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I put cedar shavings from wood working in my strawberry bed and the insect stopped attacking them !!!! it has helped a BUNCH I'm trying to source a good mulch now but I have 18 beds lol (some of it was fine so it is affecting the Nitro a bit but i just feed them more now lol)
I use all of our bagged grass clippings and straw to mulch the veg garden. It is astonishing how much less weeding I do compared to previous years. In the fall leaves and wood chips top my soil and now I have nice loose soil. Its sandy but much nicer to work than clay. I am in year 5 of lasagne gardening for veg, fruits and flowers. I love it. Most of what I learned was from selfless online gardeners like yourself. Thank you!
don't forget you can grow things specifically to chop and drop, like comfrey, to make mulches. All of my rhubarbs get enormous every summer, so I cut off those huge leaves on the other ring and use them as a mulch
I agree his very down to earth and kind and always reply to all comments and concern to make our gardening easy, in fact I haven’t perfected the garlic second year in a row but will try the third I just missed fertilizing them as he mentioned on his video 👩🏼🦳👩🌾 I like his energetic and knowledgeable how to. Excellent video in mulching, still can’t find straw, so fine wood chips are ok? Thank you again!
@@emylytle7149 thanks Emy! Much appreciated! I don't like wood chips as a mulch for veggies... Could work ok for garlic though. Grass clippings and shredded leaves also work...
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms I’m saving al my grass clippings from my lawn, I tried to get some dry leaves from neighbors or parks, I can’t find any straw without seeds it’s hard to get it here, I don’t know why. But best regards to your family and happy gardening, thanks for sharing your knowledge. Learned a lot 👩🌾🙏🏻👍🍅🥦🥬🥒🍓🍆🥕🌟🌟🌟
This was the most succinct, yet thoroughly informative review on mulching I've ever seen. So many vloggers list their favorite methods, always indicating it's the best which just leaves me confused. Others just show themselves mulching & give a cursory explanation that it's important. You have spelled out why, what, when & how it should be done. You gave a complete list of materials, explanations & biological reasons for everything. Immulating what nature does is genius. Bravo, my green thumbs are both pointing up in appreciation of your excellent presentation. Thanks. Guess what I'll be doing first thing tomorrow. 👍
I’ve essentially gotten the equivalent of a college course over the past several months watching UA-cam videos on gardening. I just discovered your channel and have to say yours are at the top in quality and thoroughness. So now it’s time to binge-watch! Thank you so much for helping us all grow better crops. BTW my “garden” consists of 40 fabric pots on my back deck (only sunny spot in our yard).
This is a very interesting topic - there are lots of options, but some work better depending on the conditions, too. I think it's important to kind of find out what the experienced gardeners in your neighbourhood do and then try those methods first. Really nice review of some of the options and a good run down of the pros and cons. I am really getting into living mulches. Alyssum is a great green mulch. The roots don't compete with other plants, they are cute and self-seed. I'm also going to try to use basil as a living mulch around my tomatoes! Cheers, Colleen and Jason
Saw you using straw in several of your videos that I watched previously and I decided to try it out myself this year. I had used straw from a bale previously and it worked but wasn't very easy to spread because the individual pieces were so long. This year I broke up a pieces of a bale, fluffed it as best I could and ran over it with my mower and bagger. The end result is straw that is nicely chopped and super easy to spread. I'll try your suggestion about mixing straw and grass to see how that works. Thanks for sharing so much useful info!
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 I've been checking out chipper/shredders and think one of those would work great but I can't really justify spending the money with the relatively small amount of stuff that I need to chop. The mower and bag work great for chopping up leaves to use as mulch as well. Also, I filled about half a 50 gallon trash can up with straw and used my string trimmer to chop up straw and it worked really well
You don't wanna use just any straw, you never know what has been sprayed with by the farmer, to get rid of pests etc. And compost is not mulch. It is pretty much, super dirt. Packed with microbes and beneficial organisms.
My “lawn” is made up of wild violets, white clover and grass. I use the clippings in my garden beds making a light application each time I mow. It has time to dry out before the next layer and works great.
I've used various types of mulch over the years from pea-straw, straw, un-sifted home compost and presently sugar-cane mulch which found easy to spread and takes awhile to break down. My garden is nearly 150 years old at least so seen many changes.
Fantastic and useful content , just the type of advice I need as a newby to vegetable gardening, thank you so much for sharing , I have subscribed to your channel and look forward to my next master class. Thank you
Just discovered your channel tonight. I had gotten away from gardening, I was in the military and never home, but always had a couple tomato plants and herbs and hoped they didn’t die when I was away. Now that I’ve retired and purchased a house with a fairly decent lot size, I’ve started gardening again. Looking for some mulch and compost info I found your channel. I really enjoy watching your videos and love that you’re a fellow Canadian, luckily I’ve a lot of videos to catch up with so I’ll have new ones to watch for a bit. Thanks for the great content
Thank you for such simple and rewarding explanation. I've learned so many things from your explanations😊. Thank you so much and looking forward for more videos. I live in the philippines and iceland, 6months/ 6 months and i' m 72 years old but can still do gardening. I loved gardening soooo much😁 and plants are my life. God bless you always.
