11 Amazing Mulch Materials for Permaculture Gardening

Mulch is an essential element of any permaculture garden, and in this video, I share 11 natural mulches perfect for permaculture growing, including which are best for annuals versus perennials and the key mulches I am focusing on this growing season.
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[@marijeb278]

I just wanted to thank you for being so good at both inspiring and teaching! I've been developing our garden for about 5 years now, and mostly loved it, but I've also sometimes gotten into a bit of a despair when things didn't go as I'd hoped. But nowadays -whenever I'm feeling a little lost or overwhelmed with regard to the garden, I watch 1 or 2 of your videos, and by the end of it, my hands are usually itching to just get outside and muck around in the garden! Your approach has really shifted my focus from "chores" and "having to follow rules" towards, just spending time with your garden, and reacting to what you see happening. It is so satisfying to see your garden as your ally, rather than something that is working against you. So thank you for that!

[@vironia]

This is so heartfelt! I feel the same too, and thank you for saying it

[@thisorthat7626]

Leaves for the win! The mold will attract the local fungi and bacteria and increase soil fertility quickly. Plus, leaves contain many of the micronutrients that are needed by plants and hard for shallow rooted plants to reach. Trees, with their deep roots, can get at minerals deep in the ground. Nice video, Huw.

[@charliec6020]

Have you tried growing mushrooms and using the remaining subtrate for mulch? Adding fungi to a permaculture set-up would be very informative content.

[@rasserfrasser]

Great videography. Kudos to the team on that.

[@RussHjelm]

Grass clippings are my most abundant and freely available natural resource for mulching and composting. Next comes trimmings and such from the garden itself, particularly comfrey.

[@calliebolstad1345]

Huw, your wealth of knowledge and clear, concise delivery is so appreciated. Thank you!

[@SiljeMeum]

I have a gorgeous Weymouth Pine or something much like it that large amounts of needles every year. So far I've just used it around the blueberry bushes, but this year I'm considering growing potatoes in it. I've been sick for months, so I'll rather plant late than not at all. It's also an early variety. Thank you for a great video!

[@herenow2895]

Ramial chipped wood ? Never heard of it before, so had to Google it. Basically wood chips made from the small branches of deciduous trees.

[@monikmgp]

A word of caution about manure: I would definitely make sure to properly compost the manure before using it as mulch and also make sure that animals have not been fed tons of minerals and check what chemicals they've been given. Salts from manure build up and ultimately exarcerbate compaction problems if you have them. More salts, more compaction.

[@andreat9847]

I chop leaves up with the mower and mulch my veggies with them. The worms love the leave layer and break it down over the course of the summer.

[@StringofPearls55]

How thick is your layer?

[@andreat9847]

@@StringofPearls55 I start it 2-3" thick and then it compacts down after a bit

[@StringofPearls55]

@@andreat9847 Thank you. I've got no shortage of leaves and like the idea of feeding the worms.

[@hhggh5232]

Thank you very much for the valuable information

[@ohio_gardener]

Hey! Use Hay! 😀 Last year a farmer dropped off a thousand-pound round bale of old hay that had been sitting in the field for a year and was no longer saleable. When I need mulch I can pull off a wheelbarrow full and start mulching.

[@RunaVanBeeck]

Depends on the climate. Hey contains to many seeds for me here in Belgium, straw works better

[@ohio_gardener]

@@RunaVanBeeck That depends more on the type of hay rather than the location or climate. If it is good quality alfalfa hay, there will be very few weed seeds in it. If it is grass hay, it will likely be full of weed seeds.

[@chelleb3055]

Also can be full of chemicals, which we don't want. Finding true organic hay or straw is a real challenge for the critters let alone the garden.

[@ajb.822]

@@ohio_gardener I agree. Although, I have used somewhat weedy, grassy hay just fine as well. And I'm in a fairly humid climate ( nw Wisconsin, USA). Be sure not to apply it to thinly. Mulch itself. I don't do super thick, but try for at least 3 in. ( not necessarily squished down, so, a slightly fluffy 3 in. minimum).

[@ajb.822]

@@chelleb3055 Yes, but in dairy farming even those who aren't organic often don't spray their hayfields with anything. Even the persistent herbicides aren't a serious concern after 2 years, so it's definitely worth asking around/any farmer. My Dad never sprayed his hay with anything. It went from 2 years in corn during which he did use some herbicides, to 4 years minimum in hay, 1st year which he planted oats and alfalfa together, oats choking out weeds while the alfalfa got established I think is why. So, by the next summer, it'd been 2 years since any sprays. I'd used hay and straw from his farm in my garden with no issue, but yes, nowadays I know to verify about any potential use of persistent herbicides within 2 years prior to harvest.

