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Raise Your Garden

Musings on the Seedier Side

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May 19, 2015 in Composting

Mulch or compost…..are you using the right one?

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Do you bother to mulch your landscaping each year to improve your curb appeal? Should you? If you’re like me you feel a lot of pressure to make your yard look its best. So I just have to ask you. Should you be using compost instead?  (It certainly would be cheaper). Or both? Because to me, using both mulch and compost is a lot like whipping up a batch of brownies. Here’s why. 
When making brownies, you have some important decisions to make….right?!
1.) Do you add chocolate or peanut butter chips to the batter prior to baking?
2.) When done baking, should you frost them?

In the gardening world, the compost are the chips and the mulch is the frosting. 

It’s the compost that “sweetens” the garden soil. It needs to be infused and mixed into the soil, just like the chips need to be mixed in the batter. And like those chips, a little goes a long way. You don’t need a ton of it to make your plants thrive. Compost is the gardeners “black gold”. The nutrients are constantly being leached into the soil. When rain washes through the compost, tons of Nitrogen and Carbon are washed downward improving the soil quality. 

But the mulch? It’s the icing on the cake. Like a thicker frosting, mulch is bulkier than compost and tends to stay in place more than compost would. It spreads easily, covers and protects your soil and plant roots from extreme temperatures, helps retain moisture and suppresses weeds and disease. Beyond all this, it does look good….for a time. 

What I don’t like about mulch…

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1.) It only looks good temporarily. Even after just a few weeks it starts to look faded and tired. 
2.) The dyes that are sometimes added to it that leach into the soil
3.) Certain varieties are particularly icky like the shredded tire mulch that is sometimes colored, sometimes not. Ugly either way! 
4.) It takes forever to break down, okay when you’re blocking weeds in the “round the house” landscaping, but not ideal in the garden beds.

My Modest Proposal?

  • Skip the mulch entirely. I know! If you want to suppress weeds, your best bet is too smother them with cardboard and newspaper. Dump some compost on top of your soil, work in, lay down your combo of cardboard and newspaper and drop some more compost on top. 
  • Honestly – I think compost looks better than the mulch anyhow! It’s dark, rich and retains that dark color throughout the summer. Jammed packed with disease fighting organisms and essential nutrients, it’s always feeding your soil. Compost also stabilizes pH levels.
  • Compost is cheap to buy and free to make! We (okay fine Tom) got a whole trailer full of compost for $30. But of course we also make our own. Remember: Compost is only organic matter. You can’t use it as fill dirt because eventually compost will break down and go away, leaving a hole. 
  • Some wonderful items to compost are leaves, garden plants, newspaper, grass clippings, manure, straw, and kitchen scraps. The compost pile is the ideal place for all those vegetable and fruit peelings, eggshells, dryer lint, coffee grinds and tea leaves. Once these items decompose, you’ll get a mixture resembling humus with that wonderful dark and crumbly texture. 
  • Like mulch, a thick layer is better than a thinner one to help keep sunlight from emerging weeds.
  • Add 2 to 4 inches of compost to your gardening/vegetable beds and work into the soil either by hand tilling or a rototiller if you have one. 
  • Add your newspaper and/or cardboard to suppress weeds. Dump another 2 to 4 inches of compost on top. 
  • If possible (and if you have the time) it’s nice to add additional layers of compost every month or so during the summer and fall. 

How to use Compost

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Last bit of advice:

It doesn’t matter what your current soil conditions are…compost is going to enrich it. Whether it’s excessively heavy and compact or too loose and sandy, compost will help. It breaks up heavy clay soil like mine and helps it drain better. In sandy soil, compost helps retain the water so it doesn’t drain nearly so fast, giving those plant roots a chance to absorb moisture. 

In fact, when compared to wood mulch, compost has a lower carbon to nitrogen ratio meaning…it’s a better quality fertilizer than wood mulch as it decomposes! Yay. 

Have you mulched yet? Would you consider using compost as a substitute for mulch?

101 Comments

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Comments

  1. my bonsai is turning brown says

    November 1, 2020 at 6:17 am

    When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and
    now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment.
    Is there any way you can remove me from that service?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Laura Sproull says

      November 1, 2020 at 12:43 pm

      Hmmmm. I have no idea! Can you go back and next time you comment, uncheck that box? I agree….that would be annoying =) If not, let me know and I’ll get on it!

      Reply
  2. katie says

    June 26, 2021 at 7:31 pm

    I have mulched and just hoping it goes away slowly so we can just do without it. It hasn’t really blocked the weeds too well either. I think for our yard compost isn’t necessary though.

