How to Use Every Mulch: The Ultimate Growers' Guide

[@jeas4980]

I love undercropping. I have used white dutch clover, radishes, petunias, and strawberries, lettuce, basil, marigolds, nastursiums and machê.. I never plant any squash without first laying down a bed of radishes. I have used strawberries, petunias, and white dutch clover under okra and peppers (I tend to plant peppers under okra for sun protection). Tomatoes get undercropped with basil, and lettuces, and marigolds. Root crops benefit from an early spring "burn" .. I have equipped my husband with a flame thrower (which non-Marines may reference as a "weed burner") and anywhere I've mulched or underplanted with a substance that dies or is dry... hubby burns it for spring and we cover it with compost. The only issues I've had intercropping/undercropping comes with laying down white dutch clover too thick and too early; it choked out my starter transplants... we use it primarily in our walkways now and in permanent spaces where we previously mulched with shredded hardwood mulch (rose and bulb gardens, arround fruit trees).

[@PL-wi8rd]

Thankyou so much for the great info! You pack a lot into one video!😊

[@christinebottaro9017]

I’m a home gardener, love marigolds and basil around tomatoes. When you put in radishes, are you direct seeding at the same time you plant the squash? Sounds like you’ve got your system wired. Thank you.

[@jeas4980]

@@christinebottaro9017 Actually, no, I put down the radish first and let them get their true leaves before I transplant or seed the squash in the bed. I don't worry about harvesting them... it's the hot part of the year and they're going to be terrible anyway. I let them bolt and save (or eat) their seeds. Really amazing pest deterrent.

[@bethh.172]

Does it deter squash bugs?

[@jeas4980]

@@bethh.172 Definitely helps. I haven't had an issue with squash vine borer either. But for squash bugs I set up a "trap crop" of high nitrogen synthetic fertilizer in a strawbale with yellow construction flagging and pruned bottom leaves. It's a long story but worth the read. I came across this method quite by accident one year when I was strawbale gardening (a method of gardening directly into strawbales conditioned with fertilizers that have begun to breakdown and form soil at their center) and I couldn't find enough organic fertilizer to condition all my strawbales. I left the synthetic nitrogen ones outside of the enclosed garden space and intended to use them for only giant decoration pumpkins.. I accidentally left the bag of 34-0-0 outside next to the bales of straw in a light rain. Those strawbales and the bag of 34-0-0 had nothing planted in them and were swarming with squash bugs. They had the entire garden full of produce and went for a bale of straw with nothing but this 34-0-0 on it. So now... I use a bale of straw... something bright yellow and spent lower squash leaves and several cups of 34-0-0 as a bait station which they flock to...hide in, lay their eggs on and I torch it with a weed burner. That's THE best method I have found to deal with squash bugs. I still check under leaves and pick them off the tops of plants early in the morning and drop them in a bucket of soap water. But I don't have crop loss from squash bugs and vine borer anymore. You can also surface grubs in your garden spaces by laying out black plastic. Chickens love it when you pull it back. I do this before I plant potatoes for several weeks.

[@Wildewhitley]

Hay: 2:44 Straw: 6:00 Compost: 11:17 Leaves: 15:20 Cardboard: 16:50 Grass clippings: 18:00 Woodchips: 18:50 Plastics: 23:18 Live mulches: 19:30 Nerds: 25:50

[@jeas4980]

Nerds 😂

[@sightline4004]

You're doing God's work

[@notillgrowers]

🙌

[@csehszlovakze]

@@notillgrowers hi, I have wheat allergy, so that means I shouldn't use straw under any circumstances, right?

[@learningtobeme5195]

@@csehszlovakze how about oat straw? Or were you making a joke? Haha.

[@illegalsmilez]

I could listen to this guy talk all day. He explains things so damn well

[@mslorischoolsocialworker]

I've gotten great results from putting shredded leaves on beds and then throwing a little compost over them to hold them down as Jessie suggests. It has made a huge difference in our Missouri clay soil. We attach a lawn sweeper to our 4 wheeler to make it easy to collect all our leaves.