I am not into gardening, at the end of a video I was watching your video on mulching started to play. I couldn't resist listening and watching. You part knowledge and are very persuasive at the same time. I think you aroused my interest into gardening which I had left to hired help. Thanks and keep it up. I like your channel and have subscribed it.
On the subject of wood chips, using it once it has laid for a year and putting g it in the garden in the fall at the end of season to mulch down and rejuvenate the soil. I've used it for the past 13 years and love all the beautiful benefits and healthy black nutrient rich soil it produces. I do add other things when planting to add to my gardens building blocks., no watering all garden season since I've been using the wood chips and have beautiful harvests and healthy plants. I do enjoy your videos of wonderful knowledge and will be using some of your ideas this year. Diversification is a garden dream;)))))
Thank you for sharing! This is a very important component in our daily gardening needs in making our harvest sustainable for the long run. Very well presented and you do a great job in making it simple to understand. I used to throw out my lawn cuttings but now I will throw it into the garlic bed along with the other vegetables I grow! Have a great day!
Thank you for such an informative video on mulching and the types that should be used in a situational environment. Living in the desert of AZ it is imperative i use the appropriate material and this video has given me great ideas for the seasons to come. .
I used Straw and now I have what I think is wheat growing in my containers. So now I’m ripping it all out. I just saw a person using cedar wood chips for pet bedding. No dye or chemicals, and some say it prevents vine borers when used around squash and zucchini. So I’m going to try it.
Really, i love you for sharing this! I started growing my own tomatoes for the first time. I'm gonna mulch my tomatoes right now. Yaaay :-) Call me an idiot, but i'm really excited to see how it will turn out. So far your instructions have worked like a charm. Thks & greetz from Holland
Hurray! The video that I have been waiting for 🤗 I think that what I've learned is that I probably need to start collecting leaves during autumn and save for the up coming spring in order to have any mulch during that period 🤔 as I said before, getting straw is hard where I live and during summer I have plenty of gras clippings. Its mulching material at the very start of the planting season where I have problems. Have you ever heard of anyone using spruce or pine needles as mulch? I do have a bit of land but with mostly evergreens. Thanks for yet again an amazing video 💚
Thanks so much for watching! Collect deciduous leaves for sure. Pine needles are bit tougher.....they can work, people do use them, but I've found them to be a bit of a herbicide. You know? Whenever you see a pile of pine needles in a forest, almost nothing is growing in it.....there has to be a reason for that. Best of luck! Leaves for sure though!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Thanks for the advice 😊 I've will for sure prep for next season with leaves, and then go full on mulch mulch mulch in up the coming spring 😁
#6 Weed suppression. The ones that do grow? They are MUCH easier to pull with the bulk of their roots anchored into loose mulch instead of compact soil. I tapped the thumbs up 👍 button to feed the algorithm monsters.
Hi Jeff. I finally found straw to mulch my pots on my balcony garden. 😜 It works great. Except my balcony is so windy that I have to water frequently to keep it wet... Otherwise it blows away. The birds are thieving it too. :p I tried cutting up the paper pots that the plant starts came in and that works great too. Thanks for your advice again.
I'm growing for the first time and OH MY THIS IS SO USEFUL! My mil doesn't do this and I've seen what not using mulch can do. I'll try selling it to her, fingers crossed. I'll surely do it with my very small garden
Recently subscribed & this is one of my favorites that I have viewed so far! Wasn't aware that green grass could be used as a mulch. I had been letting it dry out. My bad.
I didn't either, been throwing it away. I haven't ever mulched my little pitiful raised veggie garden, boy I'm way behind. I thought grass clippings would mold or make grass a weeded would grow and kill my veggies. I have plenty of grass clippings. I'm sooooo excited.😂
An interesting and informative video. However, there is a good practice that wasn't mentioned. Due to its insulating properties, mulch will dramatically slow down the warming process in the early growing season. I realized this many years ago when I mulched my strawberry beds in the fall. Early the following spring, I noticed that my other unmulched beds were almost ready for sowing early crops. When I looked under the mulch covering the strawberries, the soil was still frozen solid. From that time on, I remove mulch once the risk of the extreme freeze/thaw cycle is over. Cheers
Agree. Lets face it a good 2-4 inch layer of mulch acts like insulation would. In Summer it keeps the soil from getting baked hot, in Spring it keeps the soil temps cold/frozen. Soooo, a lot depends on what you are growing, when you plant. As usual - it depends.
Thanks for the video. Can you much right up to the stem of tomato plants? I've seen some other UA-cam gardener say it could rot the stem. I don't know what to believe.
Great stuff! I live where it's dry and windy. I've learned I can save a lot of water by using more than 2 inches of mulch during summer. When temps get up to 85F, I use 3 inches minimum. There doesn't seem to be any benefit in using more than 4 inches.
