Anyone who hates gardening because of all the weeding probably doesn’t use mulch. Last year I hardly ever had to weed because I use mulch wherever possible. If for only this reason I would mulch, however, there are many more benefits to mulching your garden. Go to the USU extension fact sheet on mulching for a full run down of mulching and the different types, I will sum up the benefits here.

Benefits to mulching:

• Reduce moisture loss
• Increase nutrient and oxygen absorption due to near the soil root production
• Moderate soil temperature
• Control weeds
• Reduce compaction
• Add visually to landscape

Hopefully this will convince you to use mulch, but now the question is what kind. Here are a few tips.

First, my favorite mulch is black plastic. It is fairly inexpensive, and provides the best results for the benefits listed above. When it is not possible or practical to use plastic, then I like to use grass clippings.

For example, with peas, beans or corn it is not very practical to use black plastic because it would require so many holes. For these I spread grass clippings which also improve the soil over time. I also do this for my raspberries.

A word of caution when using grass clippings, you should not use a “weed and feed” lawn fertilizer on your grass or else the weed control will affect your plants, if you do use this type of fertilizer then let the clippings compost for a number of weeks before using. Also, you should let your clippings dry out before using. I usually only need to dry them out for a week in my climate.

Of course, if you want the many benefits of mulching then you need some sort of irrigation system that would allow mulching. I would recommend a drip irrigation system as shown here.

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