[@kelleyboles]

How do you shred them? I have leaves for days!

[@mslorischoolsocialworker]

@@kelleyboles We have a leaf shredder, but you can also just put them in your garden bed and go over them with a lawn mower or put them in a big pile and weed whack them. We also collect as many as will fit in a large outdoor dog kennel; if we save them a year they're basically the equivalent of shredded leaves, and if we save them two years it turns to leaf mold.

[@kelleyboles]

@@mslorischoolsocialworker excellent! I would have never thought about keeping them in a kennel. Or weed whacking them either. Thank you.

[@8082Speed]

I put leaves down where I plant my potatoes, then a 2” layer of fresh horse manure from stall cleaning. Let it over winter, then broadforked the potatoe patch. The soil improved dramatically based on worm population.

[@michellel5444]

Yes, I do the same here in MO. Huge difference in my beds. Pile up in the fall. You can put them in a trash can and run a weed Wacker in them. I don't bother. I just move them out of the way to plant.

[@natsellar8982]

Dude.... your info is awsome. I'm doing no dig organic in Japan. I use spent beer grains from the local craft brewery to insulate my gardens. I top the grains off with home made semi decomposed mulch. There is no need to fully decompose... just need to bring the temp up high enough to kill most of the weed seeds. Amazing results! Pros and cons... but mainly pros. I just spread the grains on top bed by bed, week by week, then cover them with a light layer of mulch. About 200kg/ week in a thin layer covers about 25m squared . I barely have to water the garden. Third year in and there are almost no bug problems. A balance of predator and prey insects. I keep getting comments about how the vegetables taste more flavorful and different from the store bought ones. It's wonderful! Thanks again for another great video.

[@nickbono8]

I live in NorCal and I planted some onions this fall and I have a ton of California poppies growing in between them because I allowed the few poppies in my yard go to seed last year. It’s protecting my soil from the rain, and poppies have a relatively large taproot. So far I haven’t had problems with it, and my onion patch is going to look beautifully orange in a few more weeks!

[@GarnetReign]

12:23 From Maine here. We're one of the few states actually looking into PFAS, so I'm glad to hear you mention it.

[@Leonardvassallo1]

Eelgrass collected from my shoreline makes a great mulch especially on garlic, potatoes and around large brassicas.

[@PotHeadDegree]

Jesse, I've been learning from you for years and your knowledge has contributed to not only the growth of my garden, but also growth of myself as a human, a father and I truly thank you. You've helped me turn my hobby into a way to inspire, teach, and pass on lessons that carry over from a garden to all aspects of life.

[@notillgrowers]

Awe, that's awesome to hear! Thank you. Sending my best

[@primesspct2]

Thats such a beautiful and humble comment. I bet you are a wonderful father!

[@mohankumarbl8279]

​@@notillgrowers😅😅

[@PhiNguyen-hp5rh]

[4:00] The way you broke it down here made it so easy to understand. Great job! 🙌

[@francus7227]

In a rice village in Thailand. I planted 40 various small fruit trees at the beging of last year's rain season (Jun and Jul). I put a 4" layer of rice straw 4 feet around each tree Dec 1 and I started a 1 sq meter hot compost pile using straw, leaves, and buffalo manure. After one month.... I spread the final compost around about 1/2 the trees on top of the previous straw mulch and added another 4" on top of the compost.... The rest of the trees got another fresh layer of straw.... The next 3 months will have zero rain and most of April will has highs over 100° for at least 8 hours. If these sapplings make it until July .... They'll never die.

[@tczubernat]

This video was very valuable to us. We operate a small non-profit community garden, which has expanded into a mini farm . . . really mini. We've experimented with various mulches over the years with similar results to yours, so having our amateur-ish findings corroborated by professional farmer guy (say that with an Eastern European accent, it works better) is invaluable. Thanks for your work and your "jokes."

