There are an abundance of choices to use for your organic garden mulch. They vary in cost and availability dependning on where you live.
Bark mulches have a tendency to cost more unless you happen to reside close to a company that services trees.
Be sure to add a nitrogen fertilizer to your soil before putting down bark mulch if you are not going to compost it first.
Bark mulch has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio and will steal nitrogen from your crops so if you compost it there will be a beneficial change to this ratio and you will not need to add a nitrogen fertilizer.
Peat Moss is a rather expensive mulch and in my opinion, not one that is worth using. It takes too much water to get it wet and it dries out if there is a drought. Once dry, you will find it extremely difficult to wet again.
If you are going to use buckwheat hulls or cocoa shells as mulches you will need to keep them to at least a two inch depth. Buckwheat hulls have a tendency to scatter if watered too hard and cocoa shells have a high potash content and may do harm to your sensitive plants.
Peanut shells make a pretty good mulch because they are easy to apply, are durable, are full of nitrogen and in my opinion, make your garden look attractive.
Sawdust and woodchips although pretty common and not too expensive, have their drawbacks. Like bark mulches the high ratio of carbon to nitrogen will take away the soil nitrogen from your decomposing plants. To avoid this you will need to use nitrogen fertilizer before using the mulch. This adds more work and more cost making these mulches less enticing to use.
You can also use grass clippings as a mulch but remember to apply the clippings gradually to avoid matting which restricts air flow and watering. Use thin layers of grass clippings, allowing each of the layers to dry up and turn brown before adding another layer. These layers of grass clippings will eventually fertilize your plants as well by leaching the nitrogen they contain into your soil.
Leaves can also make a great mulch but aren’t available year round and often mat, creating a big, soggy mess. Mixing leaves with hay or straw will help overcome their tendency to do this.
The best mulch, in my experience, is compost. It performs as a slow releasing fertilizer and watering it allows nutrients to leach out of it into the soil. Your soil will become organically rich within a couple of years just by using compost as your mulch because the lower compost mulch will become part of your top soil.
You’ll have better and better soil each growing season without a ton more work! How great is that.
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Tags: compost, fertilizer, garden mulch, organic gardening