[@lavinapoppleton1396]

Very informative, really enjoyed this video. You have given me a lot of food for thought! Thanks so much!!

[@sherlockstu]

In my Polly tunnel now I use concrete board for my grow beds surrounded by slate chippings. Works a treat. Since had no bug problems. 🙌

[@NnekaOchonogor]

Perfect timing!

[@SonniesGardenPA]

Very interesting, I'm always learning new things from your channel. Thank you!

[@user-lr7cd8vn8p]

Good job!👍

[@SuntiJunrod-uz3lr]

Good job!🙂

[@deegee8010]

I’ve just strimmed all the grass that’s grown around fruit bushes on an allotment I’ve recently taken on and I’m leaving the cuttings where they are.

[@MyFantasyHomestead]

Thank you Huw, great ideas, as always! I definitely need to order the wool mulch/fleece. I managed to collect around 500 slugs from my 5x8m garden yesterday and forcibly relocate them 300m away 😂I am so afraid to put seedlings out, as they get eaten straight away and I have already lost one sowing of beans and peas...

[@BeverleyW]

I'm in the same position with the slugs and snails. That's a good idea about collecting them up and relocating them and I'm going to try that. Please can you report back on how well it does for you.

[@laurapennings5140]

Maybe there’s sheep’s wool found near where you live? I picked up a bigbag full of wool last year for free only 20min drive from my house🙌🏼

[@mareeploetz5194]

Be careful as wool is extremely slow to break down as evidenced by our local sheep farmer who buried a load with no change at all in it over 5 years. A month ago i laid down 24 raw wool pellets on my pathways to suppress perennial weeds and couch grass that invaded my new in ground no- dig garden beds. I laid it down with grass clippings to cover the white fluffy look. So far it is doing a brilliant job of suppressing the weeds, managing rainfall and water around the beds and I don’t see as many slugs and less seedling being slugged in that part of the garden compared to where there is no wool. So far much less time in weeding from invading pathway weeds and less time managing pathways. I had tried suppression with cardboard and silage plastic with limited results. So far very please with experiment with wool. If it doesn’t work long term it will be a problem because wool doesn’t burn nor break down.

[@SynKronos]

We tend to use our duck & geese house straw bedding as our main mulch/ fertiliser medium. *Edit. Plenty comfy, but equally we gave masses of Dock and nettle that we make liquid fertiliser from.

[@EighteenandCloudy]

Really helpful, thank you. Comfrey grows in abundance on my allotment site, so I'll definitely be making the most of it!

[@swishh55]

Thanks!

[@leselle777]

🍃Good Day. Thank you for your great tips and advice. I saw a video with your Jaime Oliver using stinging nettle as a side dish...sauteed, plentiful where you are. In the caribbean, I use grass and plant clippings, compost or growing running plants like sweet potatoes or pumpkin around tall stemmed plants. Have a great day...

[@stephaniebalducci6248]

Do you rinse your seaweed? Love all the information you always share and your calm demeanor is healing. Thank you! 😃

[@Frdunsing]

Thank you 😊

[@JoybileeFarm]

I have 3 or 4 lovage plants. I take a cutting for dried herbs and the rest I chop and drop around my fruit trees as mulch in May. It regrows in time for the swallow tail butterflies to lay their eggs and then it is food for these beautiful pollinators.

[@emilvaleriev3368]

Great video as always! Could you tell me which kind of comfrey is that?

[@cppc7308]

Thanks so much. I enjoy watching your videos very inspiring. I use my grass for mulching. So good and free

[@terryhall2299]

Do you dry your grass clippings out first before putting them on your soil around your plant? I added grass clippings one year to my potato plants and it killed them.

[@cppc7308]

Yes l dry them first l cut my grass an l put on a big paper bag the one we use for the leaves. An l use the dry grass with the soil for my planter

[@terryhall2299]

@@cppc7308 Thank you. I’d like to try that. Are you speaking of the black lawn plastic bags?

[@cppc7308]

I put on the big brown bags for the leaves they selling at Lowe's or home Depot maybe Walmart too

[@cppc7308]

It dry faster on paper bags

[@Christine-813]

Thank you for all your videos! They are so informative and really helpful! Do you leave the mulch or do you remove it after a while?

[@world-karma9127]

Leave it, it feeds the soil as it breaks down,

[@dn744]

Just ordered wool. As slugs ate 12 of my sunflowers. Over 100 more, so its not a big loss. 😊

[@daisybred]

I’m sorry to say that wool also doesn’t help. 😢

[@dn744]

@@daisybred oh no 😢

[@akinguyen-zj3mj]

Hello from Vietnam! Just want to know your thoughts about husks (particularly rice husks as we've got plenty of them here in Vietnam). Thanks for all the lovely videos!