[@aenorist2431]

Damn savage :D

[@notillgrowers]

Oof @Maria CANCER - so sorry to hear about the ovarian cancer. Sending out best!

[@naomiroyle9637]

My favorite right now, since I help with skirting sheep fleeces, is wool that has been soaked and rotted. Worms love it. Sometimes I will just lay it on my paths right off the critters. It can get bunched up if dry. After the rainy season, I'll throw it in the 5-year compost pile. Lovely to walk on if it is fairly clean and just too short or weak for processing. Use the stuff loaded with dirt, etc for elsewhere. Wool prices are dirt (pun intended) cheap.

[@sethl3702]

I never thought of cover crops being crops I don't have to harvest. I always think of it as compost I don't have to move! Now I have two things to encourage me while crimping them.

[@garrettscott4094]

Another killer video. When building our brand new beds, we actually put down a layer of cardboard, then leaf mulch, and then soil, and finally a finished compost mulch. Our heavy clay soil really benefit from the added organic matter, and helps to drain excess water from the beds.

[@AlexAnder-rv1gu]

Our family found Horsetail Weed was an amazing living mulch for our beans. We grow in hard clay and they really help keep the moisture in, so it doesn't bake in the sun. - Northern Ontario; zone 3

[@larry78cj7]

I gardened for 10 years and stoped because of weeds. I found woven landscape fabric and I started gardening again. Then I found your channel and I’m working on removing the fabric. But, the fabric did bring me back. Thanks.

[@clareeaden4886]

Having really good success with living mulches on Raspberries. White clover. Saves loads of time and money on alternatives. Keeps the raspberry roots cool, which is really important. 😊

[@notillgrowers]

Perennials are definitely a different story with living mulches.

[@steveunderhill5935]

My raspberries grew into my asparagus and rhubarb 20+ years ago… no issues. I also “planted” a couple dozen of the largest rocks my wheel barrow could handle and placed them strategically in the same bed for my children after being inspired by my favourite wild black berry bouldering patch.

[@audreybarnes6527]

I am on my way out to do chores, but I guarantee this will be awesome, as ALWAYS ❤

[@erindepaz771]

Had to go back to the beginning to make sure I heard that right… Farmer Jesse calling US nerds. I guess that’s what we get for clicking on an almost-27 minute video about using every kind of mulch. 😂 I’ll consider it a high compliment from the king of nerds and enjoy the rest of the video with a smile. 😁

[@bradical2723]

He literally opens every video with "hey nerds"

[@MynewTennesseeHome]

Thank you real good information. I tend to use woodchips for mulch because they're free. Utility tree crews will drop off 4-6 loads/yr. I use the fresher stuff on walkways and aged stuff around plants.

[@TheSimpleFarmLife]

Loved the tips on organic gardening at 1:50-super helpful! 🌿

[@SoberOKMoments]

A garden, like all life, is an experience in joy and sorrow, of living full and letting go. You've done wonders with this one and what a blessing to leave it in good hands so that you can add more to your own life - and knowledge. You've already helped thousands from this one lovely plot of land and given it a legacy that now lives on. Well done, and much success going forward.

[@GrandmasGardenofHope]

Just today, the water company finished replacing leaky pipes to our home and two others. I've got quite a patch of messed up soil that's going to need just such applications. Such timely info!!!

