Use Mulch to Reduce Weeds, Save Water & Feed Your Plants

Tips, Tricks

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Organic mulches are essential for a healthy, productive vegetable garden, locking in soil moisture, suppressing weeds and feeding plants as they rot down. There are lots of different materials that work well as organic mulch. Mulching is a great way to use up garden trimmings such as shredded prunings and grass clippings for instance. In this video we show you how to choose the best mulching materials for your crops, how to apply them and how to mulch both established crops and bare soil. If you've noticed any pests or beneficial insects in your garden lately please report them to us at http://BigBugHunt.com If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers: http://www.GrowVeg.com http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com http://gardenplanner.almanac.com and many more... To receive more gardening videos subscribe to our channel here: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=GrowVeg

Comments

great video thanks for the tip on mulch

mulching was my biggest mind-blowing experience while gardening its incredible. there's nothing else like it. you just throw down dead things onto the earth and up comes life, nature funny like that

I love all your videos, so informative, and useful. THANK YOU!!!

What a relief to hear such a calm, enthusiastic voice. (I love most Americans - but not always their shrill voices on Youtube.)

i have a hardwood bush, and i take the the old hardwood bark from falling trees, i just break it up with my hands and apply it to the flower bed. my question is , do i have to shred the bark really fine or is it fine the way i'm doing it?

Amazing video, left a like # 166. 👍 I've subbed you, sub me back if you like.

All these things sound fantastic, but the standard advice here in the UK seems to be that any mulch other than compost attracts hordes of slugs (see e.g. Charles Dowding). That was an interesting point about not applying early in the season to counteract slugs; my garden looks parched at the moment and I bet it could benefit from a mulch. At what point in the year is best to start mulching in the UK? We're in Sussex, it's pretty dry here.

,hello can u plzzzzzzz tell is the space between the four sides of plants is counted as number of plants in garden planner ?

yep mulch is good but it's heaven for mice

For 2 years now i save all my coffie grounds&egg shells which ground together eventually mixing with organic potting soil , & earth worm castings, eventually turning in with my regular garden soil . Afer all that should i feed my plants anything extra?

Suppose I want to create a flower bed in the middle of the lawn. Should I put down cardboard in the fall and cover it with mulch, and then plant the bed the next spring? Will that successfully kill all the grass?

How do I shred bark?

I use newspaper, not the glossy inserts. Breaks down very quickly and works great. Make sure your daily uses soy ink,

So glad to see a good video on mulch. I mulch everything with anything i can get my hands on. One more advantage of mulch is that it keeps the soil cool which is very healthy for the soil life, especially in hotter, dryer climates. A vast, vast number of essential critters actually die off en masse above certain temperature thresholds. It also means that if the soil is humid and cool underneath, it is better able to infiltrate water as dry, hot soil turns water repellant and stays that way for a long time. Hours, days! and even deeper into the soil. This is what causes most of the flooding issues around the world. The soil wants it, but because of the way we treat our agricultural and garden soil, it is unable to take it up and it has to run off to somewhere. To the streams into the rivers to the sea, taking with it all our toxic gunk. Obviously not infiltrating down to the aqifers to replenish the groundwater level. Do your part to improve water infiltration! Please! Thank you. :)

Agree. However, i think ppl should use the term biodegradeable or biological instead of organic. Organic term is already being used in food, farming, and gardening standards, such as non-gmo and no chemical, and this is not applied to mulch when it's called organic. Although they should have "organic" mulches separate from typical biodegradeable.

I've had a backyard vegetable garden for many years but just started mulching this year and the difference is amazing. I live near the ocean so my mulch of choice is dry seaweed, eel grass specifically. I also have a pine hedge on the property and I am using the dry brown needles also. Once they are brown and dry, they don't add any acidity to the soil. My tomatoes are loving this plus it keeps the soil from splashing onto the leaves when it rains and spreading disease. Also did the green beans - no more muddy beans. Nice video, I have watched them all, always something to learn.

Very well made video!
Chuck

I'm thinking of getting a 15kg bag of oak bark. Oak bark is a good mulch, I mean it sounds like it. It'll break down slowly and feed the plants and do the rest aswell, correct?