Master Gardeners RANK Every Kind of Mulch
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- We get asked very frequently about which mulch is best. So we decided to rank them from best to worst.
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I found this highly educational (pros vs cons). Thanks for the info. However, being from Atlantic Canada, my free resource is seaweed. I use it for mulch and composting. Cheers!
This is the video that made me realize that I have a gardening obsession problem and need help. But I'm actually OK with it.
🤣🤣🤣 So True
That was fun! I liked hearing from both of you! I personally use whatever I can! I know an organic meat farmer who lives nearby and in the fall they bring me huge loads of manure! I spread it out as thick as I can then cover it with the straw from our chicken coop and mulched leaves. In the spring its gorgeous soil!
You seem to have missed leaf mould, probably #1 in the UK!
They added it with the grass clippings one. The image represents both grass clippings and/or leaf mulch
@@alyoooh Yes but not leaf mold which is pure broken down leaves
@@bartmol05 Aren't pure broken down leaves pretty much just referred to as compost? I tend to think of them as compost myself, whether or not they've been mixed with other composting material. Broken down leaves do make an excellent mulch imo.
Leaf mold is a fungal compost, not really a mulch
So excited! Just sat down with my second cup of coffee in my MIGardner mug and am super excited about this video! Thank you! Stay well!
A plastic snow shovel works really well for scooping up raw woodchip to put in the wheelbarrow.
Here in central PA we have access to mushroom soil, I love it, and for those who have the extra money there is. a couple sources for super soil (which is 50% worm castings mixed with mushroom) which made my strawberries the sweetest I've ever had.
Where do you get these, what town? I"m just above Pa. I've heard of mushroom compost and worm castings. so i'd like to know how to get some.
@@charlenekociuba7396 Kennett square area is mushroom capitol...might try making some phone calls there.
@@charlenekociuba7396 I get mushroom soil in Ickesburg(perry county) and I get the super soil in Mexico (juniata county)
Before I retired I worked at a nursery/garden center, and they used rice hulls as a soil amendment in their potting mix for growing perennials.
Thanks Haley, I am in Massachusetts, so last fall I topped all my beds with leaf and grass clippings in November, they look great now. I come from a family of wood workers so I have saw dust (goes in my compost) and wood shavings. I am going to try straw and wood shavings and see what I like best.
As I live in tropical Indonesia, I use rice husks.
Here it's really cheap and readily accessible
Grew up in Sacramento, CA. Mom used rice hauls to amend the soil in our yards.
@@builtontherockhomestead9390 yes that's what I do too along with compost, cocopeat and carbonized rice husks. I also use around 40% rice husks in my potting mix to provide aeration and moisture retention.
Wow hope there are more videos like these going forward! I would love to see something about how you both became a master gardener and whether you would recommend doing so, what master gardeners might be doing in the community that we don't realize, etc.
I use hay, straw, leaves, pine straw, and when I can get it wood chips. So basically I use whatever is available at the time lol.
If it's free it's the "best" mulch.
@@eldonelder7254 that’s what I’m saying. All that old bedding in dog houses and livestock houses make great mulch.
That is the best way! Whatever is free and close by.
I use dry pine needles. They work good and are free. Thanks Haley for your help.
I used mulch in my garden for the first time this year. I gave a "free wood chip" service but they don't give you a date so after waiting 6-8 weeks I gave up. I realized there was a tree service a few miles from my house. They literally had a small mountain of free woodchips. I took a bunch of contractor trash bags and made 3 trips with my car. This was kind of a test of using woodchips. I put old cardboard boxes down then added woodchips on top of themthem. They worked so well. It cut my de-weeding by 95%.
Next time I'm going to rent a pickup and fill it up with the woodchips.
This was a very clear, informative discussion. I have been adding to my "no dig", some free, some bought. The cost is high buying wood chips. The best I found however is the triple shredded at the recycle. It is soft, it is a mix of wood and leaves, light weight compared to compacted black gold. That is so heavy to haul up stairs and uphill. But I use them both. The chunky wood chips I do use in the aisles between rows for it's best to walk on that than mud. To block out, preparing new area, I use cardboard, then cover with thin layer of leaves. These don't compact as much and I give it time to break down, about a year. The other thing I use before laying down colored wood chips is brown paper ( found on emptied pallettes). So you did well because you reinforced my dealings and choices. I try not to spend money at my age, picking up naturals when I can. I am concerned about the slugs, now that I know they will be in the chunky wood chips. That is next to the veggie no dig. Have you any idea how to manage them?
