How to Use Every Mulch: The Ultimate Growers' Guide
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- Опубліковано 15 кві 2023
- Today's video is a total mulch breakdown.
We cover: how to use straw, what is straw, what is hay, how to use hay, mulching with leaves, mulching with cardboard, garden mulching, mulching with compost, no dig, deep compost, living mulches, perennial cover crops, planting in compost without soil, and more!
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Had to go back to the beginning to make sure I heard that right… Farmer Jesse calling US nerds. I guess that’s what we get for clicking on an almost-27 minute video about using every kind of mulch. 😂 I’ll consider it a high compliment from the king of nerds and enjoy the rest of the video with a smile. 😁
I love undercropping. I have used white dutch clover, radishes, petunias, and strawberries, lettuce, basil, marigolds, nastursiums and machê.. I never plant any squash without first laying down a bed of radishes. I have used strawberries, petunias, and white dutch clover under okra and peppers (I tend to plant peppers under okra for sun protection). Tomatoes get undercropped with basil, and lettuces, and marigolds. Root crops benefit from an early spring "burn" .. I have equipped my husband with a flame thrower (which non-Marines may reference as a "weed burner") and anywhere I've mulched or underplanted with a substance that dies or is dry... hubby burns it for spring and we cover it with compost. The only issues I've had intercropping/undercropping comes with laying down white dutch clover too thick and too early; it choked out my starter transplants... we use it primarily in our walkways now and in permanent spaces where we previously mulched with shredded hardwood mulch (rose and bulb gardens, arround fruit trees).
Thankyou so much for the great info! You pack a lot into one video!😊
I’m a home gardener, love marigolds and basil around tomatoes. When you put in radishes, are you direct seeding at the same time you plant the squash? Sounds like you’ve got your system wired. Thank you.
@@christinebottaro9017 Actually, no, I put down the radish first and let them get their true leaves before I transplant or seed the squash in the bed. I don't worry about harvesting them... it's the hot part of the year and they're going to be terrible anyway. I let them bolt and save (or eat) their seeds. Really amazing pest deterrent.
Does it deter squash bugs?
@@bethh.172 Definitely helps. I haven't had an issue with squash vine borer either. But for squash bugs I set up a "trap crop" of high nitrogen synthetic fertilizer in a strawbale with yellow construction flagging and pruned bottom leaves. It's a long story but worth the read. I came across this method quite by accident one year when I was strawbale gardening (a method of gardening directly into strawbales conditioned with fertilizers that have begun to breakdown and form soil at their center) and I couldn't find enough organic fertilizer to condition all my strawbales. I left the synthetic nitrogen ones outside of the enclosed garden space and intended to use them for only giant decoration pumpkins.. I accidentally left the bag of 34-0-0 outside next to the bales of straw in a light rain. Those strawbales and the bag of 34-0-0 had nothing planted in them and were swarming with squash bugs. They had the entire garden full of produce and went for a bale of straw with nothing but this 34-0-0 on it. So now... I use a bale of straw... something bright yellow and spent lower squash leaves and several cups of 34-0-0 as a bait station which they flock to...hide in, lay their eggs on and I torch it with a weed burner. That's THE best method I have found to deal with squash bugs. I still check under leaves and pick them off the tops of plants early in the morning and drop them in a bucket of soap water. But I don't have crop loss from squash bugs and vine borer anymore. You can also surface grubs in your garden spaces by laying out black plastic. Chickens love it when you pull it back. I do this before I plant potatoes for several weeks.
Shredded leaves mixed with grass clippings has been the best and most effective mulch I have used so far.
Speaking of shredding, what kind of shredder or chipper do you use? We have an electric chipper and find it to be temperamental, only taking very light sticks that are dried out, dry leaves, and easily jamming up. Trying not to resort to a gas engine chipper.
@Christine Bottaro a lawn mower with a bagger is great for chopping leaves. Dual duty that it'll collect grass clippings while you mow too.
@@rachelholdt6840 Yes! I mulch with the mower and bag, too. I rake leaves out a few inches thick and mow over 'em. For a grass mixture I do the same process on long grass.
