I love how well spoken you are really enjoying the info I'm getting from your page. Just wanted to let you know I used a very small wood chip mulch over my carrots this year and they came up beautifully I watched for them to start popping with the mulch not on top when they were babies and then once the plants came up I went around and put mulch on top to keep the soil moist. Happy Gardening☺️
Might want to try winter rye, plant it in the fall after your vegatable garden stops producing. Fold the plants into the soil in early spring. It breaks down in the soil and feeds the new vegetable plants you plant the following spring.
With the clover living mulch I had a huge slug issue this year in sth. Germany. Almost everything got eaten by them for two months (except solanaceae). Thank you for presenting your different mulch strategies!
Great information, thank you. I was wondering about walnut leaves in the leaf mulch. We have several walnut trees around our yard and with the wind blowing leaves around they mux in with the other leaves in the yard. I've read that a lot of plants don't grow well around walnut trees.
Walnuts secrete juglone, a chemical that inhibits other plants. Their roots are the main problem; there is some in their leaves but it breaks down fairly quickly when exposed to air and light. Using the leaves after they’ve already fallen and dried up would I think be ok, especially if you’ve got other leaves in the mix. :)
Thank you for the detailed explanation! It was really interesting to hear all the pros and cons of these 5 methods. I didn't even know about paper mulch :D I completely agree with the slug problem with grass / leaf mulch. The plants that are most important to me I have protected perfectly with slug collars (copper tape added), but everything without collars has been severely attacked this wet year. So for next year I'm going to adopt a new mulch method in my garden, partly because I don't want to spend so much time collecting leaves, spreading them and weighing them down with branches. If you have a very large garden area and don't want to keep working on the mulch or weeds from time to time all year round, then you need a more permanent solution. That's why I started a trial in an enclosed garden area this year. On already nutrient-rich soil (or with an additional layer of compost in the case of less nutrient-rich soil), I spread a thick layer of leaves and a thick layer of woodchips on top. In future, you only need to add as many woodchips once a year as were composted at the bottom in the previous year. The idea is that the nutrients in the soil (or from the compost added to it) are directly available, then the rotten leaves and then the rotten wood take over. For direct sowing, a narrow trench can be dug through the mulch to the ground and partly filled with compost, into which the seeds can be sown. You can also transplant by digging a hole through the mulch (and further through the soil if necessary) and filling the excess space with compost. My unprotected plants in this area have not been attacked nearly as badly by slugs and their growth has so far been no worse than in the rest of the garden. If I don't notice anything serious by the end of the season, I'll cover the rest of the garden in the same way in November. If anyone has any feedback on this method, I would be very happy to hear it :) And sorry for the long text.
@@WellGroundedGardens I only use animal fertilizer from wild animals that have given it of their own accord (e.g. worm castings in compost), so I won't be using any of that ;) As the wood is not mixed with the soil/compost layer underneath, it doesn't use up the nitrogen stored in it. In the first year, the soil life decomposes the immediately usable leaves and their castings provide the nitrogen. In all subsequent years, the bottom layer of woodchips should already have been decomposed by fungi to such an extent that it should also be usable by soil life and their castings provide the required nitrogen from then on. It is possible that this method does not provide as much nitrogen as other mulching methods, but if you plant the plants far enough apart and give them an extra portion of compost in the planting hole to start with, then everything should go well in my opinion :) But you can only be sure after a few years.
@@Freeland-Farm thank you for the feedback! Sadly i converted all my usable garden area into beds, so I dont have the space to compost the enormous volume of woodchips that I need to apply each year. And since it takes a long time to compost woodchips I cant wait for them to finish composting before I need to apply them this fall/winter. So my only choice is to protect my vulnerable plants with slug collars and hope it wont be as bad as my leaf mulch. But in a couple of years I have a thick enough lair of woodchips with already composted woodchips at the bottom so that I can mix the lairs of composted and not composted woodchips and this way the sufrace is more enclosed and less space for slugs to hide. I of course will try this with a trial bed first, before applying it to the whole garden :D
Oh, man, you have my sympathy. I fight the same battle. At our old place we removed the sod and added a layer of leaves, then flipped the sod over back on top (dirt up) and it worked really well. This garden was too big for that approach and tillage radishes and cover crops have been my main weapons. The good news is-great mineral content! 😂
Great video...thanks! You mentioned that you used to garden in or near Seattle. Looking at the evergreens in the background of the video I'm left wondering where you garden now? I looks like you're still in the rainy PNW. Thanks again 👍
Would it be possible to get a copy of your garden plan shown at 10:12? I love the structure and would like to modify it to work in my zone with my crops. :). Love your channel! Than you for all you do!
