Over the past couple of years, the gardening world has turned into a mulching madness. Everybody mulches and mulch is the solution to every single garden problem. Heat problem- you need to mulch, disease problem you need to mulch, garden fairies don’t come as often- you don’t have enough mulch. Everything is solved with mulch.

I’m not against mulch, on the contrary, I use mulch, but only when the benefits of the mulching are bigger than the beds without the mulch. I don’t believe in mulching on every single occasion and every single weather condition. I’ve seen many times during the rain season gardeners stuffing their gardens with mulch on top of the mulch and wondering why their plants are rotting. Mulching can be great, but not always.

This year mulch is a helping hand in our garden. The heat started very early, we already had a long heatwave and now temperatures are back to 35+°C (95°F). The soil is very dry and the little rain we get evaporates during a single day. This means it was time to mulch. 

Mulching can be done with almost anything hay, straw, leaves, bark, and any dried plant. But in desperate times fresh plants can also be used as mulch. Fresh grass clippings are perfect for this task, especially when your days are as hot as mine.

Past 3 years my garden didn’t need any mulch, we had so much rain that I needed help getting the rain off my beds and not keeping the beds moist. This year things changed and my garden is dry and heated up. I don’t have any straw or hay and can’t get any. The past two years were bad for farmers here, there are no extra amounts. I’d need to wait for their 3rd straw collecting to get their extras and that’s months away. 

Luckily I haven’t been cutting the orchard grass for the past 3 weeks so there’s lots of grass perfect for mulch. Since my garden is in the middle of the forest the clippings are mixed with dried leaves, fresh leaves, strawberry leaves, ferns, and bark bits. Chopped with the landowner they will act as a great mulch.

My layer of mulch isn’t too thick. I spread the mulch just enough to cover the surface around the roots to collect the morning dew and keep the moisture during the hot days. The freshness of the clipping won’t be an issue since the grass will dry in just one day so in less than 24h after placing it this mulch will be dry.

I don’t mulch all my plants, peppers are a must when temperatures are too high for too long, also cabbages, cucumbers, and lettuce heads. Tomatoes can be mulched, but there’s really no need. Tomatoes like heat, they thrive in the heat and their long roots get enough moisture from the deeper layers of soil. 

I’ve also mulched zucchinis, and one bed of beet, carrots, and parsley. I left the second bed without the mulch, so I’ll see the difference. 

I did the mulching before the rain. There’s no point in placing it after the rain. By the time I can get to the garden after the rain the top layer is already completely dry. This way the rain won’t dry up too fast. 

Now we’ll see if this helps the plants in the next heatwave.