The Best Mulch For A Vegetable Garden

There is no single best mulch for a vegetable garden because every vegetable garden is just as different as the distinctive climates in which it's grown. The three factors to consider in choosing the best mulch for your vegetable garden are what your vegetables eat, how they grow and how much work you want to do now or later.

Organic versus Inorganic Mulch

Whether to use organic or inorganic mulch for your vegetable garden will in to some degree depend upon what you are trying to grow, how much of it you are trying to grow and upon the conditions you are growing in. Inorganic mulch such as black plastic is ideal for large, early crops that flourish in higher temperature soils. Unfortunately, plastic mulch does nothing to add nutrients to the soil, which is essential for the success of most vegetable gardens. Organic mulches can add these nutrients and ph levels to the soil for the vegetables to feed on. Don't fall into the trap of so many excited growers who begin to think that if a little works so well, more will just make it better. Over mulching has killed more vegetable gardens than can be counted. Given the pros and cons of each type of mulch, in the end it will come down to which mulch you think is best for your specific vegetables and particular conditions.

Matching Mulch to Growing Conditions

For the most part plants require 4 conditions in which to grow: Light, water, aerated soil that is rich in nitrogen plus the room to grow the way they want. Many organic mulches do the job of maintaining soil moisture and providing soil nutrients like nitrogen for the vegetables. The key is learning what your individual vegetables need to thrive, not just survive, and then choosing the best mulch to supply it for them. Strawberry farmers, for instance, are great lovers of straw mulch both for its protective as well as its nutrient-supplying properties. However, a common complaint is that once you use straw mulch you can expect to have to pull up oats and perhaps other weeds next year in the spring. Peanuts are another organic mulch that are high in nitrogen and can act as a great food supply for a garden, but they can also give rise to mold or nematodes (otherwise known as roundworms). Pine needles, because of their high acidity levels, are considered by some to be the best mulch for strawberries when mixed into the soil, but can also overload the plants if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Because different vegetables grow in distinct ways, the mulch you choose should provide for just that sort of growth. For instance, black plastic is the best mulch for melons, cucumbers, squash and peppers specifically because of how they grow. The mulch keeps soil temperatures high, enhances bacterial activity in the soil and is impermeable to carbon dioxide. Therefore, the carbon dioxide only escapes through the same small slits in the plastic that the plants are growing through creating thick concentrations of the gas at the base of the plants and causing them to grow faster and larger. Other organic mulches can produce relatively the same affects though they might take more ongoing effort to maintain throughout the growth season. Moreover, these organic mulches must be replaced every one to two years while heavy duty plastic can cut down on these yearly workloads, making it one of the best mulches available for certain kinds of vegetable gardens.