That's so good to hear because i am new to all this and just used what I had, and that's what I had on hand.
I have a DR brand chipper/shredder. There is no way to complain about it. It has a screen the shredded material comes out thru, if the product is extremely green or wet, (green corn stocks) I remove the screen. The product is more course, but still chewed up.
I have the pro 400 model, with electric start. The company can no5 be beat for customer service and support.
Jesse, I've been learning from you for years and your knowledge has contributed to not only the growth of my garden, but also growth of myself as a human, a father and I truly thank you. You've helped me turn my hobby into a way to inspire, teach, and pass on lessons that carry over from a garden to all aspects of life.
Awe, that's awesome to hear! Thank you. Sending my best
Thats such a beautiful and humble comment. I bet you are a wonderful father!
@@notillgrowers😅😅
I could listen to this guy talk all day. He explains things so damn well
I am on my way out to do chores, but I guarantee this will be awesome, as ALWAYS ❤
I live in NorCal and I planted some onions this fall and I have a ton of California poppies growing in between them because I allowed the few poppies in my yard go to seed last year. It’s protecting my soil from the rain, and poppies have a relatively large taproot. So far I haven’t had problems with it, and my onion patch is going to look beautifully orange in a few more weeks!
Our family found Horsetail Weed was an amazing living mulch for our beans. We grow in hard clay and they really help keep the moisture in, so it doesn't bake in the sun. - Northern Ontario; zone 3
Eelgrass collected from my shoreline makes a great mulch especially on garlic, potatoes and around large brassicas.
Another killer video. When building our brand new beds, we actually put down a layer of cardboard, then leaf mulch, and then soil, and finally a finished compost mulch. Our heavy clay soil really benefit from the added organic matter, and helps to drain excess water from the beds.
Dude.... your info is awsome. I'm doing no dig organic in Japan. I use spent beer grains from the local craft brewery to insulate my gardens. I top the grains off with home made semi decomposed mulch. There is no need to fully decompose... just need to bring the temp up high enough to kill most of the weed seeds. Amazing results! Pros and cons... but mainly pros. I just spread the grains on top bed by bed, week by week, then cover them with a light layer of mulch. About 200kg/ week in a thin layer covers about 25m squared . I barely have to water the garden. Third year in and there are almost no bug problems. A balance of predator and prey insects. I keep getting comments about how the vegetables taste more flavorful and different from the store bought ones. It's wonderful! Thanks again for another great video.
I've gotten great results from putting shredded leaves on beds and then throwing a little compost over them to hold them down as Jessie suggests. It has made a huge difference in our Missouri clay soil. We attach a lawn sweeper to our 4 wheeler to make it easy to collect all our leaves.
How do you shred them? I have leaves for days!
@@kelleyboles We have a leaf shredder, but you can also just put them in your garden bed and go over them with a lawn mower or put them in a big pile and weed whack them. We also collect as many as will fit in a large outdoor dog kennel; if we save them a year they're basically the equivalent of shredded leaves, and if we save them two years it turns to leaf mold.
@@mslorischoolsocialworker excellent! I would have never thought about keeping them in a kennel. Or weed whacking them either. Thank you.
I put leaves down where I plant my potatoes, then a 2” layer of fresh horse manure from stall cleaning. Let it over winter, then broadforked the potatoe patch. The soil improved dramatically based on worm population.
Yes, I do the same here in MO. Huge difference in my beds. Pile up in the fall. You can put them in a trash can and run a weed Wacker in them. I don't bother. I just move them out of the way to plant.
i love the equations and other numerical facts you throw in. My brain works in this manner.
Jesse, am not sure that there's only one of you; the amount of work you get done...! 🤪🤪🤪
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 🌳🕊💚
Add a handful of chickens to your op and you will have all the high quality compost you could ever need. I have an 8'x12' run that is 6' thick of chicken compost in 1 year. I have another run that is 4'x20' and am adding another 8'x12' run for meat birds. I should have more then enough compost for all my gardening needs, and plenty to sell to my neighbors for an unbeatable price for them.