I used grass clippings a couple of seasons and found it to mat down to where water couldn't get through. The next year, I mixed it with straw half &half and fluffed it periodically. That worked great and I love the golden color it makes.
@@redbarn23 There's a few things you can do with this "grass", especially if your straw is from grain like oats or wheat. 1. Pick it in the small tender stage and throw it in a salad. 2. Harvest it to make a green drink. 3. Let some it grow and harvest it in when the seed heads form but are still green. Hang it away from the sun til dry for a lovely harvest bouquet. Some of what is labeled as weeds are actually beneficial for us and indicators of garden health. These kind of weeds are not necessarily rooted in soil, just sprouted and easy to deal with.
I just moved to a pine forest area, can you share your thoughts on using pine needles as a mulch for vegetable and fruit tree garden? Enjoy your videos very much, thanks 👍
We love using cedar mulch on all our potted veggies. We are deck growers so we just love the smell of cedar all around our deck. We even put it in our herb garden. One benefit to wood chips like cedar that you didn't touch on is that they have natural oils and chemicals that are harmless to plants but deter insects. We have not had issues with aphids, ants and mites since we started using cedar mulch. Ants hate cedar and are one of the main causes of aphid infestations. Eliminating ants goes a long way to eliminating aphids. I've also read studies that claim in order for soil PH and nitrogen levels to be effected by cedar mulch a person would have to use way more than most could conceivably use and that was mixing it in to the soil. Using it as a top layer mulch would mean almost no change should be seen for the avg users.
Here in NW England we have high rainfall so we get far too many slugs if we use green mulches like grass and straw. Many of us use compost because slugs don't like it. My favourite is spent mushroom compost - feeds the soil organisms and has been sterilised so no weed seeds. Unfortunately, due to COVID it is very difficult and expensive to get it now, so I've had to switch to well rotted horse manure, but there are weeds in it.
For sure...you have to use what works. Plus with the high rainfall, even the top layer is moist so its not drying out and completely killing the microbes...
“” boiling water to kill weed seeds - Houzz Boiling water kills any "weed" it contacts and may well kill any "weed" seeds, however, that same boiling water will kill off the microbes in that compost.”
HI , WATCH YOUR CHANNEL ALOT THANKS MAN . IF YOUR WATERING WITH A DRIP, DO YOU WATER ON TOP OR UNDER THE MULCH AND SHOULD YOU KEEP THE MULCH WET ALONG WITH THE SOIL?
The environment looks like Bellingham, you sound like Bellingham, I just bought a straw bale for my first garden here in Bellingham, moved back here from gardening in Australia for the last 10 years, used mulch there. So I think that since you are using it, sounds like it’s done in this climate as well! I will do this tomorrow, don’t have a mower but maybe I’ll chop it up with gardening shears
Hey Jeff, So what do you do in the fall or spring to amend the bed if you keep the mulch in all the time? Do you add compost on top of the mulch and mix it in and then re-mulch? Or do you remove the mulch,add the amendments then move it back? I'm just starting to mulch this year and I can't believe how little I'm watering my garden,almost doesn't seem right!haha
You should be digging everything back into the vegie bed after harvesting. Nothing goes to waste or gets thrown away in home gardens. One needs to prepare the beds before planting (about three weeks before). Remove weeds (make sure you have a compost pit. Fork the bed over and add blood and bone. Turn that over too and leave it for a week or so then just before planting dig in some more new organic compost (which I get from my compost bin once everything is well broken down and turned over) or buy some from a reliable nursery. I have been growing my vegetables like this and it all works very well. Vegies love liquid seaweed fertiliser. I use lucerne for mulch. Good luck.
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 Try going to your local fair in the fall & meeting a rabbit grower. Hook up for a local supply. Thanks for the tip. Bet you can guess what I'll be checking out at the fair this Fall.
Thankyou for an informative video, it’s winter here in South Africa, I would like to put down a layer of compost to feed the soil, but I still have mulch in my beds where I have perennials, can I put compost ontop of the old mulch and then a layer of new mulch to prepare the beds for annuals. I’m pretty new at this and I suppose it shows!!
Just to add, I also do this, just dump the new compost on top of the old mulch, it gets you that "lasagna" effect where the mulch underneath will now break down quicker, although also what happens (especially in the case of straw mulch, which I use) is most of the new compost gets washed through the mulch by the winter rains and ends up under the old mulch anyway, so it's all good. Just remember to plant THROUGH any existing much layer next year, you don't want your plants trying to root into semi-decomposed mulch, they will struggle, you need to scrape right down to the soil proper.
Jeff, any mulches that you think would help to warm up the soil for tomatoes, peppers, etc….zone 5/6 here….I got plastic mulch, but would love something more natural…thanks
Thanks for sharing. I just found your channel and I am learning a lot. I am new to this and I have a QUESTION? Do you mind me asking what kind of straw you are talking about?????? THANKS
Thanks for your wonderful videos! They are so focused and informative. I get so much out of them. I have a mulch question. I went and bought a bale of what I thought was straw, but it was loaded with seeds. I thought it might have been hay. So, I bought more straw from another source. I pulled out the other straw and put in more. This had seeds in it, too, but not as many. Where does one get straw without seeds?
