Old Fashioned On Purpose

S15 E1: Mulching Magic: Unlocking the Secrets to a Thriving Garden

• Jill Winger • Season 15 • Episode 1

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With gardening scaled back due to some timing issues with the milk cows, the spotlight is on the lifesaving benefits of mulch, especially as we brace for an impending drought. Learn how mulch can transform your garden by saving time, reducing weeds, and conserving precious water.

Get ready for a treasure trove of practical gardening advice as we explore the world of mulch. From grass clippings to wood chips, I break down the benefits and potential pitfalls of various organic materials. Discover why grass clippings are my go-to mulch and the critical importance of avoiding sprayed grass. Hear my firsthand experiences with different mulching materials, including tips on avoiding nitrogen depletion with wood chips and dealing with slugs. We also touch on inorganic options like landscape fabric and black plastic, offering a comprehensive guide to choosing the best mulch for your garden's health and productivity. Tune in for an episode packed with insights and personal stories designed to inspire and inform your homesteading journey.

Podcast Episode Highlights

  • Personal updates 
  • Benefits of mulch
  • Which mulch is best...
  • Biggest mistake people make with mulch
  • Mulch #1: grass clippings
  • Mulch #2: old hay or straw
  • Mulch #3: cover crops
  • Mulch #4: compost
  • Mulch #5: shredded leaves
  • Mulch #6: pine needles
  • Let's talk about using wood chips (aka Back to Eden method)
  • Thoughts on using inorganic materials as mulch...

Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode:

Learn more about Aquatru here: www.aquatru.com
Use the code HOMESTEAD to save 20% on your order

My garden story on using contaminated hay: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2016/08/curled-tomato-leaves.html

Details on how I'm fixing my tainted soil: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2023/06/how-to-fix-tainted-soil.html

Learn more about using cover crops here: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2019/10/garden-cover-crops.html

Check out my Instagram reel on cutting down cover crops and planting tomatoes: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6JyfUNrybT/

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:


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Speaker 1:

Well, hey there, friends, welcome back to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast. We are kicking off season 15 today after a little bit of a break Well, a podcast break, I wouldn't say the rest of my life was on break, it was still moving pretty quickly but we are kicking off a brand new season and I'm really excited for this because I have a bunch of amazing guests coming up and today's topic is also something I love to talk about. So we're going to dive into mulch. It's something I've addressed here on the show before, but I will say that it is 100% saving my life this summer in the garden, and I just wanted to go through some of my new discoveries and findings about mulch, share some updates, give you some tips, because I get a ton of questions about this and I will just say if you're not using it, you need to be using mulch. It will make your life so much better and save you so much time. So we're going to get into a deep dive about mulch today, but before we do that, I thought I would share a bit of a personal update. I like to do that usually at the first and last episodes of each new season, just because you guys are curious. You ask a lot of questions and I think it's kind of fun to keep you abreast of what's been happening.

Speaker 1:

So a few things here. First off, I just got back from the Homestead Festival in Columbia, tennessee. It's my second time going there, to that festival in particular. But I've been to Rory's Beaks Place a number of times for other events and it's just always so fun to go there, so well run in terms of how the event goes, and it's just so good to see friends and like-minded folks. You know, I think, at least for people like me, I often prioritize filling my cup kind of at the bottom of my list, where it doesn't even make the list. I just think I'm too busy, I don't need that. But whenever I finally just bite the bullet and do it and you know, hanging out with people who do what I do and understand our way of life just is so refreshing. So it was a great weekend seeing a lot of friends, meeting, many of you signing books. We sold out of cookbooks within like an hour and almost sold out of old fashioned on purpose that fast as well.

Speaker 1:

So super fun signing books and just connecting. You know, I know people listen to this show. I see the numbers, but sometimes it feels like I'm still talking to myself here in the office. So to see you guys, your actual faces, and hear your stories is pretty awesome. Also, I got to meet Michael Pollan, which was pretty awesome.

Speaker 1:

You know, I don't fangirl really over anyone. I've met celebrities in the past. I just I just not how I roll, but I may have fangirled just a little bit over him. He's one of my favorite authors and so freaking smart. Just listening to him speak, I just love how his brain works. So it was fun to connect just for a brief moment with him and my claim to fame is that you know our book signings were back to back and I'm pretty sure we use the same Sharpie to sign books. So there you have it. I totally nerded out. He's so good. If you haven't read his books Omnivore's Dilemma In Defense of Food they're amazing. He really set the precedence for the shift of food culture in the United States. He was one of those first people to really speak about that in a way that got attention.

