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YourGardenShow's Buzz May 08, 2012
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Happy happy plants after a good soaking rain. Happy happy weeds too. I want to know everyone's favorite, free(ish) mulching techniques!
RoriTx replied about 1 year ago
Heavy cardboard or newspaper topped with hay. Works for the growing season,helps hold the moisture & adds to the soil as it breaks down.
Nellilein replied about 1 year ago
Cardboard, newspaper or moving paper (depending on where in the garden I'm laying it and if I can get my hands on moving paper) topped with free bedding and horse manure.  It's been outside at least 4 months before I get it and usually sits in our trailer for several weeks before we gather enough of the bottom layer (cardboard, etc.)  Only cost we have is picking up the bedding material with our van pulling a trailer and the cost of the work on our bodies.  Our bodies can handle it, so we're excited to be refreshing our soil with might otherwise end up in a landfill.
Clenram replied about 1 year ago
I have been using my oak leaves...that is what we have plenty of.  Ian says that I should mix them up because oak leaves don't have much nitrogen...I think that is what he says.  My new low garden (it has always been wild with weeds) has so many weeds this first time of cultivation that I have been pulling the weeds and then laying them around the roots of the good plants.  The cucumbers, okra, and tomatoes a... doing great down there, but the beans and peas didn't make it.  
Nellilein replied about 1 year ago
@Clenram:Oaks also are an aleopathic plant (meaning it exudes a chemical to deter other plants from living nearby) and very acidic too.  Also, mixing leaves with another material also helps prevent the leaves from clumping together and becoming anaerobic (a lack of oxygen encourages them to go putrid).  I like the idea of using pulled weeds as mulch.  I do that with other plants but am afraid of weeds setting up in a new place so they go right in the green waste bin.  I'm actually growing plants just to cut them and lay them in my orchard - comfrey and yarrow are 2 I've already planted near the trees.

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