Good morning, I really enjoy your knowledge. I live on the gulf coast. I'd like to chop and drop in the summer. I can do a second summer season garden, if I chop and drop after the 1st garden should I leave the drop and compost over then Replant? Would really like your prospective. Thank you🌺
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Thank you, was awesome 😊👍🏽💚
@@aidanspoekie Cheers valerie! :-)
I put cedar shavings from wood working in my strawberry bed and the insect stopped attacking them !!!! it has helped a BUNCH I'm trying to source a good mulch now but I have 18 beds lol (some of it was fine so it is affecting the Nitro a bit but i just feed them more now lol)
Paul Gautschi couldn't have said it better himself! Amen
Thank you Jeff!! Where do you buy fine straw? I'm having a hard time finding it
I use all of our bagged grass clippings and straw to mulch the veg garden. It is astonishing how much less weeding I do compared to previous years. In the fall leaves and wood chips top my soil and now I have nice loose soil. Its sandy but much nicer to work than clay. I am in year 5 of lasagne gardening for veg, fruits and flowers. I love it. Most of what I learned was from selfless online gardeners like yourself. Thank you!
Janette, that is so awesome to hear...keep it up!
I am new to your channel, but would like to say that you are a fantastic communicator. You are providing a great service to the gardening public!
Ditto!
Yupper!
Ditto! Best explanation of mulch I’ve ever heard. I finally understand advantages and disadvantages of different options, Thank you!
Agreed!!!
Same. Dude is a natural teacher.
don't forget you can grow things specifically to chop and drop, like comfrey, to make mulches. All of my rhubarbs get enormous every summer, so I cut off those huge leaves on the other ring and use them as a mulch
We could all agree that Jeff is a plant master so I watch him every day for my plants to be nice and healthy you should to because he is amazing 🤩
Too kind...too kind! :-)
100% 🙌🙌🙌
I agree his very down to earth and kind and always reply to all comments and concern to make our gardening easy, in fact I haven’t perfected the garlic second year in a row but will try the third I just missed fertilizing them as he mentioned on his video 👩🏼🦳👩🌾 I like his energetic and knowledgeable how to. Excellent video in mulching, still can’t find straw, so fine wood chips are ok? Thank you again!
@@emylytle7149 thanks Emy! Much appreciated! I don't like wood chips as a mulch for veggies... Could work ok for garlic though. Grass clippings and shredded leaves also work...
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms I’m saving al my grass clippings from my lawn, I tried to get some dry leaves from neighbors or parks, I can’t find any straw without seeds it’s hard to get it here, I don’t know why. But best regards to your family and happy gardening, thanks for sharing your knowledge. Learned a lot 👩🌾🙏🏻👍🍅🥦🥬🥒🍓🍆🥕🌟🌟🌟
This was the most succinct, yet thoroughly informative review on mulching I've ever seen. So many vloggers list their favorite methods, always indicating it's the best which just leaves me confused. Others just show themselves mulching & give a cursory explanation that it's important. You have spelled out why, what, when & how it should be done. You gave a complete list of materials, explanations & biological reasons for everything. Immulating what nature does is genius. Bravo, my green thumbs are both pointing up in appreciation of your excellent presentation. Thanks. Guess what I'll be doing first thing tomorrow. 👍
I’ve essentially gotten the equivalent of a college course over the past several months watching UA-cam videos on gardening. I just discovered your channel and have to say yours are at the top in quality and thoroughness. So now it’s time to binge-watch! Thank you so much for helping us all grow better crops. BTW my “garden” consists of 40 fabric pots on my back deck (only sunny spot in our yard).
This is a very interesting topic - there are lots of options, but some work better depending on the conditions, too. I think it's important to kind of find out what the experienced gardeners in your neighbourhood do and then try those methods first.
Really nice review of some of the options and a good run down of the pros and cons.
I am really getting into living mulches. Alyssum is a great green mulch. The roots don't compete with other plants, they are cute and self-seed. I'm also going to try to use basil as a living mulch around my tomatoes! Cheers, Colleen and Jason
Jeff, it’s hard to say how important and vital mulching is. It’s up there at or near the top. All gardeners will benefit watching your videos. Kudos!
Saw you using straw in several of your videos that I watched previously and I decided to try it out myself this year. I had used straw from a bale previously and it worked but wasn't very easy to spread because the individual pieces were so long. This year I broke up a pieces of a bale, fluffed it as best I could and ran over it with my mower and bagger. The end result is straw that is nicely chopped and super easy to spread. I'll try your suggestion about mixing straw and grass to see how that works. Thanks for sharing so much useful info!
I saw a chicken coop guy used his mulching machine to blow cut mulched straw into the coop!
