
- Smothers weed seeds, preventing their germination. You may still have some weeds, but they will be far fewer and pull out so much easier.
- Keeps the soil moist, as moisture won’t evaporate as quickly.
- Aids in reduction of erosion – both from wind and water. Lighter soils can suffer topsoil loss with heavy winds, and gardens placed on a slope can experience erosion due to water drainage. Mulch helps prevent these problems.
- If the mulch is of an organic nature, it will break down and help benefit the soil.
- Reduces the splashing of dirt and rainwater on plants, which can prevent the spread of disease and keep your vegetables cleaner.
- Organic mulches will decompose, adding nutrients and humus to your soil.
There are a few things you should know –
- Mulch doesn’t work well being placed on top of weeds that are already growing vigorously. You will need to remove those weeds before applying the mulch. I typically pull the bigger weeds by hand, then use a weeding tool to run over the surface of the soil and remove any smaller weeds I may have missed. You could also till the garden bed before laying mulch. If you plan on making a ‘no till’ or ‘no dig’ bed ( a garden bed that is not tilled each year – I will get into this in a later post), use some sort of a barrier as the bottom layer – my favorite for beds that I am going to plant different crops in year after year is simply plain cardboard. For beds that I will not be digging in yearly, such as strawberry beds, I just old feed bags as the bottom barrier. You might prefer some other weed barrier that will not break down such as black plastic.
- You would apply an inorganic mulch, such as plastic, before transplanting. You then make holes at proper spacing for the vegetable you are planting when you are ready to transplant. Organic mulches should be applied after the plants are well established, unless you are planting into an established no-till bed, then it will already be there.
- Wet the mulch once you apply it, to help give it some weight that will help smother weeds, and compact the mulch enough that sunlight cannot get through. Or better yet, plan to mulch ahead of a nice, soaking rain. I try to plan as many gardening related tasks as I can before and after a good rain! do make sure there is some moisture in your soil either way, because it will take quite a bit of water to penetrate new organic mulches and water intake will be limited on plastic mulches.
- Plastic mulches will heat the soil, and organic mulches will act as an insulator. Applying plastic in the spring will help warm the soil and benefit plant growth.
- You can find most, if not all, of your mulch needs for free if you are creative enough!
Common Mulches:
- Hay or Straw: Use 6-8 inches, plan on refreshing through the season as they will break down rather quickly. Ideally use moldy, spoiled hay/straw, as you should have less weed germination. You will more than lightly battle with weeds if you use fresh hay or straw. The weeds that do germinate are generally very shallow rooted if you get to them quickly, and pull up easily, but they can be a pain.
- Grass Clippings: Start with about 2 inches of untreated grass clippings and build up as needed with dry clippings.
- Leaves: Layer 2-3 inches thick and add new as necessary. Leaves do break down quickly, but they improve the soil also. Do avoid excessive use of walnut or other nut leaves due to the presence of juglone, which can inhibit the growth of your plants. The tree its self and the roots contain the most of it but there are small amounts in the leaves. A small amount should not matter, but if that is your only source of leaves, you may want to consider a different mulch.
- Compost: 2-3 inches of a well aged compost is beneficial for plant growth, though it may be better off incorporated into the soil or used in conjunction with a barrier of some sort – weeds will pretty easily grow because it is an excellent soil amendment.
- Wood chips, bark: 2-3 inches is best and provides excellent weed control. It takes longer to decompose, so the need to refresh through the season will be minimal.
- Newspaper: 2-4 layers will provide good weed control, either shredded or whole. There is a higher likelihood of sunlight getting through shredded paper though, and it likes to fly away when dry so be sure to wet it right away. Avoid glossy inserts.
- Black plastic: One layer is all that is needed. While it wont’ break down as quickly as organic mulches, it will begin to deteriorate and need to be replaced at least every two years. This will cause the soil to heat up – about 8 degrees (F) in the spring and higher as the summer progresses. To avoid the soil getting too hot and stressing or killing your plants in the summer, you should apply an organic mulch on top of the plastic to avoid direct absorption of sunlight.
- Clear plastic: Don’t use clear plastic. It creates a greenhouse effect with weeds and provides a great place for them to grow! Heat + Sunlight + Retained moisture = happy plants – and weeds. It is helpful for warming soil in the spring, but remove it before planting.
My Personal Faves:
I have had great success using newspaper with grass clippings on top. The newspaper was quick to break down but provided a great ground cover. The grass clippings added weight to the newspaper which kept it from blowing away or tearing easily. Since we bought our farm, using grass clippings is no longer an option as our only mulch because we don’t create nearly enough of them on our own (I still use them, just not as my only source). I have used straw and hay, and I am not a fan of straw. I do like using moldy roundbales of hay though – I roll those out on a bed I’ve lined with cardboard to create a ‘no till’ bed. The hay is already compressed, so I just have to make a hole and plant through it. Beds that I plan on tilling the next season don’t need cardboard. I like to keep the soil covered whenever possible, and sometimes that happens with weeds I have pulled from another bed when things have gotten out of hand. I pick up trailer loads of cardboard from a local store that discards them, so this is a free bulk source. My favorite way to mulch is using wood chips on top of compost. I don’t till the wood chips in to the dirt, but leave them on top. I don’t till these beds at all. I add new compost yearly and wood chips as needed. We offer to be a drop spot for local tree services who have, thankfully, taken us up on the offer. I age the wood chips a year before adding to the beds.
What if you CAN’T get a hold of mulch for some reason? Maybe you’re too late in the season, or you don’t have a way to bring mulch to your garden, or whatever the reason may be, maybe you need to leave your garden beds bare. Many people do, it isn’t the end of the world. Weeding will be a little more tedious, but in those cases, frequent weeding is essential with the right tool! I can’t stop singing praises about the Hula Hoe, ever since I found it, that $16 dollar tool has changed my gardening life tremendously!!!! Anyway, if you get in the garden every few days or so and lightly run a weeding tool over the surface, you will nip weeds before they have a chance to take deep root. I love the hula hoe because it will skim the top layer of dirt and slice weeds at the soil surface without disrupting the established root system of your vegetables. A frequent and quick skim of your garden beds every few days will keep the weeds at bay.
Do you use a mulch? Do you have a favorite?