I am so confused, getting so many different opinions? I was once told I should use Bark Mulch in the vegetable garden but now I read it takes away the nitrogen and nutrients in the garden. So then I read straw mulch was the best... but where do I get this? I live in North Vancouver. Also I was told orginally that bark mulch would keep the weeds down in the flower/plant beds, now I am told it will attract bugs and snails? What do I use then to keep down the weeds in a flower bed? Thank you
If you are growing warm season vegetables you probably don't want to mulch those at all. You also don't want a persisting mulch where you will be turning the soil each year, as people often do when growing vegetables. Ruth Stout kept vegetable beds deeply mulched with hay (or maybe straw), wrote a book about it. But that was back east, where it was probably much hotter than here. Probably your best bed is un-mulched raised beds (planters) with something like cedar play chips (or paving) between, where you walk.
