The method we use in our 12+ semi-raised garden beds was inspired by Ruth Stout, but has been adapted by Johnny to suit our needs. Unlike Ruth, we don't leave mulch in place year-to-year, but rather turn the mulch into the soil and add anew each year in order to build soil.

Using mulch in garden beds has many advantages:

• weed barrier
• insulates the soil - keeping it cooler in the summer
• Retains soil moisture
• Adds nutrition and structure to the soil in future years as it breaks down
• Covers the soil so it doesn't dry out and essential soil bacteria in the top layer stay alive

What materials make good mulch?

Organic mulch is always preferred if this is an option for your setup. There are several options discussed below:

• Grass: We prefer to cut a mixture of dead and fresh grass in early spring - late February or early March in NE Oklahoma. The dry grass will help aerate the soil and will eventually decompose and encourage fungal breakdown, whereas the fresh green grass breaks down bacterially. What's more, the green grass will add more nutrition to the soil and garden plants.
  •     using just dry grass is okay, but you have less nutritious green manure
  •     using just dry grass is okay too, but you have to be careful to avoid hot, rapid decomposition.
• Wheat straw: This is similar to dead grass. The down sides are that you have to purchase it, and the strands are long, making it compact down less and thus an inferior weed barrier
• Leaves: Leaves work best if they are somewhat chopped. Again, mulch needs to form a tight weave to choke out weeds. The tighter mat also prevents leaves from blowing away.
• Wood chips: In our experience these are too high in carbon and take too long to breakdown.
• Fabric barrier: This is better than nothing, but expensive, wasteful, and lends nothing to building soil fertility. It will keep the soil alive, cut down on weeds, and help retain moisture.

More on grass mulch

The thickness of your mulch layer is important. A question we get asked alot is:

Doesn't grass mulch create a weed problem in the garden beds by spreading grass and other seeds?!

No!

Laying down dry mulch 10-12" thick, a mix of dry and green 8-10" or green just 4-5" thick creates a solid mat. The seeds don't reach the soil, and those that do literally never see the light of day. A vital function of the mulch is to prevent the growth of weeds, including seeds of the very mulch itself.

When should I apply mulch?

You can apply mulch in the garden any time (just after harvest, mid-winter, or early spring). If using grass, late fall or early spring - when there is a mix of dry and green grass are the best times.

Preparing Garden Beds: step-by-step

1. Weed first. Any weeds that won’t die off after spring, such as dock, dandelion, white clover, sheep sorrel, creeping charley, and grasses need to be pulled. Things like chickweed, dead nettle, henbit, can be tilled in. Any tree saplings come up? If you are unable to uproot, cut close to base.
2. Till. After the soil has dried out from any recent spring rains, till. If you mulched last year, you are turning in composted mulch into the soil, which will help build up your soil and increase aeration and drainage. Considering no-till? Try it! But read below more on tilling. We only till about 4" deep in the center of our beds. We leave the outside 4" on both sides untilled.
3. Add any soil amendments. We add composed goat and chicken house litter that has sat for at least a year.
4. Till again to mix in the compost and other amendments.
5. Rake the soil to smooth and mound the center somewhat to further create a raised bed when desired.
6. Inspect hoses for replacement or patching needs.
7. A down-side of mulching is that rainfall cannot penetrate to the soil, especially if light or sporadic. To ensure adequate soil moisture for optimal plant growth, some type of soaker hose below the mulch is strongly recommended.
8. Hoses are easiest to inspect by hooking them to an outdoor spigot and turning the water on. Any leaks that are too small for the eye will suddenly be apparent.
9. Lay working hose. Depending on what you plant, either one down the center, or two – one on each side. We recently transitioned to Gilmour flat soaker hoses. Hopefully these won't spring leaks!
10. Cover with mulch. It is highly advisable to cover with mulch the same day you till. If you till and get a rain before you mulch, you may have to till again to break up the soil. For this reason we work one bed/row at a time. It takes us about 3-4 trips on the mower with a pull-behind collection trailer per 50’ row; 5-6 per 75’ row.

It's a lot of work in the spring, but it pays off by saving tons of time during the busy summer gardening season. And it saves on water usage as well!

For tips and instructions on catching mulch, check out our post on making a mulch catcher: Barefoot Farm » Making a Mulch Catcher (barefootfarmok.com)  

Till vs. No-till

Here’s a topic almost as heated as political affiliation. There is a lot to read on this topic, and no-till is a vital part of regenerative agriculture and seen as necessary to preserve the integrity of the beneficial microbes in the soil. In our experience in our heavy clay soils, some plants tolerate no-till better than others, particularly those with shallow roots such as greens and brassicas, but carrots and squash plants don’t thrive in our soil when we don’t till. Even in beds where we will plant kale and broccoli, we till every three years. In addition to mixing the hay mulch and manure into our soil, tilling also assures good seed-soil contact which is vital for seed germination.