What makes a good Mulch?

[pakaba]

hi
I've never used a mulch before :o
It's my first proper year on the plot :D. What do you all use as a mulch and how and why do you use it.

thanks in advance :)

Pakaba

[pakaba]

[Robert_Brenchley]

Grass cuttings and dead leaves. The grass cuttings are much higher in nitrogen.

[windygale]

hi pakaba, mulches can be differant things, well rotted crumbly compost, grasscuttings, paper, cardboard, carpet, black plastic, gravels, and its uses are for keeping in the moisture around plants and in the soil, keeping out light, which stops weeds from growing, kills any growing weeds, warming up the soil to speed up the growing times, a good growing medium for plants to grow in,
How to use them-- place them on your growing area, and plant through them if your plot is empty, or place them around the newly growing plant    ( but don't allow the compost to touch the stem as this can encourage rot and kill the plant)
hope this helps
windy

[supersprout]

Windygale summed it up pakaba, my take is that mulch can be
e.g.
- organic (compost) or inorganic (plastic)
- light-excluding (newspaper) or nourishing (spent hops)
- winter warming (dark) or summer cooling (pale)
- permanent (gravel, woven plastic on paths) or temporary (spent straw, leaves)
- expensive (chippings) or cheap/free (coffee grounds)
or combinations of all of the above.
If you think about what you want of your soil, the right mulch(es) will suggest themselves. Experiment with different mulches to see what suits you and your crops!
Some people on the forum prefer to mulch organically with compost alone, some use organic materials (see w'gale's list) directly on the beds.
You can plant seedlings through most mulches. To answer your question, I think a good mulch is a thick organic mulch (around 2"). It's hard to over-mulch, but avoid bringing the mulch right up to plant stems.
::) SOAPBOX TIME  Sorry to bang on again, but remember you can get oodles of coffee grounds from your local coffee shop, which will otherwise be thrown away. Moisterising, soil conditioning, soil warming, anti slug, slightly acid ph and FREE. More at http://starbucks.co.uk/en-GB/_Our+Stores/_Community+Programs/Grounds+For+Your+Garden.htm

[derbex]

I mulch quite a lot, in the fruit beds it's just to keep weeds down so I use cardboard topped off with raw horse manure -definately not too close to the stems. Round the acual bushes it's rotted manure. Sometimes I'll top this up with grass clippings -especially in the summer when we've got grass clippings but no poo. Round the fruit trees it's well rotted manure/compost topped by grass clippings in the summer.

Elsewhere it tends to be compost or clippings on newspaper. Although the asparagus got well rotted manure overwinter + seaweed.

I'm going to try and mulch more this year as it keeps the weeding down and between commuting and the family I can't always get down as often as I'd like to hoe.

Jeremy

[Zippy Seale]

I shred newpaper, using an office shredder and mix with grass and coffee grounds.
In Fact I add shredded newpaper with manure when preparing trenches for my beans and sweet corn.  Like others before have said, a good mix and then a sprinkle of soil to keep in in place. 

Newspaper is a great additive to grass if composting as it stops it becoming a smelly mass.
I have about 3 boxes currently, ready for the coming months.
But Any media that in moisture retentive. keeps light from getting to the soil below. allows air flow through tho the soil and at the end of the season when dug in helps with the condition and fertility of the soil is good mulch.

[pakaba]

:) :) :)
wow thankyou all so much for the infomation, i sure have alot to go on, and my DH will be so pleased not to have to put all the grass clippings in the compost bin this year.(we might finally get some decent compost)  I will now be saving the sunday papers and all the coffee grounds. ( we probably get through as much as starbucks )  Thanks for the starbucks links supersprout, do you just go in and ask, how does it work, do they save them or just give you what they have at the time???

many thanks :) :)
pakaba

[supersprout]

I just went in and asked pakaba, and they said they would be glad to let me have their grounds. We have settled down to a routine where I collect the whole week's output on Sunday mornings - they keep it in plastic bags in an old supermarket trolley which I wheel out to my van.
As long as they can rely on a regular pickup, they are happy to sort out and bag the grounds during the week.
The grounds need a bit of picking over, so you could be picking out paper towels, plastic milk bottle lids and the odd cup and spoon in it. I think this is a small price to pay! And leave in the paper towels/napkins if I'm putting it in the compost, pick them out for mulching.
Whenever I have been to the lottie I bring in a HUGE basket of seasonal veg for all the staff, which goes down well. We haven't been through a courgette season together yet ha ha ha  ::)

[the_snail]

Dont mention caugettes I am still getting over last years onslaught. Must of had hundereds.

O well bring on summer and the ratatioue, barbecued caugette kebabs, backed caugette and caugette casarole.

The_Snail

[Amazin]

Wot? No ice-cream?

;D

[pakaba]

The last time i grew courgettes i struggled to get any! :'(!!!!!  Maybe i wasn't giving them enough caffine ;D ;D 
I think i might phone the local starbucks up and see if i can go collect some next week sometime.  it'll be a start.

Pakaba

[the_snail]

Posted by: Amazin  Posted on: Today at 13:48:54 
Insert Quote 
Wot? No ice-cream?

O yes I forgot baked caugette with a nice dolop of vanila ice-cream. Thanks for reminding me Amazin.

The_Snail

[the_snail]

Mean while back on topic.

With regards to the mulch then I would use anything that is sterile (Contains no weed seeds or allows then to germanate.) for example newspaper, cardboard etc most of the stuff on here you could use. It must at the end in my honest opinion improve the soil also. So you are getting a mulch and a soil improver in one. A double whammy.

The_Snail