Speaker 1:

All right, enough, michael Pollan, what else? Oh, a big update, and just kind of to close the loop, of something that I declared and shared to you guys here on the show. Back in January, I had set the intention that I was going to rope at a branding this year. Like for those of you who have no idea what that I just said, it's like roping a cow or a calf off a horse at a branding. Brandings are a big deal here in Wyoming. We have a whole branding season. It usually starts in April and sometimes it goes all the way through July, depending on when the ranchers are calving.

Speaker 1:

But I have wanted to rope at a branding for basically my whole life and even though I ride a ton and I work out on horseback, roping was one area where I had just built up a lot of weird stories in my mind. Right, I told myself ah, you can't really do that, it's too hard for you. You know you're never going to be able to learn, you're too old, and it was just silly. And so I felt that that tug and that call or calling towards it much like I've shared with you guys or coached you guys through on past episodes what to do when you feel that, that nudging towards something, but you're too scared to take the leap and I was recognizing that in myself. So I'm like you know what, enough with the stories, we're going to do it. So I shared that in January that I had been learning to rope, I'd been going to some clinics and getting some coaching in that and been practicing a ton and I knew it was time to just jump out of the airplane and hope the parachute did its thing on the way down, hoping that that practice and that preparation came through for me.

Speaker 1:

And so I roped at four brandings total this year. The first one was like so scary I felt like I was going to throw up that morning as I loaded the horse and I was completely butterflied out, like my stomach was just in knots. And we get to the branding, we help gather and I'm up first. I'm in the first group of ropers and everyone that the branding's in our area is super nice and supportive. You know some people I know more than others, and that morning in particular there was a group of cowboys from one of the ranches and they're like legit, like they they're not here to play right. Brandings are work and they're fun, but they're still work.

Speaker 1:

So you know I didn't have my coaches or my mentors there that day, it was just me and my horse. And so I get up there and they're all just happened to be lined up watching everyone rope, you know, kind of sitting back, and I'm like I want to crawl under a rock. And so I'm like here goes nothing. I'm probably going to make a fool out of myself today, so I might as well just get it over with. And I went out there through my first loop, caught both hind feet, and then I was like, oh my gosh, now what do I do? So I remembered to dally and I drug it to the fire. It was just a cool moment to have it come together like that. I missed a ton after that moment. Right, I missed a ton more calves, but I also caught a bunch more, and then it just gave me that confidence and it was cool.

Speaker 1:

So I'm telling you all this to hopefully give you some encouragement. There's something in your life that you really, really wanted to do, but you told yourself you couldn't, for whatever reason. Go try it, go do it. It's scary, you know, absolutely scary, but there's something about pushing through that fear and that hesitation. Man, oh man, the dopamine you get after is so dang good, like I walked on air for days after that silly branding and it just feels so good to do the thing you want to do and push through all the garbage and just make it happen.

Speaker 1:

So I have a lot to learn. Like, the more I rope, the more I'm like Ooh, I got to work on this and I got to work on this and I have a whole list of questions for when we have our horsemanship clinic next month. When my mentor comes back, I'm going to like pick his brain on how to do this, and I know I messed some things up and here's how to fix this habit. I need all this help, but at least I did it. I started, I tried, and so now I have something to work towards. So that was a huge win for me this year.

Speaker 1:

I just wanted to share it with you. Okay, what else? The soda fountain. Soda fountain is not sold yet. We are still operating it just to clear up rumors, because rumors are weird and people like to spread rumors. We're going to keep running it till it sells. We will continue to run it well until it sells. We're not ditching it. I have no intention of selling it to someone who will close it. That was a weird thing floating around and I'm like, why would someone buy it and close it? That doesn't make sense. So we've had a number of folks who I thought were pretty serious and then they backed out because it's hard to move here, it's challenging to find housing, it's not impossible, but it takes a little bit of oomph to get here. So various reasons, but we have some folks interested. As I record this episode We'll see what happens I just know for now I am working really hard at just being flexible and not getting my hopes up and not getting short timer syndrome, and just the thing I keep telling myself is we're going to close this chapter in a really positive, quality way, and so that's my goal right now.

Speaker 1:

And so we have a great team. We got a new manager in a couple months ago. He's been fantastic. The food is better than ever, there's new options. Our staff is running really well, so I'm very, very happy with how things are running at the moment. So it's new options. Our staff is running really well, so I'm very, very happy with how things are running at the moment. So it's been good, and I know there's a reason. We've gone through the roller coaster of the past few months and I think it's a good thing. So I'm expecting to continue to run the Soda Fountain through the summer until the right buyer comes along. So if you're coming through the area, you're planning on doing some touristy stuff or some vacationing this summer, come on by and see us Southeast Wyoming, chugwater Soda Fountain. We'd love to have you swing by and get a milkshake.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and my only other update. I think well, there's probably other updates, but the big one is, I don't know, just the homesteads trucking along. I had to intentionally. I'm trying to be a little less chaotic in the homesteading right now, just because we are still in ownership of the Soda Fountain and we have the charter school going, even though it's off for the summer. There's a lot of things happening behind the scenes that we're helping with and just life feels like a lot still at the moment.

