Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcgrady
I'm using PH's method this year, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. DeWitt Sunbelt woven landscape cover 3 foot wide. Holes are 9" apart. I going to throw a couple inches of straw over that.
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I have 1 meter wide black plastic over the beds, which works as summer mulch. This is now 3rd season for the same plastic sheets. I'm planning to use the woven stuff, when these sheets get too worn to be reused.
I was looking for straw, but the smaller bales are quite expensive and the grain crops have been bred to have so short stems that those are mostly mulched directly to the field with harvester and not baled at all. I am also a bit worried, if baled straw could have residue of broad-leaf plant killing herbicides. I am not sure, if my worries are totally groundless, but reading about the aminopyralid contaminated gardens has got me to be more cautious.
A company in Finland sells mulch made from industrial hemp. That should work well, but it is also quite expensive to get. I would like to grow my own and shred it with the wood chipper to get mulch. Maybe next spring I will try to get seeds to plant a small patch to try it.
Sari