Leaf mulch is pretty awesome, especially if you use it to put your beds to rest for winter. I dropped 8" of leafs on my garden last fall, and by the end of winter, it is maybe 1" thick, the rest is broken down into beautiful leaf mold, and is perfect for planting lettuces, onions, garlic, etc. into. By the warm weather crop season, compost will be done and that goes around the plants as food/mulch.
Just as good and blows around much less is pine mulch. I have multiple pine trees and use the pine mulch for chicken run bedding to keep the mud down and eggs clean, but also works good for a garden mulch. Plus they stick together so well it is hard for the wind to blow them away. I know some people worry about the ph levels, but I have seen no issues, nor heard any issues from Lazy Dog Farms whom gave me the idea.
Having really good success with living mulches on Raspberries. White clover. Saves loads of time and money on alternatives. Keeps the raspberry roots cool, which is really important. 😊
Perennials are definitely a different story with living mulches.
My raspberries grew into my asparagus and rhubarb 20+ years ago… no issues. I also “planted” a couple dozen of the largest rocks my wheel barrow could handle and placed them strategically in the same bed for my children after being inspired by my favourite wild black berry bouldering patch.
I never thought of cover crops being crops I don't have to harvest. I always think of it as compost I don't have to move!
Now I have two things to encourage me while crimping them.
I gardened for 10 years and stoped because of weeds. I found woven landscape fabric and I started gardening again. Then I found your channel and I’m working on removing the fabric. But, the fabric did bring me back. Thanks.
This video was very valuable to us. We operate a small non-profit community garden, which has expanded into a mini farm . . . really mini. We've experimented with various mulches over the years with similar results to yours, so having our amateur-ish findings corroborated by professional farmer guy (say that with an Eastern European accent, it works better) is invaluable. Thanks for your work and your "jokes."
Damn savage :D
Oof @Maria CANCER - so sorry to hear about the ovarian cancer. Sending out best!
A garden, like all life, is an experience in joy and sorrow, of living full and letting go. You've done wonders with this one and what a blessing to leave it in good hands so that you can add more to your own life - and knowledge. You've already helped thousands from this one lovely plot of land and given it a legacy that now lives on. Well done, and much success going forward.
Cover Crops. I just had an idea.
In cold winter areas, One could rotate cover crops from bed to bed where ever only annuals are planted.
Basically, growing a bed or more of mulch every year during the growing season.
My favorite right now, since I help with skirting sheep fleeces, is wool that has been soaked and rotted. Worms love it. Sometimes I will just lay it on my paths right off the critters. It can get bunched up if dry. After the rainy season, I'll throw it in the 5-year compost pile. Lovely to walk on if it is fairly clean and just too short or weak for processing. Use the stuff loaded with dirt, etc for elsewhere. Wool prices are dirt (pun intended) cheap.
Hay: 2:44
Straw: 6:00
Compost: 11:17
Leaves: 15:20
Cardboard: 16:50
Grass clippings: 18:00
Woodchips: 18:50
Plastics: 23:18
Live mulches: 19:30
Nerds: 25:50
Nerds 😂
You're doing God's work
🙌
@@notillgrowers hi, I have wheat allergy, so that means I shouldn't use straw under any circumstances, right?
@@csehszlovakze how about oat straw? Or were you making a joke? Haha.
12:23 From Maine here. We're one of the few states actually looking into PFAS, so I'm glad to hear you mention it.
Hay may not be sprayed with old school herbicides that will kill some plants. It can be sprayed with Aminopyralid herbicides like Grazon that will take up to three years to remove and will make the area used impossible to grow most food crops for that time. Sadly if the hay was sprayed and fed to animals the Grazon passes through the animal and the manure is just as bad as the hay, even if its composted.
Thank you real good information. I tend to use woodchips for mulch because they're free. Utility tree crews will drop off 4-6 loads/yr. I use the fresher stuff on walkways and aged stuff around plants.
