02/22 Mulches and garden health
That your choice of mulch material can affect the health of your garden? Choose mulches for their improving qualities, as they will inevitably be incorporated into the soil over time. Some mulches work well but have a drawback. Straw, clean or not, is excellent as a mulch, but does hold seeds that sprout-so you have to weed it-but not much. It’s still worth using. Pine needles are excellent mulch for strawberry beds, but may be too acidic for vegetable beds. Wood shavings & dust might smell really good, but they draw all the nitrogen out of the soil as they break it down – so if you are going to use them, mix with a lot of chicken manure (about 50/50) as it has a very high nitrogen count, and leave an open buffer around the plant base. Mulches are great but be sure to use a compost tumbler to make compost to add to your plants.