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 and Detriments of “No-Dig” / “No-Till” Methods “No-dig” or “no-till” methods date back centuries but have been increasing in popularity in recent years due to their simplicity and effectiveness. In fact, “no-dig” or “no-till” beds have so many benefits that it makes sense why they’re becoming a favorite of 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…
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…
The Biggest, Best Green-Thumbed Gardening Secrets to Giving Your Plants the Right Amount of Water You may be wondering: Do I really even need to water? Aren’t there gardeners who rarely, if ever, water? We’ve discussed how garden plants need about an inch of water per week. However, not many Read more…