Speaker 1:

I am still intending to streamline. That was my intention in January and December, where I shared that in those early episodes of this year. But what? That book that I read, 10x is greater than 2X. Love the book, but what they didn't share in that book is that sometimes the process of pruning and streamlining takes a while. I'd love to think that we just chop off the branch and off we go, and maybe that works in the world of pruning a fruit tree. But in life you have to sometimes close chapters, like I was saying earlier, in a slower, more intentional way. So maybe I naively started this year thinking I was just going to hack and chop all these things out of my life and get super focused and streamlined Still my intention. I'm on my way, but it's taking a little bit longer than I thought. So that's a whole nother life lesson. I probably could do a whole episode on that alone. But anyway, within that knowing I still have, I'm still a little bit, the mental image I get is like an octopus with like a bazillion legs doing a hundred different things all at the same time. Uh, I'm going to be doing slightly less gardening.

Speaker 1:

We didn't get our milk cows bred back in time to cab this spring, which at first really upset me, and now I'm like perhaps that was a good thing. Um, perhaps you know, it's a blessing that I'm not trying to make cheese. I hope next spring I can make cheese, but I'm okay with that. We didn't put in our giant rows of potatoes and onions. I'm okay with that. I still have my greenhouse and my raised beds, but I'm just trying to pare down that to keep it manageable while we're pruning the rest. Okay, so that's my update.

Speaker 1:

Now should we talk about mulch? I think we shall All right mulch. So I'm not going to belabor the point of necessarily why you need mulch, because I feel like if you're listening to this episode, you probably have a pretty good idea of its benefits. However, just in case you are brand new to the idea, however, just in case you are brand new to the idea, just a few of the most notable reasons you may want to look at mulch for your garden. Number one for me and this is hands down the biggest reason it reduces weed growth. Now, I'm not going to say it will eliminate weeds 100% I don't know anything that does that but it will drastically reduce the amount of weeds that you're dealing with, which, even if that was the only reason, that's enough for me. Number two it covers the soil, which is really the design of nature, right? Nature doesn't want to be naked, so it covers the soil, which reduces water runoff and evaporation.

Speaker 1:

So you're going to be watering less and, especially right now for us, we are looking to be heading into a very harsh summer. You know, last year we had incredible rain. It was so lush like we couldn't stop talking about the rain. Last year we had grass up to you know our waste in some areas. It was fantastic and that was unprecedented for us. And this year I feel like we're kind of paying for it as we look to be going into a drought year. So we have not had much rain. We have not had very much snow early in the spring. My grass in certain areas out in the yard looks like August or September, which is really, really depressing. So we're already getting super hot during the daytime and I'm watching the beds where I have not yet mulched them. They dry out so fast, and so my intention this week and next week especially, is to get mulch on as fast as I can, just to protect the soil and hold that water in, especially during the harsh midday sun, during the harsh midday sun, hey friends.

Speaker 1:

So I'm interrupting this episode for just a second to share something pretty cool with you. So I'll never forget the time many years ago when we visited a naturopathic doctor to talk about my husband Christian's allergies. He's dealt with them since he was a kid and he's kind of just one of those people who tends to be allergic to pretty much everything. And the doctor's recommendations was to put in a air filtration system in our house, to stop working in dusty barns or outbuildings and to stop being around animals. And I walked away super frustrated because obviously, if you know us, that's just not an option. We're going to have the animals, we're going to have the barns, we're not going to go live in a sterile house somewhere in a big city. So I kind of ignored those recommendations. But over the years since then I've heard a lot of other naturopathic doctors and people in that space talk about the importance of having some sort of air filtration in your home. I just didn't really know how to do that and I didn't like the thoughts of putting in a ginormous system that sounded really complicated and super expensive. So I was really excited to come across Air Doctor.