Also, here’s a tutorial that I made awhile back on how I created it, plus some data sources in the description: Tutorial - gardening year at a glance (garden plan) th-cam.com/video/Cxxn2BBqQlI/w-d-xo.html
Super interesting video. We use leaves & straw for a deep mulch method but spend a ton of time every morning picking off endless slugs.😵💫 How are you combating them?
I may do a separate video on that but short version is that I pulled the mulch away from the bean plants, specifically, and put diatomaceous earth around their base. I also put in some DIY slug traps-pint jars buried with their lip just above the soil, half full with cheap beer. :)
The use of mustard you mentioned sounds promising. I'm curious if you have an opinion on using pine needle mulch {the kind with very long pine needles} it's available in bulk from hardware stores? I garden organically and surprisingly sourcing of organic safe 'mulch' has been my biggest challenge in gardening. I'm in the suburbs and I don't have leaves, or safe grass clippings. Tried 'wood chips' and that was a disaster they lock together and form a solid mass they have attracted pill bugs and ants . Out of desperation I got the idea to use plain brown amazon boxes. I cut them up and secure them with garden staples, similar to your paper method. So far it's working well, it doesn't look great but looks better than that black weed fabric some use. I use it primarily to keep moisture in and prevent sun from solarizing soil. --Thanks
I’ve used cardboard myself-no shame! You just have to pull off all of that annoying plastic packing tape. I’ve used pine needles but they can acidify your soil; I like them under blueberries for that reason but you’d maybe need to add lime to raise the pH back up if you use a lot of the needles. Two thoughts for you-our township offers free compost and mulches as long as residents load it themselves; yours might do the same. You could also grab bags of leaves off of your neighbors’ curbs in the fall if they leave them out, and let it break down into leaf mold over the winter, then use it in the spring as a mulch.
@@WellGroundedGardens Thank you for sharing your suggestions 🙂. I may try the pine needles, I have of lime if needed. As much as I would love to use municipal compost and leaves from neighbors my concern regarding those unknown sources is the possibility of 'Glyphosate' {Roundup} being present in a public municipal mulch source, and also possibly present in leaves sourced from neighbors. Many people spray weed killer on their lawns close to their trees and trees soak that up too and so it might be present in the leaves, I would have no way of knowing.
Grass clippings, as you say....I fired my lawncare provider to do it myself. I used the clippings as mulch and in the compost pile. I am on year 4 of no garden, trying to rebuild the soil. No broadleaf plants can be grown. Corn of course loves the monopoly in the garden. Very careful what I use on my lawn, almost exclusively mesotrione, and only rarely apply. Water and fertilizer are really all you need for lawncare anyway.
You mention using "grass clippings" as mulch .... my "lawn" is mostly creeping clover, dandylions, yarrow, creeping charlie, and some grass too! Is it ok to you these clippings as mulch? Wont they start more clover, etc growing in my beds? Thank you
If you mow before they’ve flowered, then you can use the use the clippings just fine. If there’s anything that’s flowered and set seed heads, then you’d have an issue :)
I’ve used plain builder’s paper (from Home Depot) as well as paper mulch from gardeners.com. Both work, though the “official” mulch product comes with built-in fertilizer.
I would love to; not sure I’m up for the caregiving required. We’ve got a big pond that shows up with every heavy rain (issue with local storm drain) and they do naturally show up for that every spring 😉
I love how well spoken you are really enjoying the info I'm getting from your page. Just wanted to let you know I used a very small wood chip mulch over my carrots this year and they came up beautifully I watched for them to start popping with the mulch not on top when they were babies and then once the plants came up I went around and put mulch on top to keep the soil moist. Happy Gardening☺️
Nice! Where did you get the wood chips?
Might want to try winter rye, plant it in the fall after your vegatable garden stops producing. Fold the plants into the soil in early spring. It breaks down in the soil and feeds the new vegetable plants you plant the following spring.
I think there is rye in my cover crop mix, but if not I’ll definitely give it a go!
With the clover living mulch I had a huge slug issue this year in sth. Germany.
Almost everything got eaten by them for two months (except solanaceae).