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 I've been checking out chipper/shredders and think one of those would work great but I can't really justify spending the money with the relatively small amount of stuff that I need to chop. The mower and bag work great for chopping up leaves to use as mulch as well. Also, I filled about half a 50 gallon trash can up with straw and used my string trimmer to chop up straw and it worked really well
You don't wanna use just any straw, you never know what has been sprayed with by the farmer, to get rid of pests etc. And compost is not mulch. It is pretty much, super dirt. Packed with microbes and beneficial organisms.
This was amazingly helpful and your dramatic angles and pauses are an extra entertainment value.
Hey, happy to hear that. Glad you liked and happy mulching!
My “lawn” is made up of wild violets, white clover and grass. I use the clippings in my garden beds making a light application each time I mow. It has time to dry out before the next layer and works great.
I've used various types of mulch over the years from pea-straw, straw, un-sifted home compost and presently sugar-cane mulch which found easy to spread and takes awhile to break down. My garden is nearly 150 years old at least so seen many changes.
Same man! Gotta keep experimenting and evolving!
1st year mulching my container/elevated garden. Thanks for all the amazing!
Fantastic and useful content , just the type of advice I need as a newby to vegetable gardening, thank you so much for sharing , I have subscribed to your channel and look forward to my next master class. Thank you
Just discovered your channel tonight. I had gotten away from gardening, I was in the military and never home, but always had a couple tomato plants and herbs and hoped they didn’t die when I was away. Now that I’ve retired and purchased a house with a fairly decent lot size, I’ve started gardening again. Looking for some mulch and compost info I found your channel. I really enjoy watching your videos and love that you’re a fellow Canadian, luckily I’ve a lot of videos to catch up with so I’ll have new ones to watch for a bit. Thanks for the great content
Hey Sandra, thanks so much for your service!! Glad your home safe and glad you decided to get back into gardening! Welcome aboard!
I must say this was a wonderfully explained video! Thank you from a complete beginner gardener :)
This was the best much 101 video I found on here. Thank you.
I'm building a walapini greenhouse! I'm watching all your indoor grow videos. Thank you!
Right on Shiney! Let us know how it goes!
This was the first helpful video regarding proper mulching. Thanks so much.
Outstanding! Love your enthusiasm for mulching! Never seen such passion and in depth coverage of this key gardening topic.
Thank you for such simple and rewarding explanation. I've learned so many things from your explanations😊. Thank you so much and looking forward for more videos. I live in the philippines and iceland, 6months/ 6 months and i' m 72 years old but can still do gardening. I loved gardening soooo much😁 and plants are my life. God bless you always.
I’ll bet it hurt watching that soil run out of your bed for the video. Another great video man. Your editing has seen some serious improvement. 👍🏼
Oh man, you bet it did... All for the sake of a video, lol!
I am not into gardening, at the end of a video I was watching your video on mulching started to play. I couldn't resist listening and watching. You part knowledge and are very persuasive at the same time. I think you aroused my interest into gardening which I had left to hired help. Thanks and keep it up. I like your channel and have subscribed it.
Love, love, love this video. I'm glad I followed the link from another of your wonderful videos.
Thanks so much Josie! You KNOW I love my mulching!!!
Again another superior video. Thanks for sharing as always!
Thanks so much Holly, too kind! :-)
Such an awesome video!! Thank you for promoting natural gardening and healthy soil! ♥️🌎
Smart guy with great information! Thank you!
Cheers Raymond, thanks for watching! :-)
Great information and love your presentation.
Hey thanks, appreciate that! :-)
On the subject of wood chips, using it once it has laid for a year and putting g it in the garden in the fall at the end of season to mulch down and rejuvenate the soil. I've used it for the past 13 years and love all the beautiful benefits and healthy black nutrient rich soil it produces.
I do add other things when planting to add to my gardens building blocks., no watering all garden season since I've been using the wood chips and have beautiful harvests and healthy plants.
I do enjoy your videos of wonderful knowledge and will be using some of your ideas this year. Diversification is a garden dream;)))))
Thank you for sharing! This is a very important component in our daily gardening needs in making our harvest sustainable for the long run. Very well presented and you do a great job in making it simple to understand. I used to throw out my lawn cuttings but now I will throw it into the garlic bed along with the other vegetables I grow!
Have a great day!
Thank you for such an informative video on mulching and the types that should be used in a situational environment. Living in the desert of AZ it is imperative i use the appropriate material and this video has given me great ideas for the seasons to come. .
Thanks Richard...and you're totally right. In the desert, there's way less room for error and the climate is way less forgiving! Cheers man. :-)
I used Straw and now I have what I think is wheat growing in my containers. So now I’m ripping it all out. I just saw a person using cedar wood chips for pet bedding. No dye or chemicals, and some say it prevents vine borers when used around squash and zucchini. So I’m going to try it.
Yup, unclean straw will actually have hay in it. That stuff sprouts almost immediately. Gotta be careful.
Really, i love you for sharing this! I started growing my own tomatoes for the first time. I'm gonna mulch my tomatoes right now. Yaaay :-)
Call me an idiot, but i'm really excited to see how it will turn out.
