Mulch for Veg

[Cranford Steve]

Do any of you mulch your veg patch? I am considering it as I have alot of material to chip. Is it a good idea or not?

[binley100]

What sort of material are you chipping?
I use lawn clippings round most veg . bark chippings round fruit bushes and raspberries . Coffee grounds round my brassicas and this winter will be using straw round parsnips and celeriac in the hopes that I can dig them up when the going gets frosty. Make sure tho that they have been watered before you mulch .

[Cranford Steve]

I have alot of leaves, small branches and stuff. Some old conifer branches that are really small.

[Two_Sheds]

I wouldn't put those directly on the soil as a mulch on your veg Steve. As the carbon rots down, it takes nitrogen from the soil to do so (possibly robbing it from your veg).
Wood chippings can also frequently lead to the appearance of lots of mushrooms (living on the decaying wood).

It would be good under shrubs though, to keep the weeds down, or as a mix into your normal compost bins (mixed with plenty of green stuff - nitrogen).

[Two_Sheds]

This interesting discussion may undermine and contradict what I just said !

[Cranford Steve]

Very interesting stuff two sheds. Think I will not use the wood mulch on my veg. I will stick to using the mulch on my beds and borders, also I just planted about 30 bluebell bulbs under my conifers. Will use the mulch there as well when they start to appear in spring.

[Snadger]

I personally mulch with anything organic that comes to hand at the time. I've never had any problems with the mulch depleting the nitro in the soil, in fact one of my favourite mulches is straw which theoretically should be the worst possible thing to use in its un-composted state.

[oldie]

I'm with Snadger on this one. There was a huge increase in my worm population when I started using straw. I found that it would last two years and could then go into the compost bin where it quickly rots down.