I'm so confused about mulching.

[Brigitte J.]

I am new to vegetable gardening and I apoligize if this is a stupid question.

My vegetable garden is being overrun by weeds. I'm not sure what to do about this. The process of pulling the weeds is time consuming and back-breaking. I use cypress mulch in my flower beds with much success. Is there any reason that I can't use the same cypress mulch in my vegetable garden? I've heard of using newspaper, and this sounds like a great idea, but I'm not sure that I could keep it on the ground, as it can get very windy here in southeast Nebraska. I'd like to incorporate the use of both newspaper and cypress mulch, by laying the paper down, several sheets thickness and put the cypress mulch down over it, heavy enough that it would hold down the paper when it becomes dry and might otherwise blow away.

Any advise/comments/recommendations are appreciated.

Thank you, Brigitte

[FarmerDill]

Should work although grass clippings, shreded leaves, straw are better for the veggie garden.

[SugarChile]

Yep, wood and/or bark mulch are inconvenient in the veggie garden. It's harder to plant row crops, or add fresh plants in the late summer for fall crops. Plus, I've noticed that annuals in general don't like the heavy structure of wood mulch--when I stick extras in the perennial beds, they sometimes fail to thrive.

I use newspaper covered with straw (keep a hose handy while laying out the newspaper, and wet it down to keep it from blowing). It's easy to pull aside for planting, and has largely broken down by the following spring.

Cheers, Sue

[STEVEN STEIN]

[simy1]

As farmerdill suggests, this mulch works as well as other mulches when it comes to weed suppression and water retention, but in the case of veggies you would also like a more neutral pH and higher nitrogen content (of course you could get that by also adding lime or wood ash, to adjust pH, and fertilizer to adjust N). But if you have tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and potatoes, they can usually take the bark's acidity. Beets, chard, and some cabbages will dislike it though.

[Brent]

I think preen would work great if you don't have any herbs in your garnden but i believe it would kill herbs if you have any.

[Steve]

What?? Why would it hurt herbs and not other garden plants?

[John Savage]

Okay, you've got the idea about using straw, leaves, etc., as mulch to suppress the weeds. But in places where you have bare dirt, instead of waiting until the weeds have grown large and are taking over and need to be pulled out one by one, you can on a hot day scratch the soil surface so the weeds while still small have their roots exposed and soon dehydrate in the sun and die. Don't water that area for a day or two afterwards to make sure none revive.

You can carry out this with a long handled hoe, Dutch hoe, or a 3-prong scuffler. Keep up this routine, and the weeds never get to the size of needing to be painstakingly pulled out by hand. Save your back! Just raking the soil to break it up will be sufficient to kill off most weeds when they are small provided the weather is dry and sunny. Repeat as necessary.

Good luck.