[@ProlerSkyphet]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS VIDEO! These are the reasons that I didn’t use straw mulch for my strawberries, because I didn’t want all the stupid grass seed lol. I will try growing my own, that is a good idea! I will do it on my hillside garden, so I know any weed seeds will be once I’m familiar with… As other people sit in the comments, living mulch is the best! Anywhere that you can’t afford mulch, cast some clover seed with clay, or whatever the heck works for that area. You can use the green manure from your vegetables and also from your cover crops to use as a living green mulch that is excellent for any plants that favor bacterial soil’s! Poor tiny bit of compost on top to trap in nitrogen and help it decompose quickly. Don’t go too thick or else. The microbes won’t be able to get it and it will go Anaerobic. This works great as a microbial inoculant as well because they have microbes all over them. If you have any woody plants on your property, you can use the trimmings for mulches for Woody, perennial, and plants that love fungal soil’s. Just set them on the top, and they will be food for the fungi and then after the fungi have a gun working on them, they will attract all sorts of beneficials and soil decomposers, especially earth worms, and pill bugs. and if you want them to proliferate, you can trim them after they have begun seeding! Thanks for spreading your knowledge, I will make a video on this for my Instagram soon and maybe one for KZbin as well! Insta: @alchemyartsgallery Edit: oh, I see you talked about cover crops in the later, part of the video and living multis… So yeah, right on! This was one of your best videos in my opinion, because proper mulching can make or break soil, health and soil health is what makes a garden prosper! The mulch is break down and become food for the micro and macro soil organisms. Lastly, everyone should read teeming with microbes by Lowenfels and Lewis To learn more about using the proper mulches and microbe to fungal ratios….

[@RealDarkBlade]

Thank you very mulch!

[@notillgrowers]

Thank YOU! 🙌

[@EmmaCollins-e9o]

[1:35] Love the energy in this part! It really lifted my mood 😊

[@lindilindi]

I have a very small garden, but I like watching your videos because they're very informative and pretty funny too (but in a small and effortless way). Thanks! 😊😊

[@SageMamoo]

I'm so glad you made this video. I just finished reading about the different mulches in your book and wanted to see a visual on the how. 👍🏾

[@1thingiscertain304]

We weedwhip the cover crop in march and then cover it with silo tarp for 3-4 weeks, and then plant. Works fine.

[@1thingiscertain304]

This may not work with rye, that's why we don't cc with rye on beds that will be spring planted, but ok for summer planting. Rye has to go through pollination, otherwise it will grow back, as far as I have seen.

[@Bee-mi8ml]

This was great! You are hilarious! Thanks for simplifying the mulch dilemma.

[@scottbaruth9041]

One of the greatest resources almost all of us have is access to free leaves. It's underused, maybe because of the need for shredding and what the wind does, but I would love to see them used more in the garden's than just huge piles going to waste at the recycling centers.

[@markuswade2158]

Ive been doing my own living pathways for a few years....didn't know it was a thing. Thanks for a very informative video.

[@SeatofMyPlantsArt]

James- we love you so much. We are new gardeners and we’ve learned everything from you and MIGardener. We watched everything all winter, spring and through to summer. Even our kids know you haha. Thanks for all the help in taking some control of our food supply, and learning skills we can pass on

[@edwardpearce1138]

I have been using pine straw on asparagus and blueberries for a number of years with good results. Last fall I spread a six inch layer of pine straw over a 750 sq ft area of my garden and set out some tomato plants in it 19 days ago. So far they are looking good, but we'll see. Always good to try something different.

[@TheLawnmowerLady]

I did the same thing in my tiny veggie gardens two years ago: just a few varieties of tomato, squashes, eggplants, cukes, melons, carrots, peas, and peppers. The only thing that didn't do so well was the peppers. But I suspect they were just on the edge of the shadiest part of my raised beds, not a pine straw issue. Heading out today to spread out this year's crop.

[@edwardpearce1138]

@@TheLawnmowerLady I had tried mulching tomatoes with pine straw several years ago and was not sure it was worth the effort. The problem was I put down the straw after the tomatoes were set out and staked and the weeds were getting started and the soil was drying out. This time the straw has been out there for several months, and the weeds are all smothered out and the soil moisture is preserved, Some people badmouth pine straw, but I happen to have it for free and now that I am learning to work it into my cropping system, I am really beginning to appreciate it.