Thank you for presenting your different mulch strategies!
Ugh! I haven’t had that issue as much with clover, but definitely with leaf debris!
Great video. I found it very informative.
I’m glad!
Great first hand testimony, and recommendations! This helps me simplify how I see which mulch to use in which scenario. Thanks for the great video!
I’m glad! This one was kind of lengthy and I’m happy to hear that it was still useful.
Great information, thank you. I was wondering about walnut leaves in the leaf mulch. We have several walnut trees around our yard and with the wind blowing leaves around they mux in with the other leaves in the yard. I've read that a lot of plants don't grow well around walnut trees.
Walnuts secrete juglone, a chemical that inhibits other plants. Their roots are the main problem; there is some in their leaves but it breaks down fairly quickly when exposed to air and light. Using the leaves after they’ve already fallen and dried up would I think be ok, especially if you’ve got other leaves in the mix. :)
Thank you for the detailed explanation!
It was really interesting to hear all the pros and cons of these 5 methods. I didn't even know about paper mulch :D
I completely agree with the slug problem with grass / leaf mulch. The plants that are most important to me I have protected perfectly with slug collars (copper tape added), but everything without collars has been severely attacked this wet year.
So for next year I'm going to adopt a new mulch method in my garden, partly because I don't want to spend so much time collecting leaves, spreading them and weighing them down with branches.
If you have a very large garden area and don't want to keep working on the mulch or weeds from time to time all year round, then you need a more permanent solution.
That's why I started a trial in an enclosed garden area this year.
On already nutrient-rich soil (or with an additional layer of compost in the case of less nutrient-rich soil), I spread a thick layer of leaves and a thick layer of woodchips on top. In future, you only need to add as many woodchips once a year as were composted at the bottom in the previous year.
The idea is that the nutrients in the soil (or from the compost added to it) are directly available, then the rotten leaves and then the rotten wood take over.
For direct sowing, a narrow trench can be dug through the mulch to the ground and partly filled with compost, into which the seeds can be sown. You can also transplant by digging a hole through the mulch (and further through the soil if necessary) and filling the excess space with compost.
My unprotected plants in this area have not been attacked nearly as badly by slugs and their growth has so far been no worse than in the rest of the garden.
If I don't notice anything serious by the end of the season, I'll cover the rest of the garden in the same way in November.
If anyone has any feedback on this method, I would be very happy to hear it :) And sorry for the long text.
Super interesting! Are you adding extra nitrogen (blood meal? chicken manure?) as you plant to balance out the carbon from the wood? Or no need?
@@WellGroundedGardens I only use animal fertilizer from wild animals that have given it of their own accord (e.g. worm castings in compost), so I won't be using any of that ;)
As the wood is not mixed with the soil/compost layer underneath, it doesn't use up the nitrogen stored in it.
In the first year, the soil life decomposes the immediately usable leaves and their castings provide the nitrogen. In all subsequent years, the bottom layer of woodchips should already have been decomposed by fungi to such an extent that it should also be usable by soil life and their castings provide the required nitrogen from then on.
It is possible that this method does not provide as much nitrogen as other mulching methods, but if you plant the plants far enough apart and give them an extra portion of compost in the planting hole to start with, then everything should go well in my opinion :) But you can only be sure after a few years.
@@Freeland-Farm thank you for the feedback!
Sadly i converted all my usable garden area into beds, so I dont have the space to compost the enormous volume of woodchips that I need to apply each year.
And since it takes a long time to compost woodchips I cant wait for them to finish composting before I need to apply them this fall/winter.
So my only choice is to protect my vulnerable plants with slug collars and hope it wont be as bad as my leaf mulch.
But in a couple of years I have a thick enough lair of woodchips with already composted woodchips at the bottom so that I can mix the lairs of composted and not composted woodchips and this way the sufrace is more enclosed and less space for slugs to hide. I of course will try this with a trial bed first, before applying it to the whole garden :D
Great video, very helpful! TY
I’m dealing with new home compacted clay soil, so fun fun fun!
