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I've used lots of different things - black plastic, shredded wood, wood chips, straw, spoiled hay. I used spoiled hay in small areas of a shared garden over the past couple of years. It really improved the soil and the rest of the garden (unmulched) got filled with weeds while the hay mulched area was pretty weed free. It seems to work better than anything else I've used and it's really easy to put down. It's not slippery like straw.
 
I pick up usef wood shaving bedding from local horse farm. It's free and saves them money having to have hauled away. Easy enough to shake out the manure which goes into the compost. The shavings look nice which keeps the prissy neighbors from complaining & smoothers the weeds...free, effective, nice looking....win all the way around...
 
I am new to our homestead, and have no compost pile yet, however I have been using a mix of wood chips and mulch for a long time in small gardens.
Well it's all good I received a letter from the extension service today with soil test results. The only thing I have to do is add lime to bring the pH up. All other results were acceptable. Planning on adding lime and having a good season.
 
I used old hay or straw if I could get it. I think you will find a difference in weeding and pests between a thin layer of "mulch" and a thick layer.

Have you tried setting up bird houses around the garden? Toad shelters? Snake shelters?
 
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Before my raised beds when the kids were trying to eat us from house and home the big garden I ran the tiller thru it about 2 twice a week. then next day used a long handle 3 time cultivator to go between the plants

Today I use raised beds, I grow twice as much from my 3 4'x8' beds and so easy to keep weeds down too.

No more except wild life planting will be grown on space wasteing gardening.


:D Al
 
I am curious what you put together for snake and toad shelters in 15 minutes at night.
I don't know what other people use but I have set up bricks and rocks to create shelters, you just need to have a place for the critters to get out of the sun. I dig down in the dirt and set a couple biggish rocks or bricks on the sides and another one or two over the top for a roof then pull dirt back up on the sides and back. You are making a little cave with a dirt floor. Some plans I have seen use clay flower pots that have cracked or broke. If you have at least half of the clay pot just scoop out a dip in the ground, put the pot over it and push soil back around the sides and back. The important thing is to have an opening and a larger underground space. I have heard of placing solar lights near the shelters to attract low flying insects but I don't know how well it works. I also will not guarantee that you won't get very large spiders moving into your little "caves".

Snake and toad shelters could even be a pile of fallen leaves laying in a hollowed out dip in the ground. That's where I found 4 snakes over the weekend.
 
From where I've seen toads it seems that they prefer a low ceiling and appear to back into the shelter and kind of burrow down in that spot.

A piece of tin seems to work well for snakes especially if it's exposed to the sun. Be
careful if you have any poisonous snakes.
 
Not sure about the snake population and species in the southern Mo area as we are new here. But plan on being careful, have found a dead copper head on the road. They're are plenty of toads. Also lots of mice and rats. So as the weather warms. Well that's a good time to find snakes.
 
So the philosophy of gardening that I follow insists one should keep the soil covered from the sun, mirroring Mother Nature. Keeps the organisms in the soil happier and healthier and alive if they aren't exposed directly to the sun. Makes sense to me. It's worked well for some time now, except.....

Here is my issue - bugs, like asparagus beetles and cucumber beetles like to winter in said "litter" under the plants. My garden currently has both bugs. :eek:

I will be getting some nemotodes, as soon as my pocketbook allows for the purchase. Releasing 1500 Ladybugs and picking, picking, picking is what I've done so far.
I am currently mulching with lawn clippings and leaves but that is no longer working for me since my lawn is mostly weed like dandelion, sorrel and plantain and so I am therefore planting them in my garden by using the "lawn" clippings as mulch. As much as I love those plants, I have enough of them outside the garden to not need them where I am trying to grow cucumber! :) I am looking into getting some wood chips (from tree removal, not pure chip, but different sized chip, if you know what I mean)

So - What do you mulch with? How's it working out for you?
I ise cornsulks and shicks on everything not corn, bean hulls on everything not bean, water chestnut dead stalks on everything not water chestnuts, duckweed as it becomes available, Spanish moss and oak leaves (but I have to correct the acidity on the oak leaves)
 
The carbon to nitrogen ratio of logs is usually about 100:1. so for each 100 lbs. (dry weight) of log, you'll get a pound of nitrogen--if it hasn't leached out of the soil during the long decomposition process. If you gather leaves, green stems, grasses, legumes, and manures, you'll get lots more for your efforts.

geo
I used to compost dead leaves in one of those large 3-bin compost systems that I built. (Like this: http://statebystategardening.com/images/uploads/article_uploads/2016-news-6a-01-04b.jpg )

In the spring I would use the fully composted stuff in my garden.

I noticed that my greens were doing worse every year and finally checked the soil. I found that it had zero nitrogen.

Not sure if the compost used up the nitrogen or what, but I learned that I need to check the soil occasionally.

By the way, here is a description of the chemistry of composting: https://www.livescience.com/63559-composting.html
 
I use rain spoiled Alfalfa hay . Around here people from the Bay area move here to the country and some of them get horses and buy Alfalfa for the horses. Once the hay gets rained on and moldy you can;t feed it to the horse so it sits there and rots . I keep an eye out for this and I don't have any problem getting it .Call it a learning curve for the city folks It has hardly any weed seeds compared to other straw and hay. It rots into the soil and adds humus . When I plant I use drip irrigation. When the plants get about 1 foot tall and or wide I mulch with the crumbly hay. When you use drip irrigation the water leaves a fingerprint in the soil showing where it spread to depending on your soil type. Let's say the fingerprint is a 1 foot circle. A few days after I water I hoe around the plant gently in the fingerprint area to expose any weeds that may be sprouting from the last irrigation and leave this exposed for it to dry out a few days. Then I mulch it about 6" out past the 1 foot fingerprint. Well rotted and dried alfalfa will crumble nicely and when it is positioned this way it won't allow light to get down to the soil for the weeds to germinate and sprout through it.I make it about 4 to 6" deep. Since no water is permeating past the mulch very few weeds will come up in this area and you can conserve your mulch for later use. Doing it this way saves from spreading the mulch over the entire area.
 
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