[@wutzibu]

What do you say about wool fleeces? In Diem areas sheep Herders have no option to use their wool and at least here some had the idea to sell them as mulching matts to private gardeners.

[@practicebecomingme]

Experimenting with 2 of my tomato beds this year. 1 is mulched with almost only grass clippings. For the other, I chopped and dropped the weeds and grass that had grown in since last year, then put down a layer of cardboard, followed by a 3ish inch layer of partially composted woodchips. Same variety of tomato in both, and I'm transplanting bush bean starts in between rows and plants.

[@Gardenfnp]

Trying cover crops for the first time this year. Appreciate all of your posts so much.

[@sigridkingma961]

Nice metaforical dive into the materials! I just rewatched it! I am still a bit surprised about the cooling properties of straw. My grandmother once told me that straw is seven times more insulative than hay when used for animals. So I figured it would warm the soil. At least it will keep the soil from freezing. I'd love to learn more about these properties. In physics it's all about density, mass, volume, but no one talks about insulation or speed at which it breaks down.

[@donnaf2666]

I'm in New Castle Ky and Thanks, you helped me decide. Going with cloth landscape fabric to control morning glories in my beans. 😉

[@davidpatrick1813]

This gent will forget more than I'll ever know. I can learn big time and subscribed. Thank you.

[@ExecHunter]

Hey 👋🏼 Back around 1970 my dad got me a Savage 22LR/20 gauge. My 16th birthday gift. 53 years later it’s still my favorite. It’s great for congested forests because of its size. Having a choice between 22LR or 20 gauge in changing environments is really handy. Thanks Who_Tee_Who. I’ve never seen another one besides my own. Very cool.

[@herbertmcjonson]

any experience with large pine needles? i have a large pondersa pine tree and wondering if its a good option for vegetable garden mulch

[@tmjoutdoors9486]

Thank you for sharing and discussing this information. This is very educational to myself and others!

[@davelawler5353]

Thanks!

[@notillgrowers]

Thank YOU! 🙌

[@flatsville9343]

One year after linemen came & tore the crap out of the edge of my yard next to the utility easement, I dumped a mismatch of every mulch I had laying around & even mined nearby hedgerows for material. It was an accidental magic mix of stuff. It grew beautiful sweet potatoes. So, don't be afraid to mix.

[@altmusic8215]

We already love your channel upon our first view. Great info! Subscribed!

[@jamalsethaler6829]

We use mostly grass and alphalfa/clover silage. This gets the same benefits we would get from hay but without weed problems, as the fermentation kills most of the weed seeds. Most of the time we put the mulch down first and it sit for a couple of days before planting into it, so it can gas out a bit (In a greenhouse or polytunnel it is important ensure as much ventilation as possible for this few days). Otherwise the plants can get a little stressed in the beginning.

[@tv0562]

영상잘보고 갑니다. 편안한 주말되십시요. 😊

[@FrancisDocherty]

Hi Jesse, thanks for the living pathways idea. I really like it and have been using it for a year now. Best wishes, Francis

[@karie3]

Thank you so much for continuing to make videos. I have always enjoyed your videos. Still do! Even with all the new changes, your videos are still so good. Enjoy seeing what you two are doing in your own spaces.

[@je-fq7ve]

We used to get spoiled round bales a lot cheaper. Got to ask for them. Straw is really good for making muddy paths passable, by just spreading it on the muddy area. Field Peas and oats has been my favorite cover crop. Rye as a last resort.

[@quantumbloomfamily]

Thank you for encouraging gardening KZbinrs such as myself, especially new ones.

[@ekcoylejr]

It is my understanding that, any cover like hay or straw, will insulate in the winter or keep the soil warmer, but protect from the hot sun or keep the soil cooler in the summer.

[@curtisluettel1404]

i love the equations and other numerical facts you throw in. My brain works in this manner.

