Vegetable garden question

[Daisygirl]

Can you use the regular ground up bark type mulch in between the rows in a vegetable garden (to cut back on weeding and conserve water)?

I also hope it might help with the ant problem, since I found quite a few in there this morning.

[The Muse]

You can use wood chips, but you run the risk of them sucking up nitrogen as they begin to decay. If you keep them loosely packed on the surface you should be fine, but if they mix into the soil, you'll probably want to add a high nitrogen fertilizer to the soil.

[suki]

Yes, although it might lower the ph of your soil. You just might want to check the ph and adjust accordingly.

We've used sawdust between for the walking paths in our garden. The best thing about this is it eventually breaks down and is another organic matter that can be worked into the soil. You can't do that with pinebark mulch... so maybe consider the softer mulches (which are less expensive, I think).

[nandmsmom]

I like to use straw or hay better. They are very inexpensive and don't use up as much nitrogen to break down. I have also found that wood mulch sometimes burns my plants, so probably not a great idea for the veggie garden. With straw, it breaks down nicely over the summer and you can just turn it in come fall. It feeds the garden nicely.

[suki]

yep, for around the plants... straw (hay often has seeds that will become weeds) works very nicely. I thought she was talking about in the aisles, not around the plants though...

[itlw8]

bark mulch attracts ants we have used it nicely for a walk way in the beds I uses a thin layer or grass clipping and then you add more as it dries ( no not use grass if it has been treated)

I uses shredded paper around my tomato plants. pine mulch in the strawberry bed, I usually do not mulch the crops that are in and out fast like beans and peas.

A natural mulch such as squash works great around corn.