What’s the Best Mulch for Veggies? Pros and Cons to 6 Types of Mulch

19.07.2024 - 17:28 / finegardening.com / Jessica Walliser

Let’s face it: Mulching isn’t a glamorous job. It’s dusty, dirty, and can be downright backbreaking. But despite all the effort involved in the task, mulching your vegetable garden properly at the start of the growing season pays big dividends as the weeks progress. With a 2- to 3-inch-thick layer of mulch in place, trips to the shed for a hoe, cultivator, or hand weeder become few and far between; the hose stays coiled on its reel; veggie roots remain insulated from temperature extremes; and soil-borne fungal spores stay far away from plant leaves. There’s no doubt that the benefits of mulch are many, but the truth is that not all mulches perform the same.

Though there are dozens of different products you can use to mulch your vegetable patch, not all of them are a smart choice, and some of them are downright dangerous. (We’re talking to you, shredded rubber tires and old, synthetic chemical-laden, living room carpet!). For example, gravel is a great mulch for alpine gardens, but its nonexistent nutritional content and eternal life span are not so good in the vegetable garden. The same goes for plastic films, river rocks, and pumice stones. The best types of mulch for edibles are those that provide all the benefits mentioned above and then go on to be processed by soil microbes, which releases mineral nutri­tion to plants and adds oh-so-valuable organic matter to the soil. The following is an accounting of everything you need to know about several popular veggie garden mulches, which should help you decide what material is best for you—and your tomatoes.

STRAW

Straw consists of the dried stalks of various grain plants, including wheat, oats, rye, and barley. Tightly compressed and bound into round or rectangular bales,