gardenspecialist

Once the soil has warmed up and drenching rains have ended its time to begin to think about mulching your garden.  Mulching has many benefits for the home gardener.  Mulch holds in moisture, smothers weeds, controls the soil temperature, and provides organic material to the soil.

Choose mulch ingredients that allow the soil to breathe, let the water in and keep light  out.  These materials can include dried - but not fresh -grass clippings, sawdust that has rotted at least a year or more, chopped straw or leaves, and pine needles.  In fact, almost any organic material makes a good mulch.

Apply the mulch several inches thick, one mistake that gardeners make is putting down too little mulch.  After a few weeks the weeds start poking through, the making it difficult to cultivate around the plants.  Too little Waltch also gives the plants less drought protection.

Sawdust should be spread to a depth of 2 to 3 inches, shredded leaves 8 to 10 inches, straw 5 to 7 inches, newspaper 4 to 7 inches, and grass clippings 5 inches when you first spread them.  The mulch will compact down as you walk on it.