[@arfaabbas]

NiCe

[@smallurbangarden]

Hi Huw, can you please share your experience with planting in "gutters". I see you have things planted in the "gutter" on the fence and I plan to do the same, as I have an abundance of 21m of fence 😅 but am hesitant how the watering would look like.

[@anisamupfupi910]

Can you use grass clippings if you have mares tail through the grass?

[@jorgeenriquediazmarrero4235]

Un saludo desde cuba , y mis subtitulos en español ? Este canal me gusta mucho

[@wandacotter5555]

Can you use bramble chips the same as ramial chips?

[@anjaschless]

A big thank you to you and your team for the great content! So my burning question: whould you use leaves of a walnut tree as a mulch for vegetabe beds - or do you think its not a good idea?

[@StringofPearls55]

I've got a ton of black walnuts and they do seems to affect my tomatoes, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. I've read that you can use compost that contains the leaves, but it takes a good 6 months to break down the juglone. I'm using leaf mulch in four of my raised beds and everything is doing great. Most of my leaves are maple and cottonwood but I can't keep the walnut out.

[@LoriSavingWild]

Hi, with the seaweed shouldnt we rinse it off and dry it out first? thanks so much

[@prubroughton2327]

regarding slugs and snails A researcher at Oxford if I remember correctly, found slugs and especially snails have a very strong homing instinct so 30 m may not be far enough..Ducks do a better job and give a lovely crop of eggs into the bargain

[@derek-press]

homing slugs? that could be the next "in" sport,I wonder what a good homing slug would go for?

[@gary2646]

i had slugs happily living under and crawling over natural sheeps fleece

[@mmartuha]

💚💚💚

[@linedezainde]

Excellent reminder! Do you mean straw? I was told not to use hay for the seeds.

[@ajb.822]

I never understand that, myself, as ai never had an issue with hay ans nearly always did with straw - got a lot of whatever grain it had been from, sprouting up in it, the one time I basically had an oat field... . I guess it depends a lot on what they hayfield was, and stage of maturity, but I've used fairy weedy, grassy hay ( vrs. mostly alfalfa) still with no problem, surprising to myself, too. I think it depends on if you mulch thickly enough - more than an inch, but I didn't usually do very deep, either ... probably 3 to 4 in. on average, slightly fluffed as I'd somewhat split a slab to spread/maximize it. Then, not tilling. So, seeds in upper layers mostly germinate in a rainy week then dry out and die, I'm guessing, and the lower ones are mulched out. Not tilling, means any hanging around yet waiting to go down to soil or up to light, don't get help w that :). I've also been likewise happily surprised using grass clippings even from ( an unhealthy) lawn with many grasses gone to seed in it. Anyways, I'm not guaranteeing you'll have success with grass or hay , just sayin' in my experience, I've much preferred it to straw. I seem to have more slugs with straw, also it often seems to let more light in, esp. a concern if using to mulch potatoes but also for success snuffing out weeds. ( Always be sure to avoid persistent herbicides !)

[@user-ws4lj8gg1k]

What is your opinion on using pine cones as mulch?

[@veraw2121]

Hi Huw, how would you advise to mulch with fresh wool? In the video it looked like it was mixed with something else? Thanks

[@GLG_YT]

First for first time I think

[@world-karma9127]

Is there no problem with salt on seaweed?

[@hannaolsson3445]

❤

[@skittlesskittles7577]

HEY!! 😆

[@juliehanly2945]

Do you wash the seaweed because of the salt?

[@aideenj]

How come you need to break the leaves down around annuals as opposed to perennials?

[@vinnibjerg5973]

Hi Huw. As usual an inspiration😉 I’ve heard (can’t remember where) that you can use leaf mulch as a seeding media. Do you have any experience with sowing in leaf mulch? If yes, would you recommend it?

[@boa.1381]

Leaf compost ;)

[@vinnibjerg5973]

Yes, leaf compost 😉

[@boa.1381]

Great stuff but it takes a long time to Break down an ripen If composted pure

[@paullittle5200]

I've found that a woodchip mulch has stopped my gooseberry bushes from getting bitten by sawfly as they can't reproduce due to the mulch.

[@michellebarbour5777]

Great ideas here. I'm worried about the salt on local seaweed. Do others put it straight on the garden as a mulch or rinse it first? I'll be putting it round Tomatoes and other veg. Thank you for any feedback :)

[@juneshannon8074]

I find it very frustrating that no one addresses the salt issue in seaweed. As salt is a desiccant common sense tells me that it needs to be washed.