One of the greatest resources almost all of us have is access to free leaves. It's underused, maybe because of the need for shredding and what the wind does, but I would love to see them used more in the garden's than just huge piles going to waste at the recycling centers.
Just today, the water company finished replacing leaky pipes to our home and two others. I've got quite a patch of messed up soil that's going to need just such applications. Such timely info!!!
Hey 👋🏼 Back around 1970 my dad got me a Savage 22LR/20 gauge. My 16th birthday gift. 53 years later it’s still my favorite.
It’s great for congested forests because of its size. Having a choice between 22LR or 20 gauge in changing environments is really handy.
Thanks Who_Tee_Who. I’ve never seen another one besides my own. Very cool.
Nice metaforical dive into the materials! I just rewatched it! I am still a bit surprised about the cooling properties of straw. My grandmother once told me that straw is seven times more insulative than hay when used for animals. So I figured it would warm the soil. At least it will keep the soil from freezing. I'd love to learn more about these properties. In physics it's all about density, mass, volume, but no one talks about insulation or speed at which it breaks down.
love the hinky dad humour
Funny how you already consider this man being your dad.
We weedwhip the cover crop in march and then cover it with silo tarp for 3-4 weeks, and then plant. Works fine.
This may not work with rye, that's why we don't cc with rye on beds that will be spring planted, but ok for summer planting. Rye has to go through pollination, otherwise it will grow back, as far as I have seen.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS VIDEO! These are the reasons that I didn’t use straw mulch for my strawberries, because I didn’t want all the stupid grass seed lol.
I will try growing my own, that is a good idea! I will do it on my hillside garden, so I know any weed seeds will be once I’m familiar with…
As other people sit in the comments, living mulch is the best! Anywhere that you can’t afford mulch, cast some clover seed with clay, or whatever the heck works for that area.
You can use the green manure from your vegetables and also from your cover crops to use as a living green mulch that is excellent for any plants that favor bacterial soil’s! Poor tiny bit of compost on top to trap in nitrogen and help it decompose quickly. Don’t go too thick or else. The microbes won’t be able to get it and it will go Anaerobic. This works great as a microbial inoculant as well because they have microbes all over them.
If you have any woody plants on your property, you can use the trimmings for mulches for Woody, perennial, and plants that love fungal soil’s. Just set them on the top, and they will be food for the fungi and then after the fungi have a gun working on them, they will attract all sorts of beneficials and soil decomposers, especially earth worms, and pill bugs. and if you want them to proliferate, you can trim them after they have begun seeding!
Thanks for spreading your knowledge, I will make a video on this for my Instagram soon and maybe one for UA-cam as well!
Insta: @alchemyartsgallery
Edit: oh, I see you talked about cover crops in the later, part of the video and living multis… So yeah, right on! This was one of your best videos in my opinion, because proper mulching can make or break soil, health and soil health is what makes a garden prosper! The mulch is break down and become food for the micro and macro soil organisms. Lastly, everyone should read teeming with microbes by Lowenfels and Lewis To learn more about using the proper mulches and microbe to fungal ratios….
Perennial cover crops generally have to be cut around the agricultural crop, or weakened temporarily. Pretty much, you have to make white clover hay/mulch etc. depending on what you use, probably every couple weeks, again, depending on how quickly it grows back. White clover will start to grow back almost immediately and fill back in within that timeframe. What I took from Masanobu Fukuoka on this was that those crops are grown not so much for cover as for fertilizer and mulch, and their purpose is to improve the soil very slowly over a long time rather than simply maintain or adjust soil temperature, etc.
I have a very small garden, but I like watching your videos because they're very informative and pretty funny too (but in a small and effortless way). Thanks! 😊😊
Thank you so much for continuing to make videos. I have always enjoyed your videos. Still do! Even with all the new changes, your videos are still so good. Enjoy seeing what you two are doing in your own spaces.
I'm so glad you made this video. I just finished reading about the different mulches in your book and wanted to see a visual on the how. 👍🏾
Great timing for a great informative video. Thanks
Hey, you can actually add timed markers in the video when uploading vids to UA-cam :)
Loved the video, though! Great explanation, not too in-depth but also not too shallow. Good job
I love this RANCH! Thanks for all the great info.