Speaker 1:

Air Doctor is a air filtration system that captures all of those super tiny contaminants that you can't see. Think things like dust pollen, mold spores, pet dander, bacteria, viruses and even things like ozone gases and VOCs. It's this little unit. You don't have to hire an HVAC company to put it in. You just take it out of the box, plug it in and off you go, and it has this thing called an ultra HEPA filter that is proven to filter particles that are 100 times smaller than a typical HEPA filter, so it's kind of like a HEPA on steroids. So we have ours in our bedroom because we spend more time there than any other room in the house, while we're sleeping, of course, and I love knowing that at least for that period of time, especially during the summer months, our body is getting a break from the constant pollens and histamines and everything else that's floating around outside, and, quite honestly, it's making us a little bit miserable itchy eyes, runny nose, you know the whole nine yards. So I'm excited for you to give it a try, if this is something you've been struggling with as well. Air Doctor comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you don't love it, you just send it back for a refund, minus shipping, and I have a promo code for you If you use the code HOMestead to give it a try.

Speaker 1:

Now back to our episode. Okay, so weeds, less watering, and number three is it's going to feed your soil as it breaks down, and I've done a lot of episodes on soil health. You know that I nerd out over this and I'm really trying to learn more about the inner workings of the microbes. But even from my not perfectly educated view, I just know that when I'm putting organic matter on the soil or in my soil, everything is better. I get more worms, the texture is better, it's more fertile, it just it, just you can tell the soil is healthier. And so I love using organic mulches, and I say organic versus something like an inorganic mulch would be a tarp or a plastic sheet. There's a time and place for those. But I love organic mulches because they decompose and some people might say, well, that's annoying, because then I have to reapply the mulch, which you do, but you're feeding the soil as you reduce the weeds and you lessen your watering times, which is a big deal. So that is why I use mulch, and I have more episodes on kind of the reasons and the ins and outs of that.

Speaker 1:

But the million dollar question I want to answer today is which mulch is best? I get this question a lot and, like any good question, the answer is it depends. Don't you love it when someone answers with that? I feel like more and more in my life that is how I answer, because there's always nuance and very few things are black and white. But anyway, that definitely applies to mulch, because the type of mulch that is best for you is going to depend on your area, your garden, your climate, but maybe most of all, the materials you have available. I find that to be the biggest limiting factor, and that's why I really recommend you lean into what is available for you in your region instead of getting really stuck on one particular material being the one, because you may not have it, or you may have it and you may have to buy it for big bucks. So use what you have.

Speaker 1:

Ideally, mulch is going to be free and plentiful and something that you can produce from your property, even if that's just raking up leaves and shredding them and using those. So I like to make sure it's something that I don't have to pay a lot of money for, because you're going to use way more mulch than you think you will. The number one biggest mistake people make with mulch and this is what causes them to think it doesn't work and get really frustrated by it is that you need a thick layer. I would say plan on covering your soil with six to eight inches of mulch at least, because otherwise, if you're just doing a little token sprinkling, you're going to have air and light, get down to the soil and that's where the weed seeds are still going to come through. Also, it's probably going to decompose super fast and it's going to feel like you are mulching forever and always and that's annoying. So you need a lot. Get something that's readily available. So let's get into what your options are.

Speaker 1:

Now. This is probably not a secret, because I've talked about this before, but hands down, my favorite mulch material would be grass clippings. They are the darling of my vegetable garden. I have used them for years now and I get really stingy about when we mow the lawn. I'm like I need it, I need to put it, you know, take it out of the bag and put it in a special little pile and I just like hoard the grass clippings.

Speaker 1:

Now, grass clippings make sense for us because we live on a high plains grassland. That means even outside of my little yard area if we have some areas that are not in pasture. Most of our property's in pasture, but there's a few little random areas that aren't, so when we're mowing those, like in between the tree rows, I have grass. You know, if you live in a wooded area probably doesn't make sense to try to use a ton of grass clippings. But trees don't like to grow here, grass does, so I'm going to use that to my advantage. The other really really important piece about grass clippings is that we do not spray our yard with anything, and that is key. And it's also a little frustrating because you live in a city or a suburban area. You have a ton of lawns, a ton of lawn all around you, but odds are you're probably not going to be able to use most of those clippings because people spray all kinds of junk on their lawn. So only use grass clippings if you know you are free from pesticides and herbicides.

Speaker 1:

One of the other considerations with grass clippings and this is what kind of scares people off is that grass clippings tend to get slimy quickly. So if you pile them up, they heat up fast. That decomposition starts quickly and because there is moisture in the grass clippings, you know they're going to get that wet, slimy, black, like I've reached into the pile before and it's warm, like it's considerably warm. So some websites or whatever will recommend oh, you have to spread them out in a thin layer and make sure they don't decompose blah, blah, blah. You know, guys, I have used them in all stages of decomposition. I have used warm ones, I have used black ones, I have used slimy ones. They're not as pleasant to grab and spread, but they've worked and I haven't had an issue. I also know that if they are in a thick pile and that's what's causing them to heat up, by the time I spread them out into six to eight inches in my vegetable bed, that heat goes away. So I haven't had any issue with them burning young plants or causing any damage. Could they maybe someday, I don't know, possibly, but that's not something I've had to deal with.