[@vlunceford]

Very informative video - thank you. I used cardboard and grass clippings in the bottom of a raised bed that was full of nut sedge. I planted pole beans in that bed and had beautiful plants. I also mulched around the plants with compost. It’s been more than a year and I’m seeing very, very little nut sedge in that bed. It seems to have a hard time coming through the cardboard and grass clippings. I have also used grass clippings around beets. They formed a mat around the beet plants and very few weeds (in my case, mostly nut sedge) made it through the mulch. It’s the best thing I have found to combat the hellish sedge.

[@ChuckSchembre-UA]

Great video. You really do a great job and I have been in this field of work for about 20 years. I have used and consult with growers to use mid - late summer seeding with warm and cool season covers that winter kill and provide a great mulch and easy to manage coming into the Spring growing season. It can also be done as an interseeding late in summer in tomatoes really well. I think it should be experimented by more market growers that are on more of a handscale. Just intentionally planning them into the rotations are challenging and a commitment...but contribute greatly to soil health. Cheers!

[@sydnienorris5236]

I'm on swans island in Maine and I suppose the purslane is our living mulch. We have grass for our pathway into the garden, the rest I've weeded down to foragable plants like the purslane. I'm weeding it right now from around the carrots and summer squash, it's kept many other plants from taking over and it's soft to step on.barefooted

[@billiverschoore2466]

Jesse, am not sure that there's only one of you; the amount of work you get done...! 🤪🤪🤪 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 🌳🕊💚

[@Justbetru]

Your Awesome!

[@notillgrowers]

Amazing, thank you! 🙌

[@josephsaid6922]

Always enjoy your videos .Fan from Mississauga Ontario Canada

[@coleradley6614]

Perennial cover crops generally have to be cut around the agricultural crop, or weakened temporarily. Pretty much, you have to make white clover hay/mulch etc. depending on what you use, probably every couple weeks, again, depending on how quickly it grows back. White clover will start to grow back almost immediately and fill back in within that timeframe. What I took from Masanobu Fukuoka on this was that those crops are grown not so much for cover as for fertilizer and mulch, and their purpose is to improve the soil very slowly over a long time rather than simply maintain or adjust soil temperature, etc.

[@FOR8YESHUA]

Hay 2:44 * Straw 6:00 * Cover Crops 8:30 * Compost 11:17 * Leaves 15:20 * Cardboard 16:50 * Grass Clippings 18:00 * Woodchips 18:50 * Plastics 23:18 * Living Mulches 19:30 * Nerds 25:50

[@jpage1331]

I wish I had someone like you close to me I could learn from.. so many I ask questions around me don’t even believe in notill and they all use chemicals.. makes learning so much harder.. then having the time to watch video after video is difficult.. but only way for me to learn 🤦🏻‍♀️ and I still have so much learning to do 💯

[@lambsquartersfarm]

My mulch of choice is using hay or straw after sheep have used it for bedding, gives you double usage and is infused with sweet urine and glossettes.

[@mirsidorov5112]

It is filled with pathogenic bacteria, you must compost it properly to get rid of them

[@billmcintyre2502]

I love this RANCH! Thanks for all the great info.

[@harriettejensen479]

I 'm posting this because I know a lot of home gardeners watch your videos. I tried cover crops for the first time in my backyard garden. I sowed field beans and phaeseia (sp?). It was a pain in the butt to remove as we live in a mid climate and donn't have snow to kill the cover crops. My son tried weed whacking it, but the bean stalks were strong and he could only cut off the weaker parts of the stems, leaving about 6 inches sticking up. The phaeceia was a vine--y type plant and would lay down on the ground rather than being cut. I practice no-dig, so it ooks like i will have to hand cut the field beans and hoe out the phaceli, which will take me at least a whole day. For me, as aa home gardener, spreading compost after each crop is a much easier, if not cheaper way of enriching my soil.

[@Michael_McMillan]

12:32 good to know, if I purchase organic compost, it won't have any biosolids added. Today I learned something knew.

