Recently I outlined the limits that I set when mulching the veggie garden. But I do away with all reservations when it comes to my favorite type of garden mulch — a living one!
If you’re not familiar with the term, a “living mulch” simply refers to the use of live vegetation growing in the garden [...]

A visitor browsing through photos of the garden was curious and inquired into the types of mulch and the various techniques that are employed to mulch my organic raised bed garden.
Here’s her mulch question followed by what may come as a surprising admission regarding the application of mulches in the vegetable garden:
“I love your blog [...]

I received a question recently regarding using newspaper as a mulch to control weed growth in the garden. Diane made the following inquiry: “I was wondering what you think about using layers of newspaper covered with straw as weed control. We have such a prolific weed problem in our community garden that straw alone does not work and I refuse to resort to black plastic as many other garden members have done for understandable reasons.”

Straw mulches can serve many beneficial functions in the home garden. Straw is inexpensive and readily obtainable from garden centers, or even more economically from local farmers. Just be sure to purchase straw rather than hay, since the latter is more likely to contain weed seeds.
Straw is an organic material that breaks down slowly and [...]