Speaker 1:

Another issue with grass clippings that comes up, or a question, is about seeds. Now, if you are mowing a lot or a lawn that has completely gone to seed or has a whole bunch of super tall, nasty weeds that are mature, I would probably not use those clippings in my garden because you're probably going to be seeding it with either grass or weed seeds. Ideally, you know you're mowing a lawn or an area that's just shaggy, right, it's not completely feral. So as long as you're going for a shaggy and not seeded out, those clippings should be just fine, baggy and not seeded out. Those clippings should be just fine. You're going to get some seeds eventually. I mean, it's just inevitable, but I find it's pretty manageable.

Speaker 1:

Grass clippings also do break down seemingly a little bit faster than other mulches, so you are going to need to reapply them. Honestly, I found this to be true with hay and straw as well, and so I just plan on after I put my first layer down, you know, a month later or whatever, I'm adding a little bit more. You don't have to go an entire new layer of six to eight inches, just add more as you go, and that keeps that layer thick enough to keep the seeds that you don't want to germinate from germinating. Another little note here is the timing of applying the mulch. So if you have you know you have your soil ready you plant seeds, make sure the seeds have time to come up through the soil before you mulch in between the rows, just because I find that mulch will move around a little bit and it's not the end of the world, but if you have one of those really delicate seedlings that's trying to germinate, the mulch can smother it.

Speaker 1:

I actually made this mistake with onion sets that I put out this spring. I knew better. I just was trying to cheat the system a little bit. But I had some pretty small onion sets. They were, you know, really tiny and really thin, and I planted them in my raised beds and I'm like, oh, I have this mulch here, I'm just going to put it in between the rows and hope it's good enough. Well, excuse me, got a little wind this spring, as we do, and it moved the mulch around just enough that it started to smother some of the onion sets and I had to work a lot on like spreading it back, pulling it back so they could get light and water, and then it would kind of encroach again on the onions and so I did lose a few just because the mulch was fighting me a little bit. Now, contrast that with a bed with, you know, onion sets that are a week or two old, or maybe some bean seedlings that are a week or two old. You can totally mulch around those guys and they'll be safe. Just really watch that germination stage, because it is a little touch and go there. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So, number one grass clippings are always my first choice. Another option that I've used a ton would be old hay or straw. So first off, a quick differentiation here just in case you're not familiar. So hay is grass that has been cut and dried right, so you're baling hay to feed to animals usually later in the year. Now straw is the dry stem left after a grain, like wheat, has been harvested. So a lot of times people get them confused for each other. But they are different materials. So hay is more readily available in my area and I have tried using it a lot in the past, especially if it's hay that got a little moldy. It's a little dusty. You don't want to feed it to an animal. Moldy hay is 100% fine to put on your garden.

Speaker 1:

Now, you've heard this story likely before if you listen to this podcast for any length of time, so I won't belabor the point. But the reason I stopped using hay is because of persistent herbicide issues. Persistent herbicides are chemicals that the farmer has sprayed on his hay field to control weeds, and the problem is is those substances last a long time. So they will not only stay around on the hay even after it has sat in a haystack for years, but they also persist through an animal's digestive tract and will contaminate your manure. So I have dealt with this more than once, unfortunately once with contaminated hay itself and once with contaminated manure, probably actually more than once with that. So I have posts and breakdowns about that on the blog and on previous episodes, but it's a big deal and a lot of people are struggling with it now. So unless you are 1000% certain the hay that you're using has not been sprayed, I would not use it. It is not worth it. It is a nightmare to get it out of your garden. So hay is great as long as it doesn't have any herbicides on it.

Speaker 1:

Now straw Straw has usually not been sprayed as much. I mean, I think there are instances where it does have some herbicide on it, but I have had, honestly, no issue with contamination from straw. I think you're safer with straw. The thing with straw that has kind of bitten me in the butt several times is it has a ton of seeds in it, more than hay even, and I've even had my husband get straw when he's picked it up. That was supposed to be like seed free and it was not seed free. So I have often more than once seeded one of my raised beds. It looks like a lawn, like I basically planted wheat in it from using straw mulch. I have also tried using the straw, like with my chickens. So I would spread the straw in their pin and let them work it and pick a bunch of the seeds out, and then pick up that mulch the following year and use it in the garden, and it still had seeds. So that's not to say I never, ever use it, but man it. It's a lot of work to try to overcome all of the seeds the following year when you go to um work the beds that had the mulch in it. So it's not my favorite, unfortunately. Um, I had a good source of straw last year and I still have some bales in the barn and I'm just like not using them unless I'm absolutely desperate. So it's unfortunate because other than that, it would make a great mulching material. Maybe in your area you can find better options, but here it's a lot of seeds, all right.