[@notillgrowers]

Right, if it is OMRI certified or NOP compliant it cannot contain biosolids.

[@tamaratuttle7445]

“Yeah, of course I was talking about the candy”😂😂😂 Great info- thank you🙏🏻

[@Fabermain]

Thank you so much, ive started my garden this year and ive learned so miuch from this video.

[@aikidoimhof5003]

Super helpful, thank you from Germany!

[@MikeEstabrook-k3w]

Great info. I’m still fairly new to vegetable gardening and will keep watching

[@waynesell3681]

Really like this presentation! Maybe third time I've watched. I'm home gardening with inground beds. Also just got a good used troybilt pony rototiller. First run for tiller went well. Thanks for all your encouragement!

[@southernvtgrown]

So much great info as always ✌🏼💚from Vermont

[@ardenthebibliophile]

For lead mulch I have had good luck mowing the leaves with a mulching blade and dumping it on my bed. I then loosely raked it in. It was only a 2-3 inch layer, but I think raking helped it to not form a mat. By end of winter it was reduced in volume dramatically and my garlic look great! For context I'm a home gamer, not a large scale operation so I haven't optimized for efficiency

[@LawrenceMillard]

Great show! If like to see more of the hat Jackson was wearing, If it is for sale, I'd like to know that as well. Keep up the good work!

[@janicejurgensen2122]

Ty for your honesty. I’ve been going back and forth with doing it or not.

[@carissalizotte8977]

Thank you for mentioning hay. SO many gardeners think hay in the garden is the devil. 🙄 We run a horse farm so we have lots of extra hay wether spent hay or moldy bales which we can’t feed to the horses.. I honestly havnt had problems with weed seeds. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I think it works great and straw in our area is like 10$ a bale!! Or more! Maine here

[@naomiroyle9637]

I agree. Finding out what those hay fields had in them before making it into bales helps a lot. I live next to the field where the hay bales come from so have a great idea what weeds are there. I was given a ton of hay a couple of years ago. Grass or teff. Not good enough for horses or cows. Still in the small stack. Making sure it is fermented before adding to my field with wool from sheep.

[@kimokahikolekalihi]

This is a great video. Thank you! I used straw in my 4'8' raised garlic bed and got the joy of removing a thousand new straw starts shortly after. Not a fan for that reason so I'm here to hopefully find a better option.

[@VictoriousGardenosaurus]

Trying a combination of compost and spent oyster mushroom substrate (straw based) that has been chopped and mixed together for a mulch this year. I've added composted manure to the heavy soil I bought this year. Weekly compost extracts have worked wonders, but did not provide the volume of organic matter to soften the soil. Herbs like oregano and thyme performed much better of carrots, salad greens and brassicas. Moving onto peppers, tomatoes, strawberries and huckleberries. I love the purple bird droppings.

[@Farmer.David.Y]

Wow. You are a professional. I admire you. My name is David. I have my own little farm. I will study it. Thank you

[@wweiler5548]

Thank you so much for all the great content!

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

Cover Crops. I just had an idea. In cold winter areas, One could rotate cover crops from bed to bed where ever only annuals are planted. Basically, growing a bed or more of mulch every year during the growing season.

[@palominogirl2732]

I'm so glad that you mentioned hay. I thought you'd say that it makes too many weeds. It does, but I use what I have. I mean, how much do I want my garden to cost? And it is 100 x 70, with a small greenhouse and a big hoop house. I have horses, so I always have a few bales (although a pallet with plastic on it pretty much saves the bottom tier from getting moldy), that I don't feed, and use them in the garden. Hay is $5 for the past few years. Two years ago when I checked on straw - it was.....wait for it.....$10 a bale!! Thank goodness here in the northeast, we have plenty of shavings coming down from Canada for bedding. And speaking of that, my huge garden has had nothing in it for fertilizer, ever, but very old horse manure/shavings. I have one pile that is almost 30 years old, covered with a tarp. That stuff is gold! I use it as potting soil just as it is, and it works great!