As another Michigan gardener a county or two west. The brown bags our neighbors kindly set out on the curb are the best resource for the money. Free arborist wood chips work great for the paths and in your compost grind. Know your sources I fear the aminopyralid stuff they sell to make the weeds die. If the lawn has weeds make a choice. If it looks like a golf course don't pick up the bags. I take my deer fence down in the fall and make big leaf bins from them. We don't throw away trash. we gardeners drag the trash home from the neighbors.
Aminopyralids are not generally available for small scale private use like on lawns, but I totally understand that fear.
Yay. You answered my question. I bed my horses with pine shavings. I thought it would be too acidic. Maybe that is the used bedding.
When the tree service dropped my wood chips, I did tip the driver a $20. But still! CHEAP!👍
That was super cool of you. I like to tip them as well. Very cheap when compared to buying it from a landscaping company.
@@MIgardener Thank you but she unloaded it! 😁 Btw: a snow shovel works great!
@@trishthehomesteader9873 yes! We use a wide snow shovel, hard rake, wagon, wheelbarrow and even fill up the grass catching bags of the mower to transport the chips where we want them. We put our containers right up next to the piles and hard rake from the top, using gravity as our friend ;)
Excellent video! I am going with fabric this year because I have a huge garden and four kids.
Thanks Haley for hanging out
Good morning! Welcome to the team young lady. This was
A very informative video. Thank you. I make my own compost using pine wood shavings, hay, straw, grass clippings, leaves, chicken and rabbit manure. Seems to work pretty good. Not to many weeds.
A very informative video! ! So glad you hired Haly.
My favorite is actually mushroom mulch . It really boosts my soul .
Where do you source it?
@@CloudslnMyCoffee we have a farm store in our town that gets it in the spring . We just got a load last Saturday and they were almost out already. We have a few local mushroom growing farms near by .
This was really good information. I started gardening 4 years ago and it’s taken me 3 years to get the weeds under control. I would never use any mulch that introduces weeds to the garden, which appears to be a lot of the mulch presented. I use compost.
Its been 2 years we deserve another one of these 😁
Good list, but you missed leaf mold.
The only time I use grass other than in my compost pile I put them around the bottom of tomato plants that are established to keep the dirt from splashing up on the leaves.
What a nice assessment of the various options. Thank you for doing this.
Best wishes from Kate in Olympia, WA
I just tried using leaf and grass clippings. Thanks for the warning about the seeds
I live at the Jersey Shore , I use root and bark mulch. I put down 2 to 3 inches around June and by November it has mostly broken down. It is all natural, no dyes. I buy it by the yard at the local landscape supplier. It is only a couple of dollars more than other mulches. In early spring I top dress with a compost.
Love your new classroom 🌱🌱
I'm using straw this year. Thanks for this information!
I am experimenting with chopped alfalfa hay this year. It has all the nutrients of alfalfa, plus it is chopped, so it is easy to apply. It can be purchased in bags from farm supply stores. I'd like to hear your opinions on using this.
I used Coast of Maine enriching compost and seaweed. I spread that about an inch thick and then heaped on some raw wood mulch. I'm trying to keep the squirrels out. Thank you for the video! Now I know next spring to get the wood chips off and spread them out. I have plenty of space to use them.
I did the seaweed this fall on top of horse compost. Both free. 1st time using seaweed. Also a relatively new vegetable gardener. Crossing my fingers it will work out. Its still kinda smelly when not frozen.
I put two inches of compost on the garden beds first thing last season, but they didn't take off until I went back in and mulched over the compost.
I appreciated this in depth video about mulches. Why no mention of coco coir as a mulch?
Every year after the season is done I add saw dust, compost rototilling those into the dirt, spring time i add organic fertilizer, rototill again to pick out any weeds that have started and weed block fabric (to keep the weeds down) and wood shavings on top of the fabric, cut holes in the fabric for the vegetable plants, there is downsides to the fabric lifting up the fabric to put fertilizer down and at the end of the season taking up the fabric to rototill the process starts over. Next spring will be one year that I started a compost pile for the garden hopefully I can get that to the garden.
You were wanting ideas for videos...how about when and how to harvest during the different seasons. I find myself picking fruits and vegetables periodically, during "its" growing season, and taste testing... which is fine, but it'd be nice to have a benchmark so I'm not picking to early or late. Thanks!
Your rankings are pretty good!
I like grass + leaf mold mix in a 6-8 inch layer around my vegetables because I have a lot of it for free and it blocks 99% of weeds. I cut the grass before it starts seed heads and I don't have problems with re-growth. Can also work as hot or cold compost. Use Cardboard first if over a live lawn.
