How to Tell the Difference between Straw and Hay and Why It Matters People often ask about the differences between straw and hay and which is better for mulching a vegetable garden. Here’s a simple explanation of their differences and why one is better than the other for mulching vegetable Read more…
Adjusting Mulch Timing and Thickness to Create Perfect Soil Microclimates Using the suggestions for cool- and warm-season plants as a starting point, gardeners can also make adjustments to fit each crop based on your current and predicted soil moisture and weather. Depending on the crop and time of the year, Read more…
Mulching Cool- and Warm-Season Plants Different plants prefer different growing conditions. In general, cool-season plants like cool and quite moist soil, and warm-season plants like warmer and, often, a little drier soil. Mulch each accordingly, taking into account the soil temperature and soil moisture at each time of the season Read more…
Mulch: The Powerhouse of Conserving Soil Moisture Giving your plants the right amount of water and watering regularly are not the same thing—at least they don’t have to be. Your plants having the right amount of water simply means that the soil stays evenly moist. The easiest way to keep Read more…
Mulching for the Season During the Growing Season: Temperature and Moisture During the growing season, then, think of mulch as a moisture and temperature regulator for your soil. Use it to regulate your soil’s moisture and temperature like you use the thickness or absence of a raincoat or winter jacket Read more…
My Own Mulch Epiphanies I’ve known about the power of mulch my entire life, perhaps more than I wanted to in my early years. When I was growing up, my siblings and I spent countless hours shoveling and spreading sawdust, straw, wood chips, and the like around thousands of blueberry Read more…
Benefits Applying mulch to your garden is a wonderful way to add organic matter to your soil. Plus, adding mulch has several other very useful benefits. Adding Organic Matter Although it doesn’t typically contribute nearly the volume of organic matter that cured compost adds to your garden, regularly applying mulch Read more…
Should I Water? Okay, I now know how to meet most of my “watering” needs by conserving the rain I already receive. But it hasn’t rained for weeks, and the mulch I added isn’t doing the trick. Should I water? And how? The honest answer is that I can’t answer Read more…
What’s the Best Mulch? If done correctly, the best mulch is the plants themselves, followed by straw. Using Plant Foliage as a Living Mulch It’s possible to let plants’ foliage aid their roots by casting enough shade to keep the soil moisture that’s necessary for themselves and all of the Read more…
Contrasting Alliums Two of our alliums (the onion family) give us contrasting stories about mulch: Onions and Garlic Onions Some old-timey gardeners will tell you to never mulch onions, claiming it will spoil the crop. Onions, however, are one of the garden’s thirstiest crops and do quite poorly in dry Read more…