Speaker 1:

My next option for mulch. I kind of say it hesitantly because it is mulch, but it's not. I'm including cover crops here because, even though they are a little bit different than spreading on grass clippings or putting on hay or straw, they can act as a mulch depending on how you use them. So again, I have episodes on this and blog posts on this, so I won't go into all of the details. But how you could potentially use cover crops as a mulch would be to grow them in your area, your raised bed or your row.

Speaker 1:

Start them ahead of time, before you plan to plant. So for me I would plant, like winter rye in my raised beds at the end of the summer or early fall. So we get it started, water it so it germinates, it gets some growth and then when the really cold weather comes, it stops the growth, it just hangs out and goes dormant. Then in the spring, once the soil warms up and we get more moisture, the rye takes off again and you've likely seen some pictures of this on Instagram if you follow me there. I posted some reels and such. But the rye will get tall, like over a foot tall, and then before it goes to seed so I watch it, make sure it's not getting seed heads on it. This is usually in late spring.

Speaker 1:

When this happens, I go through with a weed whacker and I chop it Like I go down as close to the ground as possible to scalp it. You've probably heard that term in lawn. You know, in caring for lawns, like if you scalp your lawn, it's not good because it means that you had a lawn of a certain length. And if you take more than half or even I don't know the exact percentages but if you take a large percentage of that grass, it kills the plant. Now, if you just take the tops off, that's great, that promotes more growth. But if I have a, let's say, a blade of grass that's six inches tall and I cut five inches off, or even more than that, that's going to kill that plant. And so I'm using that principle to my benefit. With my rye I'm chopping it down purposely to kill that plant, and then I like to let that sit for a couple of days or longer just to make sure the plant is dead. And then I plant in that mass of roots. I don't till it or dig it or turn it over. I plant my tomatoes or cabbages or other seedlings not seeds, but started plants in that root mass, and the root mass works as a kind of mulch for me. It suppresses weeds and I can even take the chopped rye and lay it over in between the plants. So that's a little more complicated, maybe not a great beginner option and definitely it's not going to work for you if you're just starting your mulch planning right now, but it's something to think about for later in the year and it can really work. I'll try to link some of the other cover crop episodes or blog posts in the comments if you want to dig deeper into that, alrighty.

Speaker 1:

Next mulch option would be compost. Now this has really become a more popular method recently, or it's been re -popularized by Charles Dowding. He has that really popular YouTube channel and some books. He's a brilliant gardener in the UK and he has a no-dig gardening technique where compost is his favorite mulch of choice. His gardens are beautiful and every time I watch his stuff I'm like it makes it look so easy. I should just compost or I should just mulch with compost.

Speaker 1:

Now the problem for me, and why I haven't done that yet, you need a lot of quality compost to make that work, and by quality I mean it needs to be evenly decomposed, and it needs to be decomposed all the way, because if you're just using some kind of sort of aged manure, that can potentially cause some damage or put too much nitrogen in your garden or burn the plants. So you need to be properly composted, evenly decomposed and free of large lumps, so it needs to either be sifted or really well turned. The other issue with this, unfortunately, is, like I said earlier, I have dealt with that persistent herbicide damage in my manure and compost piles, and so I am not going to use compost in my garden as mulch from my big pile, where I have a large quantity, because I don't know for sure which pieces and parts of that pile have the herbicides and I have had issue with that in the past. So it's a little bit of a Russian roulette game with me that I am not willing to play. So I steer away from compost as mulch. But if you have a great source of compost and lots of it, I think that's a fabulous option. The key is to make sure you're using a thick enough layer, at least three to six inches, so you're just really piling it on there. But it's feeding your soil, and I mean compost is so amazing you really have a hard time going wrong with that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, next option this is one that I absolutely cannot use, but odds are it might work for you. That would be shredded leaves. So for obvious reasons, those reasons being I have no trees and we have 100 mile an hour winds that blow everything away. I don't have very many leaves here on my property. I don't have to rake them, but I know a lot of folks. Raking leaves or dealing with leaves is a big chore every fall. So if you live in a leafy place, they make a wonderful mulch and they don't come with the same herbicide concerns as grass, clippings, hay or potentially straw.