[@michellebarbour5777]

@@juneshannon8074 I looked it up. Seems that many do not wash. Crunchy, dry seaweed, not touching the plant, seems to be a slug detractor due to slight salt. I'm going to give it a go on half of my Toms and compare.

[@debbiet5130]

​@@juneshannon8074 I usually leave mine in a pile to be washed by rain before I use it...

[@martha4759]

I have read that you have to take mulch off the ground and replace it to prevent fungus growth. That feels labor intensive and like it would rob the benefits of the broken down mulch. Do you remove your mulch? Thank you for the video -- amazing ideas!

[@HuwRichards]

Nope, that's ridiculous haha

[@martha4759]

@@HuwRichards Thanks! I thought so too.

[@HuwRichards]

@@martha4759 can't believe someone would write that!

[@linguaphile42]

Does grass not put a ton of seeds into the soil? Do you have to be sure it's not the first mow of the year? I started using it around plants in a new bed I had made and it just seemed like there were seeds in there and that I would be dooming myself to grass in my new beds.....

[@ajb.822]

It has seemed to be the case that somehow, it's not usually a problem for most of us. I know, I was super concerned too ! But then I saw Jim Kovaleski using it exclusively on his Maine ( USA) garden, and a few others talking about it too. Seems that as long as you're not applying it too shallowly, it mulches itself out, and the surface sprouts but then dries out. Maybe don't do it when expecting more than a few days of rain in a row... ?

[@linguaphile42]

@@ajb.822 Yeah, that makes sense now. And I saw a youtuber who was using a scythe to cut his fields of grass and then use it all over and it looked great -- maybe that was Jim. Free mulch would be the best thing ever 🙂

[@essentialcomforts2166]

What are the blue flowers in the manure segment..near the gooseberry I think?

[@veraw2121]

Borage?

[@blueshawll]

Those are forget me nots. :)

[@richardhornsby1712]

I live near the river Humber so collect seaweed and use it as mulch

[@nhart6046]

How about sawdust?

[@anafd25]

I'm interested in this one, too... I recently acquired several bags of sawdust from a local sawmill and they are willing to give more ;)

[@nhart6046]

@@anafd25 I have a friend that processes firewood so I have a never ending supply

[@anafd25]

I was searching web and found this 😏 “Creating a sawdust-free ring about an inch or two from the bottom of your plants will prevent the sawdust from burning your plants. Also, adding a boost of nitrogen fertilizer to your soil will help prevent nitrogen loss from the sawdust”

[@SKfaf]

How are you not getting an abundance of slugs if you chop and drop the chard? My chard hasn't survived as a result of these slithery creatures.

[@sheilasanderson9681]

I'm hearing 'ramuel ' chips. I've never heard the word. Am I hearing it correctly?

[@GalenWillettMusic]

Ramial chipped wood. You’ll see info on the Google. Happy gardening.

[@mareeploetz5194]

Inviting people to tell their true stories and experience of using raw sheep wool in the garden. My neighbour dropped off 24 pelts of wool freshly shawn intending to use as suggested as a mulch, repress weeds and additive to compost. It’s full of tics, smelly, oily and overwhelming. My other sheep farming neighbour said wool never breaks down evidence by him burying a pile 6 years ago and it has not changed at all. Most farmers bury it as it has little value now sadly. It doesn’t burn so that’s not an option to any failed venture. My husband freaked out and I still have a big pile of wool fleece in my driveway wondering what to do with it. I think of it as my ‘shame pile’. Anyone have some real life experience of raw wool in gardening? Any recommendations? 😞

[@veraw2121]

Have you found more info? I'm considering wool too now that I've found someone with sheep

[@mareeploetz5194]

I decide to use the raw wool to cover the vegetable garden pathways to control the perennial weeds and grass that creep into my in no- dig ground garden beds that have no barriers and recently made on a field. The small pathways are tricky to mow, I don’t have access to wood chips, living pathways are another job, cardboard with grass clipping don’t suppress the perennial grass and weed…so I laid down the raw wool and covered it with grass clippings 4 weeks ago. So far I think it is working! Very little grass coming through ( only in places where there were gaps), it managed the moisture when it rains so no more muddy parts, the slugs seem less and our cat loves it. It’s working!! I recon it will get better was the wool mats and forms felt. It will need some more grass clippings for better coverage so no white fluffy bits stick out ( not a handsome look).

[@colorfulwater5070]

🤍

[@daphne7897]

❤