British Columbia: best mulches for vegie gardens

Just read an interesting article in the June edition of Fine Gardening, "Build a garden out of straw". In the article the author talks about using sterile straw bales. That sounds like a good idea to me as I have had experience with straw bales sprouting and being a bit of a bother. I have called several garden shops but no one seems to know where to purchase them. I know I can get regular straw bales from a feed and tack shop but has anyone heard of or seen "sterile" straw bales?
Thank you

 

Nope. For mulch, I use as a basis whatever clean plant material that is to hand. All disease-free & seed-free clippings, weeds, roots & tops get "chipped" by my bagging mower & chucked in a heap for about a year - I use that compost to mulch with. All the leaves in fall get the same treatment & I collect leaves from the neighbours too. If I am short (normal!) I buy a partially composted wood fines (chip) & green waste mix. There are several companies that sell this kind of product in the lower mainland. My advice, don't use cedar at all & don't use other evergreen-tree foliage unless thoroughly composted, which can take a couple of years in my backyard - too acid. Watch-out for the cheap deals, where you don't know where the stuff comes from. You may get a load of weeds or uncomposted material (see a recent post re flies).

You see, if I am putting 3 inches of mulch on 2 veggie beds that are 4 feet by 25 feet, that is 50 cubic feet of material. Round-up & call it 2 yards (54 cuft). I ain't gonna buy an expensive, hard-to-find product in that quantity. "The Answer" in Aldergrove, for example, will dump 2 yards of "neutral-mulch" into my utility trailer for $60. More in-line with my snack bracket. I only have to mulch like this every 2 or 3 years, depending on the crop (& how much other green/brown material I can scrounge!).

Glass brain's rules of gardening...mulch before you plant, then tuck the plants in with mulch when you plant them. Mulch clean waste when you take plants out, then apply mulch between crops to keep weeds down. If you have nothing to do in your yard, then mulch something. It will keep your family happy. Mulching is a non-addictive, fairly cheap & healthy activity that keeps me out of casinos, pubs, the mall & other unsavoury or expensive places (& out from under my wife's feet!).

gb

 

Thank you for the great answer. Where do you buy/get the " partially composted wood fines (chip) & green waste mix" What is "the answer" in aldergrove ?
I don't have lawn so I don't have the mulcher machine.
The extra tips on planning the garden seems logical so that I can incorporate into garden planning right away.
Thank you for the post - much appreciated

 

Don't know specific suppliers in Vancouver/Burnaby. A google search gives me Yardworks (Richmond as well as Aldergrove) yardworkssupply.ca. "The Answer" is a composting company out this way. They probably supply bulk to garden centres in the city. Any large garden centre near you should know their mulches.

I like to use the recycled/composted municipal waste/wood fines mix ("Enviromulch"(?), "neutral mulch" or similar name). It's not pure organic, since goodness knows what some put on their plants, but I am not a purist. However, I am becoming grumpy in my dotage & get offended by the silly people who put out dozens of bags of green waste, get the landscaper to remove all the trimmings & then spend a bundle on chemical fertilizers & sprays. It don't make sense, folks. Oops...I'm ranting. Promised myself not to do that.

BTW the "neutral" in the name I use means that the wood waste is partially composted so that does not lock-up the nitrogen in the soil, which happens in the initial stages of the decomposition of wood in composting or soil building. The idea is that it is nitrogen neutral. So, for specific heavy feeding veggies, you may need to add a richer compost or a bit of fertilizer. A layer of mulch may inhibit germination, so I scrape it clear of my seed rows until the plants get going.

Note: Any professional organic gardeners, agronomists, chemists, ecologists, biologists, microbiologists or sylviculturists out there...please correct or expand my comments. I do not wish to mis-inform & surely need some edumacation anyway.

gb.

 

I weed the garden up until August 1 and then that's it for watering and weeding. I water all the plants thoroughly before mulching and then add 6 bales of straw around everything and on all the paths. It looks beautiful as well as being functional. The trick is to add the straw in a very thick layer. Sometimes, weeds make it through but generally it is very easy maintenance. I use straw around corn, beans, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, basil and raspberries. This year, I put a thick layer around all my fruit trees to make lawn mowing easier but don't know at this time whether this will be successful. It is unbelievable how moist the soil stays under a thick bed of straw, even during very hot weather. We have our own supply of straw but I think it sells for around $7.00 per bale. After many years of this process, the soil is so nice and friable and with the use of a winter cover crop, lots of OM has been added back to build up the soil into a natural raised bed.

 

Since it is cool out here, near salt water, with many attempting warm season vegetables no mulch may be the best option. In the Amazonian summers back East it is a different situation. Summer nights may be in the 90s (F).

A friend grows warm season vegetables near Seattle, in exposed soil AND under plastic as well, to provide the heat that tomato plants etc. require.

Although vegetable plants here often feature bare, frequently cultivated soil it seems cool season crops like the various Brassicas (cole crops) would probably benefit from mulching - the same as other locally adapted garden plants.