Always informative, entertaining and right to the point.
Rock composting is very effective in hot, dry climates and has been used in many cultures for thousands of years.
This was great! You are hilarious! Thanks for simplifying the mulch dilemma.
Trying cover crops for the first time this year. Appreciate all of your posts so much.
Thank you for sharing and discussing this information. This is very educational to myself and others!
Really like this presentation! Maybe third time I've watched. I'm home gardening with inground beds. Also just got a good used troybilt pony rototiller. First run for tiller went well. Thanks for all your encouragement!
Thank you so much for all the great content!
Very inspiring to make and use compost for plants, thank you for strengthening farmers in our area from nature back to nature. success always sir.
Thank you for encouraging gardening UA-camrs such as myself, especially new ones.
One year after linemen came & tore the crap out of the edge of my yard next to the utility easement, I dumped a mismatch of every mulch I had laying around & even mined nearby hedgerows for material. It was an accidental magic mix of stuff. It grew beautiful sweet potatoes. So, don't be afraid to mix.
Experimenting with 2 of my tomato beds this year. 1 is mulched with almost only grass clippings. For the other, I chopped and dropped the weeds and grass that had grown in since last year, then put down a layer of cardboard, followed by a 3ish inch layer of partially composted woodchips. Same variety of tomato in both, and I'm transplanting bush bean starts in between rows and plants.
We already love your channel upon our first view. Great info! Subscribed!
James- we love you so much. We are new gardeners and we’ve learned everything from you and MIGardener. We watched everything all winter, spring and through to summer. Even our kids know you haha. Thanks for all the help in taking some control of our food supply, and learning skills we can pass on
This was a very helpful and informative video. Thanks.
This gent will forget more than I'll ever know. I can learn big time and subscribed. Thank you.
I'm in New Castle Ky and Thanks, you helped me decide. Going with cloth landscape fabric to control morning glories in my beans. 😉
Ty for your honesty. I’ve been going back and forth with doing it or not.
My mulch of choice is using hay or straw after sheep have used it for bedding, gives you double usage and is infused with sweet urine and glossettes.
It is filled with pathogenic bacteria, you must compost it properly to get rid of them
I have been using pine straw on asparagus and blueberries for a number of years with good results. Last fall I spread a six inch layer of pine straw over a 750 sq ft area of my garden and set out some tomato plants in it 19 days ago. So far they are looking good, but we'll see. Always good to try something different.
I did the same thing in my tiny veggie gardens two years ago: just a few varieties of tomato, squashes, eggplants, cukes, melons, carrots, peas, and peppers. The only thing that didn't do so well was the peppers. But I suspect they were just on the edge of the shadiest part of my raised beds, not a pine straw issue. Heading out today to spread out this year's crop.
@@TheLawnmowerLady I had tried mulching tomatoes with pine straw several years ago and was not sure it was worth the effort. The problem was I put down the straw after the tomatoes were set out and staked and the weeds were getting started and the soil was drying out. This time the straw has been out there for several months, and the weeds are all smothered out and the soil moisture is preserved, Some people badmouth pine straw, but I happen to have it for free and now that I am learning to work it into my cropping system, I am really beginning to appreciate it.
Great info. I’m still fairly new to vegetable gardening and will keep watching
Hi Jesse, thanks for the living pathways idea. I really like it and have been using it for a year now. Best wishes, Francis
영상잘보고 갑니다.
편안한 주말되십시요. 😊
This is a great video. Thank you! I used straw in my 4'8' raised garlic bed and got the joy of removing a thousand new straw starts shortly after. Not a fan for that reason so I'm here to hopefully find a better option.
GREAT UPLOAD ! HELPFUL INFO !
We used to get spoiled round bales a lot cheaper. Got to ask for them. Straw is really good for making muddy paths passable, by just spreading it on the muddy area. Field Peas and oats has been my favorite cover crop. Rye as a last resort.