Speaker 1:

The key is and this is not from personal experience but from talking to smart gardeners who have leaves that it's best to shred the leaves first. Otherwise, as they get kind of wet and decomposing, they stick to each other and can create a mat that you don't really want. So you can run them over with a lawnmower, you can use a weed whacker or an electric leaf muncher. That sounds like fun. I wish I could use one of those, but I have no reason to. Anyway, but you can shred them up and then use them.

Speaker 1:

My assistant, chris who, if you've ever emailed me, you likely chatted with Chris because she runs my inbox she's an amazing gardener and she uses shredded leaves as mulch every year for her gardens. So she likes to shred the leaves in the fall and then she tops off her garden beds with a thick layer of leaves in the fall as she does her garden cleanup and putting it to bed for the winter. And she says that helps just protect the soil during the cooler months but also prevents the weed seeds that are in there from potentially germinating. So great option. I know a lot of you. You know it's kind of a liability for a lot of folks in the city. It's like, oh, raking the leaves, bagging the leaves, like, instead of putting them in a plastic bag to go sit in a landfill for decades and put them in your garden and feed the soil.

Speaker 1:

And my other kind of tree related option that falls into that category would be pine needles. If you have an abundance of pine trees, you can totally use the needles. Again, I don't have this problem. I have a few pine trees but they don't really shed enough needles to have to worry about. But you can use them in your gardens. So once um pine needles are dry, they're called pine straw. So if you've ever seen that term online, that's what that means. It'd be a little confusing, or it was for me at first. Anyway, you would just use them like you would leaves put a nice thick layer on your beds.

Speaker 1:

There is a concern often mentioned around pine needles that they can make your soil too acidic, and so I dug into that a little bit to see if that was true, and what I found is that the expert gardener folks say that fresh pine needles have a pH of about 3.5, but that acidity will decrease as the needles decompose and dry. So if you have a ton of them and you don't want to mess up the pH of your soil or you're worried about that, I would let them dry first and then put them on your garden in a two to three inch layer. The only downfall is that they're pokey. So if you're a bare-handed gardener, like I am, it's not going to be as comfortable to put them on or deal with your plants, but I feel like that's a small price to pay. You have an abundance of them. I would use them. Okay, and I saved one of the most often talked about mulches for last here, and that would be wood chips.

Speaker 1:

Whenever we talk about mulch online, wood chips are always the one that people bring up, because a number of years ago there was a method called the back to Eden method that went around the internet like wildfire and it was really cool. There was a gentleman named Paul Gotchke. I don't think I'm pronouncing his name right, but he made a video and his gardens I think they're in Washington State are stunning. And his gardens I think they're in Washington state are stunning. And he uses a layering of, I think, some newspaper. He kind of does a lasagna layer like newspaper and some compost and some wood chips Don't quote me because I'm not sure that's the exact formula, but he layers that on and then it suppresses weeds, it feeds the soil and his gardens are incredible. And he says you don't have to till, you don't have to work the soil, it's fantastic. So some people online I've seen have used this method with good results. I've also seen some people use it with disastrous results. So I think it depends on your climate and your soil composition.

Speaker 1:

My concern with this and the reason I have not used wood chips as mulch Now I use it on my garden walkways where I'm not growing any food, but I don't use it in my beds, because wood mulches are a high carbon material. Anything with a you know anything fibrous, anything with a big stock or woody, is going to be, you know, straight up carbon. And when carbon decomposes it needs a good quantity of nitrogen, a lot of nitrogen, to work with it to further that decomposition process. That's why, when we are building a compost pile, to get the heat and to get the action that we're looking for, we need to have proper ratios of carbon to nitrogen. If you just have one or the other, it doesn't work so hot. So because of that chemical process that's supposed to happen, if we're putting a ton of wood chips in our garden or on our soil, there is a potential for them to tie up some of the nitrogen that is existing in that same soil. And if the nitrogen is going to the wood chip decomposition, it's not going to be going to your vegetables.

Speaker 1:

Now that's not to say that's going to always happen. And if your wood chips are on top of the soil, it's not going to necessarily affect the soil that's deeper underneath. I think the issue comes into play if we dig the wood into our soil. Or you know, let's face it, sometimes, even with my best laid plans and my knowledge of soil microbes and layering and compost and cover crops, there are times I still have to turn my soil over a little bit. It's not quite fluffy and perfect all the time. And so I've envisioned, you know, putting that wood chip layer on and then the following year if I need to dig the soil in, I'm gonna have to take all those wood chips off or deal with that. And I have seen some nightmarish posts over the years from bloggers who have had to do just that. They haul them all in, they realize it wasn't right for their soil and then they're scraping all the wood chips off. That alone has scared me away from ever using them as mulch in my vegetable beds.