Oh, man, you have my sympathy. I fight the same battle. At our old place we removed the sod and added a layer of leaves, then flipped the sod over back on top (dirt up) and it worked really well. This garden was too big for that approach and tillage radishes and cover crops have been my main weapons. The good news is-great mineral content! 😂
Great video...thanks! You mentioned that you used to garden in or near Seattle. Looking at the evergreens in the background of the video I'm left wondering where you garden now? I looks like you're still in the rainy PNW. Thanks again 👍
Southeast Michigan-far from a dry climate, but now it’s freshwater lakes. :)
Would it be possible to get a copy of your garden plan shown at 10:12? I love the structure and would like to modify it to work in my zone with my crops. :). Love your channel! Than you for all you do!
For sure. Let me figure out how to share it.
Also, here’s a tutorial that I made awhile back on how I created it, plus some data sources in the description: Tutorial - gardening year at a glance (garden plan)
th-cam.com/video/Cxxn2BBqQlI/w-d-xo.html
Super interesting video. We use leaves & straw for a deep mulch method but spend a ton of time every morning picking off endless slugs.😵💫 How are you combating them?
I may do a separate video on that but short version is that I pulled the mulch away from the bean plants, specifically, and put diatomaceous earth around their base. I also put in some DIY slug traps-pint jars buried with their lip just above the soil, half full with cheap beer. :)
The use of mustard you mentioned sounds promising. I'm curious if you have an opinion on using pine needle mulch {the kind with very long pine needles} it's available in bulk from hardware stores? I garden organically and surprisingly sourcing of organic safe 'mulch' has been my biggest challenge in gardening. I'm in the suburbs and I don't have leaves, or safe grass clippings. Tried 'wood chips' and that was a disaster they lock together and form a solid mass they have attracted pill bugs and ants . Out of desperation I got the idea to use plain brown amazon boxes. I cut them up and secure them with garden staples, similar to your paper method. So far it's working well, it doesn't look great but looks better than that black weed fabric some use. I use it primarily to keep moisture in and prevent sun from solarizing soil. --Thanks
I’ve used cardboard myself-no shame! You just have to pull off all of that annoying plastic packing tape. I’ve used pine needles but they can acidify your soil; I like them under blueberries for that reason but you’d maybe need to add lime to raise the pH back up if you use a lot of the needles. Two thoughts for you-our township offers free compost and mulches as long as residents load it themselves; yours might do the same. You could also grab bags of leaves off of your neighbors’ curbs in the fall if they leave them out, and let it break down into leaf mold over the winter, then use it in the spring as a mulch.
@@WellGroundedGardens Thank you for sharing your suggestions 🙂. I may try the pine needles, I have of lime if needed. As much as I would love to use municipal compost and leaves from neighbors my concern regarding those unknown sources is the possibility of 'Glyphosate' {Roundup} being present in a public municipal mulch source, and also possibly present in leaves sourced from neighbors. Many people spray weed killer on their lawns close to their trees and trees soak that up too and so it might be present in the leaves, I would have no way of knowing.
@Earthy-Artist totally fair concern! We’re lucky in that regard.
@@Freeland-Farm Thankyou. I hadn't thought of composting my excess of wood chips! Into the compost bin they will go 🙂.
Grass clippings, as you say....I fired my lawncare provider to do it myself. I used the clippings as mulch and in the compost pile. I am on year 4 of no garden, trying to rebuild the soil. No broadleaf plants can be grown. Corn of course loves the monopoly in the garden. Very careful what I use on my lawn, almost exclusively mesotrione, and only rarely apply. Water and fertilizer are really all you need for lawncare anyway.
I’m hoping to convince my husband to add micro clover into our lawn so we can get to a “water, only” routine.
Do you clear the mulch when planting in the spring?? Do you have a spring planting video??
I do! Spring Follow-Up: What Happens to Cover Crop Debris Over the Winter?
th-cam.com/video/NhJHyJo7-Vk/w-d-xo.html
You mention using "grass clippings" as mulch .... my "lawn" is mostly creeping clover, dandylions, yarrow, creeping charlie, and some grass too! Is it ok to you these clippings as mulch? Wont they start more clover, etc growing in my beds? Thank you
If you mow before they’ve flowered, then you can use the use the clippings just fine. If there’s anything that’s flowered and set seed heads, then you’d have an issue :)
What kind of paper?
I’ve used plain builder’s paper (from Home Depot) as well as paper mulch from gardeners.com. Both work, though the “official” mulch product comes with built-in fertilizer.
Slugs? Get ducks if you can tolerate em
I would love to; not sure I’m up for the caregiving required. We’ve got a big pond that shows up with every heavy rain (issue with local storm drain) and they do naturally show up for that every spring 😉