Use Deep Mulch Gardening Technique to Eliminate Tilling and Weeding

Do you love vegetables straight from the garden but hate the work involved in tilling, weeding, and hoeing your plot. Deep mulch gardening is a technique you may want to try. With this gardening method, you use a combination of compost and mulch to build soil, eliminating the need to till and then continue to use a deep mulch to eliminate the need to weed.

The best time to prepare for a deep mulch garden is in the fall. If you have had a traditional garden the past summer, you can use the same location for your deep mulch garden. If this will be a new garden, you have a couple of decisions to make. First decide if you prefer to have a traditional type garden (usually a large rectangle with rows) or a raised bed garden (the garden is raised at least slightly above the ground and is contained in some sort of frame kept narrow enough that you don't walk in the garden while tending it.) If you are going with a traditional style garden, mark the area where you want the garden to be. If you are going with a raised bed, you will have to do a bit more work creating a frame for the garden. This can be made of logs, lumber, paving stones, or whatever is readily available and inexpensive in your area.

Trim any grass or weeds in the garden area as short as possible with a lawnmower. Cover the entire garden area with non-glossy, black and white newspaper pages. It is a good idea to choose a still day for this task so that you don't have to deal with the newspapers blowing away. Top the newspapers with compost, the more the better, but at least two inches. Top the compost with mulch. Moldy hay, unfit for animal consumption, makes excellent mulch, and many farmers will give it away for free. Other options include leaves, after they have been run over by your mower, grass clippings, straw, and smaller sizes of wood chips. Make sure you use the resources that are most readily available to you. Call around and see what you can get for free. It will vary by area. The mulch cover should be about a foot deep.

Now your garden plot is ready for the winter. Come spring, some of the mulch will have decomposed, mixing with the compost, to form a rich soil. After the danger of frost has passed, rake back the mulch and plant your seeds. After they germinate, spread a thin layer of the mulch around the baby plants. Keep adding mulch as the plants grow, to a depth appropriate for the size of the plants. The mulch will keep most of the weeds at bay. If an occasional weed pokes through, it should be easy to pull or just smother it with more mulch. If you are using a raised bed, you can plant the plants close together which will further inhibit weed growth.

There are other advantages to deep mulch gardening. The garden with stay dryer in rainy weather making it more pleasant to walk in, and your plants won't drown. On the reverse side, the mulch will hold moisture in during drought minimizing the need to water. Earthworms love mulch, and their population will thrive, producing more soil, and keeping the beds well aerated.

Consider deep mulch gardening for your next vegetable garden, and enjoy less work and a better harvest.