Speaker 1:

So I'm not saying you shouldn't try back to Eden. Do your research first. If you do, make sure you understand the nitrogen content in your soil. If you're already low in nitrogen, I'd say maybe be careful, proceed with caution. I think it's a fascinating method, but it's not one that I've been willing to experiment with caution. I think it's a fascinating method, but it's not one that I've been willing to experiment with yet.

Speaker 1:

Also, another issue with wood chip mulch is slugs, and I actually have brought slugs into my garden. Never had them before, never even saw a slug, didn't think they existed in Wyoming until I brought in wood chips for my walkways and lo and behold, a year later I have slugs in my beds. They seem to climb up the raised beds. They are more athletic than you would give them credit for, so it's not like out of control. I don't worry about them too very much. They do get to some tomatoes and things each year.

Speaker 1:

I know there are methods to try to combat them. People always recommend little dishes of beer and I'm like how many dishes of beer are you planning to put in your garden? It's just like does not feel like a very effective method Because I don't think slugs cover a lot of country. So I'm like it feels like a silly recommendation. Maybe you'll get a slug or two, but like, come on, guys, you can also use diatomaceous earth, which you want to be careful of because it can also harm beneficial insects. I don't use it a lot. Another option is people say to stake your plants up off the ground. So there's ways to combat the slugs, but I'm always like if I could avoid them in the first place, probably not a bad idea.

Speaker 1:

And then, finally, on my list here of mulch materials I don't use these a lot, but I wanted to include them just because I think that people are curious about them. I mentioned them earlier. But inorganic materials like black plastic or landscape fabric. They are options. They are my last options when it comes to mulch, just because they don't decompose, and I want that decomposition. Also, I don't love that there's something you have to go buy, buy, buy, buy. You know I'm often in my garden it's not to say I never buy things, but I try to reduce my yearly purchases as much as possible. And fabric or plastic, you can probably reuse it a year or two, but then eventually it gets broken down and you have to toss it and buy something else.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so last year, with our big, long onion rows, I did use landscape fabric and I do not feel bad about it because that area is so hard to weed, it's so long and there's a lot of surface area because onions don't really cover the ground right, they're just going straight up, and I didn't have enough grass clippings to cover it because it's so much room. So I got a roll of landscape fabric. We rolled it out over the top of the row once the soil was prepared, and then we raked dirt on the edges to hold it down because our wind would have totally ripped it off. And then I took a torch and burned a tiny hole. You have to go real quick, just burn, burn, burn all the way down. So I had little circles and then I planted my onion sets into those circles and it really did help Not foolproof, like weeds were still coming up in the circles with the onions, but it was so much easier to weed those versus the whole entire row that was impossible.

Speaker 1:

So I don't use fabric in my regular beds or my greenhouse but for a big, long market garden style row. I think it makes a lot of sense. So there you have it, friends. That was my giant list of mulching materials and there's probably more that I didn't include. You may have some other type of material in your area that you can use, and if you can make it work, I'd say go for it. I just really do recommend using it because I know even in just the last two weeks, like my garden has barely been in, but as I'm waiting for some of the seeds to germinate, so they're big enough for me to mulch the beds, it's so much more work when the soil is not covered. I'm watering more, I'm weeding more and as soon as I get the mulch on, all of my chores just drastically decrease. And I'm not saying they go away entirely. You're still going to have to pull some weeds on occasion, you're going to have to adjust your mulch or add more, but it's such a time saver for me I cannot imagine gardening without it.

Speaker 1:

And to those who are maybe a little bit hesitant to give up on that idea of this picture perfect garden with the black soil and zero weeds and there's something about that look that I think we consider the quintessential garden, the black soil that has no cover on it. Quintessential garden, you know, the black soil that has no cover on it. It's just the plants and the soil, like it's in the picture books. It's in the books of our childhood when we think about gardening, but we really break it down. That's not what nature wants and that's why it's continually trying to cover itself with other plants, aka weeds. And so I think if we let go of that picture perfect look and learn to love the look of mulch soil, healthy soil, covered soil, it makes everything happier. It makes our garden work in conjunction with us and we're partners, instead of just expecting it to give us things.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway, that's my spiel on mulch. I can't wait for you to try it this year, if you haven't already, and see how much it changes your workload. So that's all I have for you to try it this year, if you haven't already, and see how much it changes your workload. So that's all I have for you today, friends. Uh, we're going to have a wonderful season coming up, some awesome guests, so stay tuned, keep on listening. But that's all for today. So thanks for listening and I'll catch up with you on the next episode of the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast.