How to mulch veggies?

Which vegetable do I mulch to keep out weeds and which ones shouldn't I mulch. I am a little unsure about this aspect. I am using raised beds and not rows.
Thanks

Hi Mobi,

That's a good question and I imagine you will get a variety of answers. We do vegetables in raised beds and we mulch them, so first and foremost I think what you are suggesting is a very good idea. Keeping weeds down is just one of the benefits of mulching. In addition it also helps retain moisture in the soil (I don't know if you've been wet or dry out there in Denver. We've had a dry year so far, and thus have been using the garden hose to water the plants.) Mulch helps keep the soil moist underneath the layer of mulch. Having raised beds also means the soil will drain well, so it should be a "win win" situation with neither too much nor too little moisture. Depending on the kind of mulch being used, if it is an organic/compost-based mulch you will be fertilizing your plants and soil every time you water them and, ultimately, when you dig it into the soil at the end of the season adding a nice healthy organic component to strengthen your soil's health. A final benefit of mulching (in my opinion) is that (depending on what kind of mulch you use) it helps create a nice even appearance, a little more "eye appeal" in your garden.

We place a layer (a couple of inches) of mulch evenly across the surface of the raised bed and right around the stem/base of each plant. Kind of like building a nest or tucking them in, whichever metaphor you prefer, without overdoing it by creating a huge mound. We've done this with virtually every kind of vegetable, from thick stemmed tomatoes or eggplants (easy to mulch since they are spaced far apart) to fine stemmed lettuce (tougher to mulch, especially if you've planted them close together, but still worthwhile if you can do it). "Thirsty" vegetables such as squash or cucumbers really benefit from mulching.

Good luck and I hope others will chime in with advice and suggestions here.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2007 5:34 AM

Here's a follow-up photo showing mulch around a summer squash ("Floridor") with a cluster of baby, marble-sized squash on the way. We put a layer of clean straw (got a bale from a farm friend, but can also purchase at many garden centers) and then put a thin layer of a commercially available organic mulch on top of it. Even with mulching, there are a few weeds peeking through but ultimately mulching does help suppress weeds and maintain moisture for this thirsty plant. Hopefully you can see in this photo that we mulched right up to the base/stem of the plant (when it was younger) and the plant has since expanded outward. Although you cannot tell from this photo, this squash is in a 4'x8' raised bed (sharing space with several other plants).

Thank you,
It is dry, dry, dry here - always. Not as bad as in the desert but it is considered semi-arid.

If you start the seed right in the beds, as in carrots, do you mulch after they come up? As I assume the mulch would suppress the seeds from coming up.

And, are there any major do's/don'ts with what you use? In desperation this summer I shredded a bunch of newspaper for mulch. Not very pretty, but it does seem to be helping with soil cooling and water retention. Next year I'm doing the research to find straw, this was an emergency fix only.

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.

T-Jill,

We used an commercial organic mulch for the first time this year, based on a variety of circumstances, but in prior years (and in the future) we plan to continue using a homemade compost-mulch based on rabbit manure and wood shavings. ("Conan" one of the pet rabbits featured in the accompanying photo). We have a large batch of this stuff "cooking" in a pile at a farm friend's acreage right now, in anticipation of using it as our primary mulch next season once it is finished. Previously we had used a compost tumbler in our backyard and the finished product was an effective mulch.

I have no direct experience using newspaper, but I don't off hand see why it wouldn't work well. I quote from one of the classic "compost texts", The Rodale Book of Composting:

"Many kinds of colored paper, even those with colored inks, can be used for composting or mulch" (p.99).

This source goes on to emphasize the importance of chopping it or shredding it in order to facilitate breakdown for the purpose of compost, but I know many utilize the technique of using full sheets of newspaper as mulch. Perhaps somebody with more direct experience doing so will chime in. I wish they would, since I'd be interested in learning more about it.