So far your instructions have worked like a charm. Thks & greetz from Holland
Where do you get the bagged straw you are using?? Great show by the way.
Really enjoyed this video. Very informative and so educational!
Thanks Dorothy, appreciate the feedback! :-)
Amazing informative video! I going to mulch all my plants now!
Thank you soooo much for this!
You’ve given me so many ideas now as I was looking for the best mulch for my vege garden.
More than happy to help!
I have been using shredded paper as mulch for my containers. when the season is finished I add to my compost bins
I been doing it for years
Perfect, same here!
@@monikas5125 Me too! :-)
Hurray! The video that I have been waiting for 🤗 I think that what I've learned is that I probably need to start collecting leaves during autumn and save for the up coming spring in order to have any mulch during that period 🤔 as I said before, getting straw is hard where I live and during summer I have plenty of gras clippings. Its mulching material at the very start of the planting season where I have problems. Have you ever heard of anyone using spruce or pine needles as mulch? I do have a bit of land but with mostly evergreens. Thanks for yet again an amazing video 💚
Thanks so much for watching! Collect deciduous leaves for sure. Pine needles are bit tougher.....they can work, people do use them, but I've found them to be a bit of a herbicide. You know? Whenever you see a pile of pine needles in a forest, almost nothing is growing in it.....there has to be a reason for that. Best of luck! Leaves for sure though!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Thanks for the advice 😊 I've will for sure prep for next season with leaves, and then go full on mulch mulch mulch in up the coming spring 😁
@@mizzfreaky4525 definitely! Once you get that mulching routine down, spring and winter, it'll become second nature and you won't even think about it
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms in SC I noticed many yards were mulched with pine needles.
Pine needles are fine to use but they can change the ph in the soil. They are great for plants that like acid soil.
Thank you for a wonderful comprehensive video. I mulch my veggies with straw & heading out to finish mulching my ornamentals with walk on bark now. 😊
Thank you Great information 👍 I'm definitely mulching my garden beds n containers this year
Cheers Patricia, all the best!
great video! thanks for making it!
Cheers Nancy, thanks so much for watching!
Wow, I learned so much. Thank you! I was going to buy straw tomorrow and I’m glad I saw this video first
This was very helpful. Thank you!
#6 Weed suppression. The ones that do grow? They are MUCH easier to pull with the bulk of their roots anchored into loose mulch instead of compact soil. I tapped the thumbs up 👍 button to feed the algorithm monsters.
So true Francus! Even if they do sprout, they're so much easier to pull up and deal with! Thanks for the tip AND the support! 🙂
Hi Jeff. I finally found straw to mulch my pots on my balcony garden. 😜 It works great. Except my balcony is so windy that I have to water frequently to keep it wet... Otherwise it blows away. The birds are thieving it too. :p I tried cutting up the paper pots that the plant starts came in and that works great too. Thanks for your advice again.
That's great to hear Michaela! It'll settle and then really stick good.....take a couple weeks sometimes. Although the birds are another story...
maybe try some small hose (like from drip) and the stakes to hold it down ? and then you also just added drip lol
@@viper04af good suggestion man.
@@viper04af it is a good suggestion...but I'm in a condo without a garden hose... drip gets expensive to set up.
This was so incredibly helpful. Thank you!
Great video for an amateur gardner like myself.
Good day mate.
I'm in Queensland Australia
I use sugar cane mulch its much like straw and some grass clippings
Thanks for very good information
@@kaushilpatelindia cheers, appreciate the kind words!
I use my grass clippings. They are a blessing.
Really appreciated this video!! Thank you
Cheers Stef, thanks for watching! :-)
THANKS BUB, THAT'S HELPFUL .. I USE GRASS AND LEAVES IT WORKS GREAT...
I'm growing for the first time and OH MY THIS IS SO USEFUL! My mil doesn't do this and I've seen what not using mulch can do. I'll try selling it to her, fingers crossed. I'll surely do it with my very small garden
Thanks Eva! Hopefully you can convert her! :-)
Thanks for all the tips,that was exactly what I needed to know.
Trying to mulch more and not go broke, Thanks for you have helped 👍
Definitely John...I try to go free as much as possible here!
Recently subscribed & this is one of my favorites that I have viewed so far! Wasn't aware that green grass could be used as a mulch. I had been letting it dry out. My bad.
I didn't either, been throwing it away. I haven't ever mulched my little pitiful raised veggie garden, boy I'm way behind. I thought grass clippings would mold or make grass a weeded would grow and kill my veggies. I have plenty of grass clippings. I'm sooooo excited.😂
Great Presentation, Thank You!!!!
Thanks Joanne, all the best for your garden this year! :-)
Your channel is the bomb. Thank you so much!!!!
Great video! So important.
Thanks, appreciate that!
Thanks, Jeff! So helpful and I love the recap at the end!
Very helpful video! Thank you so much!
I use sheep wool. And cover crops and shop and drop. Leaves and grass clipping depending on whats available
I also use leaves as mulch too
An interesting and informative video. However, there is a good practice that wasn't mentioned.
