mulching around the veg plot

[Bitzy66]

Hi all ,I have been thinking of mulching around the veg plot I have spuds ,red and white onions ,and beets in one part .
In the other raised bed ,beans ,peas and a bit of salad stuff .
I can get my hands on lots of well rotted manuare from a farm up the road for free or they sell hay by the big bail,which would be better to retain the moisture if we get any decent weather this year .

[Mike Vogel]

Hi Bitsy and welcome to this friendly forum community. Well, there have been quite a lot of threads about mulching and the use of manure, but I think that as long as the manure is very well rotted and you can be confident that there are no nasties in it like the amynopyralid we've been hearing so much about, then both spuds and beans will benefit from it. My own choice would be to use straw or hay for mulch and spread the manure in the autumn to be worked into the soil over winter by the worms.

I myself buy straw from a local farm and use that in conjunction with newspaper and cardboard packaging which people throw away. Both these restore carbon to the soil, and cardboard acts as a great weed-inhibitor in early spring. Not bindweed though; that you still need to dig out.

Good luck
mike

[Bitzy66]

Thanks mike I supose I could use both then manuare around the spuds and beans and hay around the beets and salad stuff , best of both !
very good idea about the old news papers i will try that one .

[Nature's Babe]

Mike is right autumn is the best time to apply the manure, and I also like to apply the mulch then as I use spent straw duck and chicken bedding, applied in the autumn it helps keep weeds down over winter, and stops erosion from heavy rains, rain dilutes and washes the manure into the soil, worms come right up to the surface of the soil to incorporate and digest the mulch leaving the soil in really good condition under the mulch. In spring the rain has washed the straw clean, any weeds that have pushed through the mulch are really easy to pull out, ( even bindweed ) and remove, I plant things in loo rolls in the greenhouse then harden off and plant them through the mulch just clear a spot, plant, and then ease the mulch around the plant again. The mulch adds humus and feeds and keeps roots moist, any weeds are dried off on the paths and then as long as they haven't seeded added to the mulch, along with lawn clippings and spent crops I am gradually converting all my beds to mulch, having tried it I am convinced, if you mulch over raised beds you can plant the sides as well as the top, and it works well for both drought and flood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugFd1JdFaE0

[Bitzy66]

Hi natures babe ,thankyou for the fed back that link was very informative I am now a mulching convert ,we keep 6 hens so I can reuse the hay from there to lay as mulch to keep the costs down .
Thanks
Bitzy