I'm from The Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus and I use Hay for my fruit trees as mulch I have also used pine needles before
In Australia we can get sugar cane mulch which is pulverised sugar can compressed into a bale of about 10 cubic feet. It tends to pack down so that it doesn't blow away but still lets water through.
Great suggestions. Thank you 🙏 ❤
Once a year we cover everything in the fall with maple leaves also
I planted my entire vegetable garden in the fabric this last year and honestly I will never go back. Zero weed issues, the soil retained great moisture and if you slipped your hand under the fabric on the hot afternoon the soil was not hot underneath which surprised me. The water penetrated it great the vegetables did amazing. I particularily loved that vine type crops like cucumbers, melons etc didn't get dirty and instead of trellising you can let them scoot around whereever and just reposition them as needed. If you want rotation year to year you simply pop up the garden stakes and move that row of fabric to a different spot (holes are burnt for that plant spacing)
Where can I find Haleys show on Tuesdays? Facebook? RUclips?
That's what I'm wondering. I looked in the description, but didn't find a link.
My show Roots Shoots and Coffee will be live Tuesday at 9:30 right here on the channel!
-Halley 🌱
You could use cardboard instead of the plastic. #cancelSingleUsePlastic. (I know it can be used over again, but cardboard breaks down)
I thought the glue within the cardboard layers could be toxic
I thought about using it then I examined the material, I'm not using it There is glue in corrugated cardboard some have a wax coated on the outer layer of cardboard during manufacturing process
@@claymagnolias707 The glue used in cardboard these days is not toxic.
@@claymagnolias707 not generally toxic but made with starches which worm and bugs like to eat. I use cardboard over grass & weeds for new plant areas but seldom use as a mulch. I would be more concerned with the tape and colored boxes (i only use brown cardboard)
How about salt marsh hay. Realize it’s regional. But there are many of us who live in an area where it’s available at reasonable cost. Would like to know Pluses and minuses and if it’s ok to turn into soil after winter.
Tons of pine needles here. Use it for around walkways. Compost for garden
What coverings would you recommend for raised garden beds or pots?
I live in Puerto Rico, it has its advantage we have plantains, bananas, avocado and more. What I do is pick the leaves, and check that they are good leaves. After I closed my balcony these are growing beautifully. All that I use is compost. Here people start the avocado in water, I start mine in compost and it grows faster and very healthy. And for for them to grow I use water left over brewed coffee with epsom salt.
About the plastic, I think it’s so last that it should disappear off the list. There is no reason to use this. If you have weed pressure you can use the Charles Dowding no dig method, I’ve used it successfully over even bindweed and it’s worked beautifully.
To be fair, we did say it was all the mulch options available. So it's not like we are saying it is advocated. We put it dead last.
Rice hulls are actually used in the food industry as carriers for ingredient pre-blends. We use it frequently in the pet food industry! Interesting mulch idea!
Very informative. Appreciate talking about so many of the different kinds of mulch.
Pine bark mulch is very similar to Luke’s favorite but very accessible in the US
I love pine bark
I can't seem to find it by the yard. Only in bags. Really trying to reduce my plastic waste
Love Haley! Great video. I learned a lot.
Id love to go to school for Master Gardening but the drive is so far😑 im just watching free online clasess n lots of research. If u have any recommendations I'd love to hear them! This was good
Now could be the time mine went virtual once covid started! May still be running virtual!
-Halley 🌱
Where are you watching the free classes?
@@legacyacres3248 I applied for this fall because they are doing virtual this year here in PA😁
@@CloudslnMyCoffee I have a Playlist on my channel where the classes are. The University of Arizona recorded their classes. I think I threw other stuff in there that I found to be informative 🌱
Rice hulls are heavily used in the beer brewing industry as a natural filter bed.
Hmmmm . Very interesting we have many breweries in Rochester ill have to ck.
Hello, Great video. I've been trying to make compost but it looks like it quit composting, never gets any heat and you can still see all the leaves, I've used tons of kitchen scraps and leaves and coffee grounds. I don't think it's finished or it just gave up. Anyway meanwhile I did put grass clippings on for compost. after I harvest my potatoes do I then turn all the grass mulch into the dirt, or do I remove all the compost before planting or harvesting crop?
Thank you for your response. I enjoy your videos.
Thank you for this information as I learn more and more! Take care 💕
Love natural (Rameal) woodchips. I let them break down in my paths for a year, then rake them into my beds over fresh compost to break down even more over the winter. Then fresh woodchips go on the paths.