Due to its insulating properties, mulch will dramatically slow down the warming process in the early growing season. I realized this many years ago when I mulched my strawberry beds in the fall. Early the following spring, I noticed that my other unmulched beds were almost ready for sowing early crops. When I looked under the mulch covering the strawberries, the soil was still frozen solid. From that time on, I remove mulch once the risk of the extreme freeze/thaw cycle is over.
Cheers
What zone are you in?
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 Currently in Canadian Zone 5B and previously was in 7A
Agree. Lets face it a good 2-4 inch layer of mulch acts like insulation would. In Summer it keeps the soil from getting baked hot, in Spring it keeps the soil temps cold/frozen. Soooo, a lot depends on what you are growing, when you plant. As usual - it depends.
Mulching in windy areas like ours is a real challenge. We’re using heavy wood chips, old animal bedding and a crop cover to keep it all in.
A Saskatchewan Roughriders fan ??? Now you got my hears and a new sub
Thanks for the video. Can you much right up to the stem of tomato plants? I've seen some other UA-cam gardener say it could rot the stem. I don't know what to believe.
Super video! Thanks!
Great stuff! I live where it's dry and windy. I've learned I can save a lot of water by using more than 2 inches of mulch during summer. When temps get up to 85F, I use 3 inches minimum. There doesn't seem to be any benefit in using more than 4 inches.
Especially in grow bags containers gardens! Thank you I’m going to try straw this year
Great video 💪👍🦾
Thanks! :-)
Please tell us where oe what type of that clear mulch you use is it straw for animals thank you please tell us
Thank you
Cheers Linda!
Love ur videos, awesome content, only thing I dislike about them is ur rider ls gear! GO BOMBERS! Lol
Not sure how I feel about that hat.... ;) but this had all the info I was looking for. Cheers from winnipeg.
I used grass clippings a couple of seasons and found it to mat down to where water couldn't get through. The next year, I mixed it with straw half &half and fluffed it periodically. That worked great and I love the golden color it makes.
EXACTLY Tess.....grass can definitely do that. Smart to mix it, love the ingenuity!
We put straw on all of our raised beds. Within 10 days or so, it sprouted like crazy! I don’t want grass seeds in my veggie beds!
@@redbarn23 yup, some sources just isn't clean.... Gotta be careful
@@redbarn23 There's a few things you can do with this "grass", especially if your straw is from grain like oats or wheat. 1. Pick it in the small tender stage and throw it in a salad. 2. Harvest it to make a green drink. 3. Let some it grow and harvest it in when the seed heads form but are still green. Hang it away from the sun til dry for a lovely harvest bouquet. Some of what is labeled as weeds are actually beneficial for us and indicators of garden health. These kind of weeds are not necessarily rooted in soil, just sprouted and easy to deal with.
@@tesswagner895 thanks. But bending and weeds the grass/straw is hard on my back. This option would be great for someone with more mobility.
Great video, thank you so much❤
Those are the prettiest strawberry blooms I've ever seen. What variety are they?
Thanks Dolly....they are Toscana. :-)
Very nice👍👍❤❤❤❤
Cheers! :-)
I just moved to a pine forest area, can you share your thoughts on using pine needles as a mulch for vegetable and fruit tree garden? Enjoy your videos very much, thanks 👍
pine needles create an acidic environment quickly. i would not recommend using them.
Finally! An explanation of why my cantaloupe died immediately after I mulched it... with WOODCHIP MULCH. UGH. lesson learned.
We love using cedar mulch on all our potted veggies. We are deck growers so we just love the smell of cedar all around our deck. We even put it in our herb garden. One benefit to wood chips like cedar that you didn't touch on is that they have natural oils and chemicals that are harmless to plants but deter insects. We have not had issues with aphids, ants and mites since we started using cedar mulch. Ants hate cedar and are one of the main causes of aphid infestations. Eliminating ants goes a long way to eliminating aphids. I've also read studies that claim in order for soil PH and nitrogen levels to be effected by cedar mulch a person would have to use way more than most could conceivably use and that was mixing it in to the soil. Using it as a top layer mulch would mean almost no change should be seen for the avg users.
Our first foray into living mulch this fall. We hope to cover crop and see how that compares to just making compost. Ultimately we want to do both!
Here in NW England we have high rainfall so we get far too many slugs if we use green mulches like grass and straw. Many of us use compost because slugs don't like it. My favourite is spent mushroom compost - feeds the soil organisms and has been sterilised so no weed seeds. Unfortunately, due to COVID it is very difficult and expensive to get it now, so I've had to switch to well rotted horse manure, but there are weeds in it.
For sure...you have to use what works. Plus with the high rainfall, even the top layer is moist so its not drying out and completely killing the microbes...
Could we boil compost tea to kill weed seeds?
“”
boiling water to kill weed seeds - Houzz
Boiling water kills any "weed" it contacts and may well kill any "weed" seeds, however, that same boiling water will kill off the microbes in that compost.”
