Green Grass Clippings Mulch

[Ozark]

I hand-weeded a row and put mulch down around most of my pepper plants today, a miserable job in 91-degree heat and high humidity. I mulched 6 Gypsy, 4 Shish!to, 2 Cajun Belle, 4 Jalapeno, and 3 Anaheim plants. I'm sharing this because in my experience, anyway, mulching in this way makes a tremendous difference in the outcome of my pepper crop. The plants REALLY like this and they grow and set peppers like crazy once it's done.

As you can see, I support the plants with wire tomato cages tied together. There's a soaker hose laying on the ground the length of the row within about 3" of each plant. I keep my garden paths tilled, but I hand-weed the pepper row one last time, then mow and catch grass from our lawn that I've allowed to grow pretty tall and lush. I spread that about 6" deep in the pepper row, taking care to keep the grass about an inch away from the plant stems.

Tomorrow those grass clippings will be so hot I won't be able to hold my hand under them - they really heat up. This is why I don't want the mulch actually touching my plants, and it's my belief that the fermenting mulch cooks and kills crabgrass and weed seeds that are near the top of the ground, then smothers the deeper-seeded grass and weeds when they try to grow. Now I won't have to weed that row again this season.

This mulching method is a job but it gets rid of weeds and it stabilizes the ground moisture and temperature around the roots of my plants. I do this to my whole garden, and in my experience peppers and tomatoes thrive especially well after this is done. Works for me!