I am new at ur channel but I like ur work, from last few years we r also trying to go for no tilling, this year wheat was amazing
So much great info as always ✌🏼💚from Vermont
We use mostly grass and alphalfa/clover silage. This gets the same benefits we would get from hay but without weed problems, as the fermentation kills most of the weed seeds. Most of the time we put the mulch down first and it sit for a couple of days before planting into it, so it can gas out a bit (In a greenhouse or polytunnel it is important ensure as much ventilation as possible for this few days). Otherwise the plants can get a little stressed in the beginning.
Information was very useful...Thanks for sharing.
I wish I had someone like you close to me I could learn from.. so many I ask questions around me don’t even believe in notill and they all use chemicals.. makes learning so much harder.. then having the time to watch video after video is difficult.. but only way for me to learn 🤦🏻♀️ and I still have so much learning to do 💯
Thanks for your information!
Great video & awesome details ! Thanks
Knowledge soooo good! Thanks!
This is such an underrated channel
Your videos are fantastic!! Thank you Jesse!!
I really enjoyed this and learned a lot. Love your humor ;)
Trying a combination of compost and spent oyster mushroom substrate (straw based) that has been chopped and mixed together for a mulch this year.
I've added composted manure to the heavy soil I bought this year. Weekly compost extracts have worked wonders, but did not provide the volume of organic matter to soften the soil. Herbs like oregano and thyme performed much better of carrots, salad greens and brassicas.
Moving onto peppers, tomatoes, strawberries and huckleberries. I love the purple bird droppings.
Good job ❤
Top notch summary
Always enjoy your videos .Fan from Mississauga Ontario Canada
Thanks for sharing your intresting videos.
Tq for sharing your knoledge.
Jess, with the cover crop, how about covering the cover crop with cardboard? If you cut off the sun for 30 days, the cover crop would be gone. My second idea, invert the cover crop. You know, roots up, leaves down. My idea comes from people who grow, harvest, and sell rolled up grass. This is a similar idea as covering the cover crop. I appreciate inversion would take a lot more time and effort, but could be quicker.
A plastic silage tarp does the exact same thing as cardboard in terminating cover crops. I think Jessie talks about it in his cover crop video. Works better than cardboard as it doesn't break down or fly away in the wind if not weighed down properly. Plus you can re use it over and over.
As for inverting, yes it works, but it defeats the point of no till.
Very informative video - thank you. I used cardboard and grass clippings in the bottom of a raised bed that was full of nut sedge. I planted pole beans in that bed and had beautiful plants. I also mulched around the plants with compost. It’s been more than a year and I’m seeing very, very little nut sedge in that bed. It seems to have a hard time coming through the cardboard and grass clippings. I have also used grass clippings around beets. They formed a mat around the beet plants and very few weeds (in my case, mostly nut sedge) made it through the mulch. It’s the best thing I have found to combat the hellish sedge.
For lead mulch I have had good luck mowing the leaves with a mulching blade and dumping it on my bed. I then loosely raked it in. It was only a 2-3 inch layer, but I think raking helped it to not form a mat. By end of winter it was reduced in volume dramatically and my garlic look great!
For context I'm a home gamer, not a large scale operation so I haven't optimized for efficiency
Super helpful!
The living soil handbook is a great!
I had no idea the confirmation process for awesomeness was this simple. Done.
Amazing ❤
Ohmygoodness, just found you and love the humor! Subscribed! 😅
It is a very useful and very important information about Mulch.
Thanks!
❤❤❤❤ it’s a good look
This is the first year that we have stopped putting in landscape fabric entirely. To deal with weeds, we have put down about a foot of fresh wood chips. When that eventually breaks down we will put crimson clover in the rows between the beds. We done that in other spaces and it works great.
Crimson clover brought some boom out of my flower bed. I'm definitely starting some living walk ways
12:32 good to know, if I purchase organic compost, it won't have any biosolids added. Today I learned something knew.
Right, if it is OMRI certified or NOP compliant it cannot contain biosolids.
Excellent video! Thanks
Fantastic video, thanks
outstanding, cheers
And this is like early morning tv! Thanks