Beginner Gardening: How to mulch veggies?, 1 by BDale60

BDale60 wrote:
I'm not sure how others do it, but when we direct seed something we allow the plants to emerge from last year's soil before mulching. If you've grown squash or cucumbers, you know it doesn't take too long before a small plant emerges and then grows quickly. I'm guessing (although I cannot verify) that mulching prior to emergence would, as you say, suppress the young plants you want just like it suppresses the young weeds you don't want.

Even in the case of transplants (like the photo of this young "Speckled Roman" tomato transplant back in early June) we may not mulch the very minute we transplant. Usually we get to mulching sometime (sooner, rather than later) but not necessarily immediately. You might think from the photo that we live on top of a rock quarry with all the small stones here. This raised bed was created in our back yard, and I think there might have been a small shed sometime in the past and we have some remants of a building's foundation still there. I assure you the soil is on the way to becoming enriched. This soil is in a raised bed about two years old that was originally "double dug" (down two feet with a spade) and then simply turned over with a garden fork at the beginning of the season. We "pick rocks" every year (taking out at least some of the stones) before putting on a layer of mulch. We've also put plenty of manure-based compost into the soil on a regular basis. Eventually it is headed in the direction we want. Already the worms love it, and there are usually several in every fork full of soil we turn over at the beginning of the season.