I live in an area that grows a lot of rice. Rice hulls can be a very good mulch or growing medium. My husband and I used it in our garden over 25 years ago and it was wonderful!! The main problem today is that the type of herbicides and chemicals used growing the rice has changed and remains in the hulls possibly kill your plants. Be very careful of the source of the hulls.
I have grabbed free bark from a guy who sells firewood. I used it for hugelkulture. I rake up leaves to compost and mulch in my raised garden bed. My land is rocky and my trees are mostly Mountain cedar trees which repel plants from growing. Making compost is tough for me.
Enjoyed this,it was very useful,helpful,and had good sound. Thank you!
Pea straw is the way to go, keeps weeds out keeps soil moist and can be worked back into the soil when garden is finished so will improve soil as well so it’s a win win for me 👌👍
Your opinion on fallen pine needles
Thanks for the advice! This is good to know, ive been usin wood chips thinkin that was the only option available lol
Interesting video. But, there is a HUGE qualifier to your first two. Basically, it is useless for what most amateur backyard gardeners need, which is protection for their tomatoes [by far the most popular backyard crop]. It is my understanding that tomatoes need mulch for the basic reasons of keeping moisture in the soil, but very importantly to keep bacteria and fungi from splashing on the plant during watering.
Licorice root mulch smells so good. Where would you rank it? And what about coconut core?
What do you think about mushroom compost?
I'd like to know also thank you
Does using cedar mulch keep termites and other burrowing insects away? Just curious because I want to add some near my house and it will be abutting my foundation
I simply use layers of newspaper. Since my flowers are planted VERY tightly, they spread to cover the paper. I have too many trees/leaves in the yard to cleanup from the Gardens in the fall. I’ve found when I used the mulch options mentioned, I was blowing them out the the gardens with the leaves, which I can’t afford to replace.
I’m curious about cocoa bean hulls. Do you know much about this type of mulch? My city uses it in all the flower beds downtown and it smells amazingly chocolatey!
I’ve used it. It does the job and looks good. It’s ph neutral, fairly rich in nutrients and breaks down easily. Disadvantages: Expensive and hard to find. It tends to get blown around during the first week or two. Also not recommended if you have dogs as it has traces of theobromine.
I was wondering why this was not mentioned either. I use it my flower beds. I have not used it in my raised beds yet. You only should do about a one inch layer and you want to wet it down after putting it down. It can get really slimy if you add more than that. It forms a hard shell that keeps weeds out like NOTHING else. I maybe pull a weed or two every summer. No joke. I do not weed. It will sometimes get a moldy appearance in the very beginning and it is harmless. You rake it a bit and it is fine. I have beautiful flower beds. I get compliments from passers by all the time. The con is that it is toxic to dogs and cats ( it is cocoa) so it is a no go if you have a pet that roams free in the yard. We do not. And I love it!!!!!!! It hold moisture well. I tried it as a top soil on some pots and the drainage was not good and the plants rotted. I would think it would be fine for raised beds. Smells amazing and I love the dark rich color that stays dark. The aroma goes away.
Remember that cocoa bean hulls can be very poisonous to dogs! I use it where dogs don't get at stuff!
I put 2-3 inches of compost down and then top that with the leaves and grass combo, but that all comes free from my yard. I never have a weed problem in my beds because I mow weekly and nothing is putting out seeds if you mow often.
Should we be concerned about potential arsenic in rice hulls?
I asked my husband to create a compost tumbler/softer for me using an old dryer. It's fantastic! It ain't pretty but it's very efficient!
Very informative. Where would one find the sifted number 1 rated mulch? Stay Blessed😊
Maybe there are old piles of woodchip around were you live that have partially broken down that you can take for free?
Our city landfill has “compost” for $4.00 a bag that you load yourself and I swear this is what is at the bottom of the pile!
My garden is about 20 ft by 25 ft. Just soil. I have never considered using raised garden boxes. Always roto till it and keep up with pulling weeds. We plant tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, squatch, as a usual crop. I have a Darth Vadar compost bin. Works well. Just discovered this from Facebook, somehow. Obviously winter right now. I would really like your suggestions. Thank you in advance.
I think if you get a chip drop and cover it with compost, it will help break down the wood chips faster. Then, wind up with a much better option like the English Compost
I had been happily using pine bark chunks!:p - after doing some research it stated that it adds lots of nutrients to the soil (unlike cedar chips or other wood chips that deplete nitrogen from my understanding).
I gave up on straw real quick after it just left my garden looking very messy..
