Whats your mulch?

For a mulch you really need stuff that won't grow things, and compost will. I use wood chip on the flower beds, straw on the veg plot and grass clippings when I have run out of anything else. Don't put grass clippings on more than a couple of inches deep in one go or they will heat up and burn the plants.

Your compost is better used in the veg plot to improve the soil and a mulch can be used on top to supress weeds and conserve moisture.

You would be better to move your leaf bin as they take ages to rot down and leaf mould is like gold dust.

If you've got partially rotted compost then you can add it as a mulch layer. It'll cover the soil surface and give the worms something to do.

I used some that had rats tail radish seeds in and the 'weeds' just pulled up easily and were left on the top as an extra bit of mulch.


I have used bark chippings as mulch. I've used some fresh and some that had been left in a sack with manure for a good few months.
I've used straw, hops, grass cuttings.

Grass is cheapest during the lawn cutting season - everything else either costs money or has a collection cost. Neighbours might well save you grass cuttings or at least allow you to empty their green bin.

You can leave it stacked until its heated up and then cooled down - it will get hot inside, but you can use it in layers a couple of inches thick without it damaging established plants. The dryer it is the more you can add, but there is a sensible limit of a couple of inches.
It will break down well.

We have mulched an area with newspaper and then grass cuttings on top. The weeds stayed away and are only just coming back. It looks a bit 'untidy' if you're one of these gardeners who think they need to see the bare soil everywhere. But it's cheap and works well.

Bare soil is vulnerable to the rain and wind and sun. By mulching you will help the soil.

You can cover soil with plastic to protect it but you don't get any nutritional benefits at all from that.
Black plastic can be used for solarisation of weeds - but you do need lots of sunshine for that.

Remember not to use grass cuttings if you have put any lawn feed and weed on your grass

I usually use hay, or straw. But I'm cheating atm and using shredded paper and hay. I started putting shredded paper in the bottom of the chook house, and when it's mixed with chook poo, put it on the garden. Then recently with so much dryness and not enough hay to use as mulch I put on a load of shredded paper, then a little hay on top, and watered well. It's all breaking down well at the moment, and keeping the ground covered. It does look a bit untidy, but then I'm on a farm so people aren't walking by and commenting on it.

I use damp newspapers with a thin layer if grass cuttings. Works for me.

Last year it was decorative pebbles, but I'll be trying store bought bark chippings this year