what to mulch with?

[BeantownBaby9]

Hi Ladies, its my first Diggin post.

Here is a pic of my garden. I have herbs and lettuces on the left, then squashes, pumpkins and cukes to the right, with the peppers and tomatoes in the back.

I went to an organic gardening meeting a few weeks ago and she stressed the importance of mulching the whole garden. As you can see, all I have is dirt right now. The crab grass will take over if I don't get some mulch down this weekend. What do you all suggest? I am a bit of a newb to all this, so your help is appreciated!

[catballou24]

nice big garden! i use straw in mine. works great! just make sure it's been "cured" so as to not grow in your garden.. you can probably ask about it at your organic nursery. we've also used cured compost that works good. you want to layer it several inches thick no matter what you use. 3-4 is usually sufficient. don't use any bark type mulch...it sucks in the water and the dirt under dries out fast...it's mainly for trees we've found..

[Owen'nZoe]

Nice garden! I'd say straw, too. Just make sure you're buying straw and not hay. In the future, if you didn't want to buy mulch, you could look into planting intensively. Then the plants form a living 'mulch'.

[BeantownBaby9]

I just called my local place and they don't have cured straw but they do have seedless salt marsh hay...good enough? its $14.99 a bail, YIKES!

[rubyeta]

I collect salt marsh hay at the local beaches! It is very plentiful here, I an fill a garbage barrel in under 5 minutes! I am on the cape, it might be worth a trip if you have time. (it is a beautiful place to visit too!) bay beaches are the best ones to find it at.

[canadiyank]

I use grass clippings. Usually I mulch the grass when it's mowed but every once in awhile I'll save clippings and put them on the garden. It doesn't look like you need it, but if you have a heavy weed problem dampened cardboard covered with grass clippings will take care of it and it's usually rotted by the next season.