I might give it another chance for potato planting in milk crates though..🌾🥔🤔
As THE worst I’d put that nasty rubber/tire “mulch” - but yea, it should never even be considered mulch!😣
Never knew that straight up compost could work for mulch!: )
I always worked it into soil, then topped with the fairly big bark chunks!
oh how I would love to run my fingers through that first one. looks like lofty gold!. would that be similar to soil conditioners?
Any mulch that will blow away doesn't work very well in the Southwest, but compost works pretty good.
I will be experimenting with alfalfa pellets for mulch ( yes horse feed) this spring.Bought some cheap at local feed store.........
Is there arsenic in rice by products?
I use rice hulls with my kitchen scraps to keep the smell down, then mix that with dried sugarcane run through a mulcher. Rice hulls are cheap here. We take the rice to be processed, they keep the hulls and the rice bran as payment. The hulls can be bought for less than $2 for a big sack. The bran they sell as animal feed.
I would like to see a video about early crops that can be started and harvested before you main crops are planted to maximize harvest like plant peas where your butternut squash will be planted later in the spring. Looking to maximize my harvest from a small garden.
Broad beans can be planted now or very early spring.
Learned by reading book Teaming with Microbes that wood chips are generally fungal dominated which are better for trees and bushes versus compost that is generally bacterial dominated which is better for veggies. For that reason compost is my number 1A, leaves are 1B, and leaf mould is 2. I use free wood chips in the walkways and home made compost, leaf mould and leaves in growing areas as cover/top dressing. I find many plants grow over a foot to feed in the broken down wood chips while other plants do not do this. This combination works well for my Maryland zone 7A veggies. I get grass clippings were mentioned with leaves when mowing but really disappointed leaves were not a separate number (should been top 2 or 3).
Thank you! Merry Christmas!🤗🤗
You have an old video about harvesting from old dead trees in the woods. I am surrounded by woods and have an endless supply of decomposed wood and have been using it as a mulch since I saw your video. It literally crumbles in my hands. Is this basically what you have in the first picture?
Rice hulls i have ready access not too much money here in Central Texas it does take a long time to break down 2 years in some of my grow bags and still not broken down
What are your thoughts on rock mulch? Is it necessary to use landscape fabric underneath it?
Hay is usually the one with weed seeds and chemicals sprays. Because hay is basically grass and weeds and farmers typically spray it before harvest? Straw is usually stalks from wheat?
Straw can have the seeds of the grain it came from, so unwanted wheat etc. sprouting. And small grain crops are certainly sprayed with a wide range of herbicides. Maybe not the same array of chemicals as with hay, but they are sprayed.
@@richards5110 been using straw for years as mulch, potatoes, chicken bedding . Never had a problem but maybe a few wheat sprouts. Hay on the other hand.....
I'm just saying hay and straw are very 2 different things and in the video they didn't mention hay but talked about the straw like its hay.
@@gmcvay4 Hay man, don't you think you are grasping at straws here
Be careful with straw from any grain crop. Commonly, crops are sprayed with glyphosate to force the plants to both die all at the same time and to begin the process of desiccation (ie, artificially dry the grains to save money on using heat method).
Straw also encourages vermin.
What is your background music that you play in your older videos? The tune is absolutely beautiful!
Lol, calls the plastic mulch "last but not least" when introducing it and then ranks it least and last.
Very interesting video and comparisons. So helpful.
I just used plastic to smother a huge area of weeds and grass. Before I used clear plastic to solarization my soil but weeds started to grow in fall under the fabric then I swap to black fabric. Now in winter I just finished my planting.
I am surprised pine needles or hay is not mentioned ??
I used seaweeds from beach collected. It's free and best to me living in Florida.
I know that rice has a bit of arsenic in it. Do you think the rice hulls would too? Don't know if I would want to put it with my plants if it can transfer to them. Also, I worry about getting wood chips from workers chipping trees that may have been sprayed with pesticides or chemicals. Our garden is totally organic, so I am probably being too cautious. What do you 2 think?
have you ever used hemp mulch?
For the compost, does it matter if it is brown, green, or mixed?
I wonder what would happen if I put some wood chips in my compost tumbler (its a big one). Need try some of that along with my food scraps and plants leaves.
I definitely agree with your number 1 choice of compost (I love your pronunciation). Where I live in SW England it's easy to get free wood chips as many local tree surgeons give their chippings to gardeners free as it saves them paying to dispose them at the local tip. They stay on my pathways for a few years, then when they start to break down, I put them into my compost bins with other materials such as seaweed, grass and kitchen peelings. That makes wonderful mulch. I LOVE your videos. Best wishes, Steve. PS I love your longer hair - keep it growing longer and longer. :)