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 yup, heat kills... It's indescriminate.... But it's also NOT systemic and it doesn't linger
I chop and drop Tithonia Diversifolia(Mexican Sunflower) perfect mulch and fertilizer 👍
Awesome! Waste not, want not!
HI , WATCH YOUR CHANNEL ALOT THANKS MAN . IF YOUR WATERING WITH A DRIP, DO YOU WATER ON TOP OR UNDER THE MULCH AND SHOULD YOU KEEP THE MULCH WET ALONG WITH THE SOIL?
Hey Greg, thanks! I always water on top, drip, soaker, or manual. I like the mulch to be part of the action too!
The environment looks like Bellingham, you sound like Bellingham, I just bought a straw bale for my first garden here in Bellingham, moved back here from gardening in Australia for the last 10 years, used mulch there. So I think that since you are using it, sounds like it’s done in this climate as well! I will do this tomorrow, don’t have a mower but maybe I’ll chop it up with gardening shears
Just read your description…. Lower Van island, climate spot on!!! Here I go!!!
Hey Jeff,
So what do you do in the fall or spring to amend the bed if you keep the mulch in all the time? Do you add compost on top of the mulch and mix it in and then re-mulch? Or do you remove the mulch,add the amendments then move it back? I'm just starting to mulch this year and I can't believe how little I'm watering my garden,almost doesn't seem right!haha
You should be digging everything back into the vegie bed after harvesting. Nothing goes to waste or gets thrown away in home gardens. One needs to prepare the beds before planting (about three weeks before). Remove weeds (make sure you have a compost pit. Fork the bed over and add blood and bone. Turn that over too and leave it for a week or so then just before planting dig in some more new organic compost (which I get from my compost bin once everything is well broken down and turned over) or buy some from a reliable nursery. I have been growing my vegetables like this and it all works very well. Vegies love liquid seaweed fertiliser. I use lucerne for mulch. Good luck.
@@claudevanstraelen652 rabbit pellets are nice, too. Sold on EBay even!
@@claudevanstraelen652 rabbit pellets are nice, too. Sold on EBay even!
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 Try going to your local fair in the fall & meeting a rabbit grower. Hook up for a local supply. Thanks for the tip. Bet you can guess what I'll be checking out at the fair this Fall.
Thankyou for an informative video, it’s winter here in South Africa, I would like to put down a layer of compost to feed the soil, but I still have mulch in my beds where I have perennials, can I put compost ontop of the old mulch and then a layer of new mulch to prepare the beds for annuals. I’m pretty new at this and I suppose it shows!!
I always just layer mine on top of one another minnoux. Depending on how think your layers are, it should be fine. :-)
Thankyou for answering, so appreciated x
Just to add, I also do this, just dump the new compost on top of the old mulch, it gets you that "lasagna" effect where the mulch underneath will now break down quicker, although also what happens (especially in the case of straw mulch, which I use) is most of the new compost gets washed through the mulch by the winter rains and ends up under the old mulch anyway, so it's all good. Just remember to plant THROUGH any existing much layer next year, you don't want your plants trying to root into semi-decomposed mulch, they will struggle, you need to scrape right down to the soil proper.
@@csgowoes6319 gee thankyou for this it makes so much sense….the old mulch was fine wood chips, new mulch is straw.
I'm really enjoying your channel and have learned a lot from you. Where do you get your fine straw from? thank you
Jeff, any mulches that you think would help to warm up the soil for tomatoes, peppers, etc….zone 5/6 here….I got plastic mulch, but would love something more natural…thanks
Hey Tulip, the green mulches can heat up as they decompose.... But it's not reliable and most times there ends up being extreme hot spots...
Thanks for sharing. I just found your channel and I am learning a lot. I am new to this and I have a QUESTION? Do you mind me asking what kind of straw you are talking about?????? THANKS
Thanks for your wonderful videos! They are so focused and informative. I get so much out of them. I have a mulch question. I went and bought a bale of what I thought was straw, but it was loaded with seeds. I thought it might have been hay. So, I bought more straw from another source. I pulled out the other straw and put in more. This had seeds in it, too, but not as many.
Where does one get straw without seeds?
Wow..Amazing.
Love your videos. Is coconut coir mulch good to use on vegetables and fruit tree?thank you.
Thanks Bella! Coir is certainly better than nothing, but it dries out fast and will definitely blow around everywhere....
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Thank you. Definitely will continue to enjoy your videos !
Good morning, I really enjoy your knowledge. I live on the gulf coast. I'd like to chop and drop in the summer. I can do a second summer season garden, if I chop and drop after the 1st garden should I leave the drop and compost over then Replant? Would really like your prospective. Thank you🌺
What about cedar natural mulch?
I avoid it. Cedar has potent natural phenols. You can smell it right away. Fine for woody perennials, not so good for our veggie crops.
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms I live in Ontario, Canada, and I can't find fine straw anywhere. Also don't have enough grass to collect some grass cutting 😭
Thank you 🙏