The Best Mulch

[Old chef]

I have a tremendous amount of bamboo growing. Has anyone ever used bamboo leaves as mulch?

[COMPOSTER]

I make my own compost and sift a lot of it. the rough compost that is left over after the sifting I use as mulch in my containers. In my beds I have some I mulch with grass clippings and some I am experimenting with tree trimming wood chip mulch. I like these mulches because they do a good job keeping the weeds under control, the worms seem to like them and they break down adding organic matter to my soil.

[Tracydr]

I love a mixture of rotted alfalfa and pine straw. If I'm growing in areas where looks matter I do either pine straw or wood shavings/chips,
I just moved to a wooded acreage in NC. For the first time I'll have more pine straw, leaves and wood branches for chipping than I can possibly use. I'm going start an enormous compost pile, although the humus in the woods is quite composted. My only problem is finding enough sunny spots.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Old chef

I have a tremendous amount of bamboo growing. Has anyone ever used bamboo leaves as mulch?

I was wondering the same, as I will have plenty when I start chopping it down for hoop houses and supports. My first time with unlimited bamboo, it's very cool.
Luckily, it's on the edge of a very dense forest so not invading too much.

[Tania]

We use wood chips (free, delivered by local tree services who are always looking for a dump site for the chips). Works beautifully, cuts on watering A LOT. And it looks lovely.

Tatiana

[Rfdillon]

Folks, the only thing I have access to are bags of leaves, but they are not crushed or cut up. They are mostly oak leaves. Can I use them as mulch, on top of my soaker hoses?

[Stvrob]

I just pull the wagon out in the woods and rake up whatever is laying around.

[kayrobbins]

I like hay or straw when it is good but too often get bales that have seeds and they sprout. It is a pain to control. I like leaves but again when you pick up bags from other people you can get weeds mixed in. I cut down all my pine trees since Florida is prone to lightening and it seeks out pines. I still have cypress trees and use their needles in flower beds. I love the pine shavings like KarenO mentioned. I use that on big pots. Since I use that as bedding in the chicken coop I get to recycle it too.

[Gerardo]

Seaweed, dried for a couple of days works well for me. Holds moisture and gives the plant a boost. Washed and with minimal sand. Kelp bed type. Havent tried the eel grass type yet.

[MarcH.]

My father n law needs to mulch his garden this year...last year he was ate up with weeds and grass everywhere. He can get access to pine wood chips from the tree man down the street.

Whats the consensus on those for a garden? This would be in North Louisiana.

[gregory]

I will add shredded leaves in the garden as mulch. For me, using pine needles is not a good idea since the soil is already acidic plus pine straw takes a long time to breakdown vs shredded leaves.

With my containers I use a lot of the mini nugget bark chips that works as a mulch and also helps with the huge amounts of rainfall.

[Gardeneer]

Mulch, depend on where it is useds: Shrubs, trees, walkways, flower beds, pepper and tomato beds ...

In general I DON"T like any paper products (paper, cardboard..) as mulch. They get so MUSHY. Same goes for grass clippings. They also cake up.

My favorite mulch around tomatoes and peppers right not is small pine bark nuggets. Down south I used to collect pine straw(needles) for free. They are attractive, won't get cakey or mushy and at the end of season become soil amendment.

Then next best things are hey, rye/wheat straw, if you can find them at sensible prices.

For shrubs and tree, walkways: Wood Chips
For Flower beds : Cedar Mulch

So in my opinion there is no ONE SIZE FITS ALL.

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by Ed of Somis

Unfortunately, my prior post asking about the importance of mulch kind of turned into a personal discussion of nursery pots with a couple of individuals. Oh well...Do you have a favorite kind of mulch? Why do you like that specific mulch?

Hi. Just search "CMG gardennotes #715", and you'll find a good breakdown of various mulches and how to use them. There's a lot of other good stuff at CMG gardennotes as well. Also, North Dakota State University says (somewhere) that "tomatoes mulched with grass clippings produced about 30 percent more fruits than those grown using plastic mulch."

Steve

[bughunter99]

My favorite is cocoa bean mulch. It is very attractive. It mats together to forms a nice weed barrier and adds nitrogen to the soil. It is very light weight so very easy to put down and carry big bags around. Plus it smells great going down and cats seem to hate walking on it. It is toxic to dogs though so not for yards where dogs roam free. It is also pricier than other options so not practical for extremely large beds.

[Salaam]

Hello all,

I've planted for the first time (well, the other first time was a long time ago) in ground here in Ottawa and I'm wondering what mulch to use. I am assuming that because of my location, the most important thing is to keep the soil warm, and that a plastic mulch does this better than straw or hay or wood chips. Is this assumption correct?

Thanks!