Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Mulch- Wood Chips

Durgan · May 18, 2016

I detect no downside from using the wood chip mulch. I started using it in quantity starting about six or so years ago. My main use is to retain moisture. The other touted benefits are of minor interest in my case. Like weed control.

The mulch is certainly not a home for any bugs. I don't have many earwigs and manage to control the potato bugs by physically picking them, since the host plants are few in number.

This year I have now most of the garden covered in mulch before planting. I just scrape it back to plant. I need a few more yards, used ten so far, which will be picked up half a yard each trip in the van. I had the initial ten delivered to the driveway.

I am now a complete advocate of mulch. The premise being in my case that bare earth is for all intents and purposes non-productive. If not protected from the Sun the soil becomes very hard. I even plant the rows closer than normal so the space between rows is shaded by the plants as much as possible. For plant spacing I leave adequate between plants in the row.

May 18, 2016	#3
Durgan Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Brantford, ON, Canada Posts: 1,341	I detect no downside from using the wood chip mulch. I started using it in quantity starting about six or so years ago. My main use is to retain moisture. The other touted benefits are of minor interest in my case. Like weed control. The mulch is certainly not a home for any bugs. I don't have many earwigs and manage to control the potato bugs by physically picking them, since the host plants are few in number. This year I have now most of the garden covered in mulch before planting. I just scrape it back to plant. I need a few more yards, used ten so far, which will be picked up half a yard each trip in the van. I had the initial ten delivered to the driveway. I am now a complete advocate of mulch. The premise being in my case that bare earth is for all intents and purposes non-productive. If not protected from the Sun the soil becomes very hard. I even plant the rows closer than normal so the space between rows is shaded by the plants as much as possible. For plant spacing I leave adequate between plants in the row.