I’ve been hearing a lot of people saying that they’re feeling overwhelmed by weeds this year. I know how you feel, weeds can quickly take over a garden area and your summer. For many gardeners, weed control is a huge chore. Some people even give up on gardening all together because the weeds are incessant. But weeding the garden doesn’t have to be so time consuming.
Leaf Mulch in the Vegetable Garden
How to Control the Weeds
One of the best ways to control weeds in the garden is to add a thick layer of mulch. It’s standard practice to mulch flower gardens and other landscaped areas, but many people don’t mulch their vegetable garden.
I think one of the reasons for this is because common landscaping mulches, like wood chips and rock, are too heavy for the vegetable garden. Beds in the vegetable garden need to be dug and planted every year, and heavy mulches would need to be removed before tilling or they get in the way, which adds more work.
In the vegetable garden, it’s best to use a light mulch that will break down quickly and can be tilled into the soil. Materials such as hay or straw, grass clippings, finely shredded wood, sawdust, pine needles and leaves are all great choices.
Related Post: How to Prepare a New Garden Bed for Planting – part 1
Straw Mulch In the Vegetable Garden
The Benefits of Mulching
Mulching the vegetable garden has many benefits, and weed control is a major one. Mulch also helps to keep moisture in the soil, which means less watering. Mulch keeps the soil and plant roots cooler so plants are less susceptible to drought conditions in the heat of the summer. Adding mulch to the vegetable garden can even help to lessen the chance of many common pests and diseases, including blight and flea beetles.
Related Post: How to Prepare a New Garden Bed for Planting – part 2
Organic mulches add nutrients to the soil as they break down, improving the soil quality and attracting worms. Plus, mulching adds a nice, finished look to the garden. All of these benefits add up to a healthier, more attractive vegetable garden and less maintenance for the gardener.
For best results, add a thick layer of mulch to the vegetable garden – a 2-4” layer of mulch is ideal for discouraging weeds from growing. When adding mulch to the garden, avoid piling it around the trunk or stems of plants as this could cause them to rot. Try to keep mulch about an inch away from the stems of plants.
Vegetable Garden Mulched With Straw
After mulching the vegetable garden, a few weeds will still pop up, but they will be easy to pull. It will be significantly less than the amount you would have if you didn’t mulch.
Mulching the vegetable garden is the best way to save time and energy in your garden. Your vegetable garden will be healthier, and you will have more time to enjoy the summer. After all, who wants to spend all their free time weeding and watering the vegetable garden?
More About Growing An Amazing Vegetable Garden
- How To Water A Vegetable Garden (The Right Way!)
- Natural Pest Control Remedies For Your Garden
- How To Use Natural Fertilizer For Garden Vegetables
- How To Test Your Garden Soil At Home Using A Simple Soil Test Kit
How do you handle weed control in your vegetable garden?
Great article on mulching. I’m a firm believer in the positive powers of mulching and agree with your insights into all the benefits.
I don’t till my vegetable garden, or really even turn it over, so I use wood chips and heavier mulches amongst my veggies as well as the shrub and flower beds.
Awesome! Do you find that you have to refresh the hardwood mulch every year after planting your vegetable garden? I had that problem when I put mulch into my annual garden, and that’s why I decided to use lighter mulches in my vegetable garden. I suppose it’s not any harder to refresh the hardwood mulch every year than it is to spread straw or leaves though. 🙂
The problem I had last year with straw mulch was that it had lots of Hay seed heads in the straw, so this year I have a large crop of wheat in the garden. It’s worse than my regular weeds.
I’ve had the seeds of the straw grow too, but they aren’t a huge problem for me. But the straw dies over the winter here. It must be warmer where you live that the straw is still growing this spring. Bummer! You can buy seedless straw bales. They are bit more expensive but something to try. Check your local garden center to see if they carry it.
This year I am using a layer of compost as mulch. The local WSU extension office and the Master Gardeners both recommend a compost mulch.
Awesome, let me know how that goes for you! I always wondered how they keep the weeds from growing in the compost, but maybe it’s a natural thing.
When properly handled, the compost itself has been internally heated to about 180 degrees through the decomposing process, killing all the weed seeds. If two inches of compost are applies as mulch, the weed seeds in the ground under the compost mulch are inhibited from reaching the surface.
Capt. Brigg; Master Composter Recycler:
This is my second year with my vegetable garden and mulching has helped me enormously !!
I thought the weeds would just take over otherwise and by myself pulling the majority of them up would of been so back breaking and boring.
As I have a lot of grass cuttings I will continue and it also helps break up the clay soil.
Awesome!
I use shredded paper as my mulch in the garden. When it rains, it becomes wet and makes a great barrier. This barrier breaks down perfectly for the following year. In the spring, birds use it for their nests.
Wonderful idea, thanks for sharing!
What a great way of recycling paper. Thank you for the suggestion I will be busy mulching today without worrying about having chunks of wood mulch in the way next year. Awesome!
Awesome! 🙂
still concerned on using cedar mulch on my vegetable garden? I worry that it will get too hot for the plants… any insight to this?
Actually, the mulch will help to keep the soil and plant roots cooler!! It also helps to hold in moisture longer, so the soil won’t dry out as fast. Using rock mulch is what bakes plants. 🙂