[@maryjane-vx4dd]

I've got lawn that I'm turning into a grocery row garden (David the Good). I plan to plant heavily with buck wheat to choke out the grass, then cut down to mulch and plant to crops next year... hopefully

[@i6oVices]

Crimson clover brought some boom out of my flower bed. I'm definitely starting some living walk ways

[@donpadawan]

Pine straw is amazing! At least on a small scale or residential operation

[@Kas0n]

I'm really enjoying your videos, thank you so much for sharing! In that spirit, please check out the research published in the last couple of months by the London natural history museum team on a newly identified disease called plasticosis, which as you might guess is caused by microplastics. They cause the breakdown of the stomach lining of the Australian Shearwater seabird chicks and adults studied in the project and is game changing. I suspect it might explain the worsened IBS symptoms in people with more plastic in their blood.

[@ltlbnsgarden]

Your avocado tree looks big and healthy. I love your chickens, they are so cute! My blueberry 🫐 plants aren’t producing yet! The pink lemonade tree never fails you 😊

[@juanitaglenn9042]

Ohmygoodness, just found you and love the humor! Subscribed! 😅

[@j.b.6855]

Hay may not be sprayed with old school herbicides that will kill some plants. It can be sprayed with Aminopyralid herbicides like Grazon that will take up to three years to remove and will make the area used impossible to grow most food crops for that time. Sadly if the hay was sprayed and fed to animals the Grazon passes through the animal and the manure is just as bad as the hay, even if its composted.

[@9realitycheck9]

The Straw Grazeon Nightmare happened to me... 1st year, I lost my entire tomato & pepper planting.. over $1100.. of seedlings, fertilizer & labor.. I am in year 5 and still testing because the last 3 years my test plants all died.. Ugh.. Rice and Barley straws were the culprit. SOURCE YOUR STRAW WISELY..ASK !!! Good Luck.

[@j.b.6855]

@@9realitycheck9 Thats sad, I am a container only gardener because of a buried petroleum pipeline under my backyard. I just dont trust the soil for things I am going to eat. I was almost done renewing the containers when I ran out of compost. So I bought a bag for the last 5 sips for tomatoes. It was contaminated with some Aminopyralid. The tomatoes were stunted and the leaves curled. But it was easy to fix compared to your in ground garden since mine was in 5 gallon bucket sips. I used the tainted soil to patch bare spots in my front lawn and tossed the sips. The next year bought some promix on sale to fill new grow bags that replaced them.

[@FastEddy396]

This is the first year that we have stopped putting in landscape fabric entirely. To deal with weeds, we have put down about a foot of fresh wood chips. When that eventually breaks down we will put crimson clover in the rows between the beds. We done that in other spaces and it works great.

[@jacobbrizammito7187]

The living soil handbook is a great!

[@mulchindia1681]

It is a very useful and very important information about Mulch.

[@ManpreetSingh-wo3tx]

I am new at ur channel but I like ur work, from last few years we r also trying to go for no tilling, this year wheat was amazing

[@EDLaw-wo5it]

Great timing for a great informative video. Thanks

[@wormulous]

How about I was just looking for newer mulch videos for vegetable gardens and here we are this morning prior to 7am with... a new mulch video. I'm not ready to really be awake right now but this would be fantastic with a cup of cofee.

[@billshepherd5090]

I used some straw once and it ruined my garden. I didn’t know what happened but I did notice a white mold or fungus when spreading it. It was that or a spray used on it. All my plants had a white stripe or two in the leaves.

[@vickiesaewert5552]

I really enjoyed this and learned a lot. Love your humor ;)

[@antonkrysa1433]

It's been my experience that hay breaks down faster than straw. I like that because the higher (compared to straw) nutrient levels get in the soil faster but I hate dealing with the seeds usually in it.