    Reply
    • Cathy C McInturff says

      June 27, 2021 at 10:46 pm

      We like using pine straw, which works fairly well.

      Reply
  3. Chad Boyd says

    June 26, 2021 at 7:33 pm

    We use compost on our gardens and it is like magic dust for our plants!

    Reply
    • Elaine+Pitenis says

      June 27, 2021 at 3:33 pm

      Yes, compost has all the nitrogen and nutrients to keep gardens healthy

      Reply
  4. Tina says

    June 26, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    I dont have a garden

    Reply
  5. Phyllis Skoglund says

    June 26, 2021 at 8:00 pm

    Our sandy soil is dandy for growing just about anything. I have been surprised.

    Reply
  6. Larry Carli says

    June 26, 2021 at 8:41 pm

    Using newspapers and paper in your compost to suppress weeds is a good idea.

    Reply
  7. Vicki Davis says

    June 26, 2021 at 8:41 pm

    Love getting my hands saturated with God’s sweet soil❣️

    Reply
  8. Sherry McCarthy says

    June 26, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    I used to help my mom and I remember all those newspapers, wish I had paid more attention to what she was doing in her garden!

    Reply
  9. Sheila says

    June 26, 2021 at 11:26 pm

    I usually have no luck with gardening but I gave it a shot and I have baby peppers and baby bell peppers

    Reply
  10. Crystal Abel says

    June 27, 2021 at 12:21 am

    I am putting mulch down in my rose bed. Thank you for the tips.

    Reply
  11. Liz Kilcher says

    June 27, 2021 at 3:58 am

    thanks for the great ideas!!!

    Reply
  12. Christina Naugle says

    June 27, 2021 at 9:27 am

    mulch, love gardening

    Reply
  13. Lynn Chaidez says

    June 27, 2021 at 9:33 am

    Thank you for the great idea! We are going to try this with our next project.

    Reply
  14. Brittany Gilley says

    June 27, 2021 at 9:34 am

    I prefer compost

    Reply
  15. Belinda Rowden says

    June 27, 2021 at 9:35 am

    You always have the best advice!

    Reply
  16. Rena Walter says

    June 27, 2021 at 10:46 am

    We love tomatoes. Thank you for the information.

    Reply
  17. kathy says

    June 27, 2021 at 11:00 am

    I would use both mulch and compost in different areas of the garden and at harvest, see which did a better job

    Reply
  18. Yona Williams says

    June 27, 2021 at 11:07 am

    I LOVE the dark, rich color of compost…it looks luxurious. Too bad mulch fades…that looks nice when it is first put down.

    Reply
  19. Bradley Marquis says

    June 27, 2021 at 11:08 am

    cool

    Reply
  20. Jennifer Keating says

    June 27, 2021 at 11:24 am

    This is a great post! I’m moving into a new house and have never been able to plant anywhere else I’ve lived. GREAT tips, now I won’t have to guess!

    Reply
  21. Tara Enright says

    June 27, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    I love a medium to dark mulch but my step dad does all the yard work. I didn’t think mulch was as simple it is just mulch lol.

    Reply
  22. Debbie Welchert says

    June 27, 2021 at 12:44 pm

    My husband does all of the mulching here. He does all the outside work.

    Reply
  23. Lisa Bennett says

    June 27, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    Gardening is my happy place. Thank you for this opportunity.

    Reply
  24. Dawn Mielke says

    June 27, 2021 at 1:15 pm

    Love learning from your articles.

    Reply
  25. Amber Lee Kolb says

    June 27, 2021 at 1:55 pm

    I’ve never thought about using anything but mulch before! We’ve already put ours down but I’m keeping this in mind for next year!

    Reply
  26. john carrabino says

    June 27, 2021 at 2:55 pm

    great article

    Reply
  27. Heidi says

    June 27, 2021 at 3:08 pm

    I have mulched in the past but after reading this article I might try to use compost instead.

    Reply
  28. Suzanne Timmsen says

    June 27, 2021 at 3:22 pm

    I use some much around my flowers and I know it helps with moisture.

    Reply
  29. Jennifer Phillips says

    June 27, 2021 at 3:23 pm

    I need to mulch more, this is some great information on how to do it all thank you

    Reply
  30. kathy m says

    June 27, 2021 at 4:28 pm

    Good information on the difference between compost and mulch! We compost our own materials because our soil is so clay filled and nothing grows without adding it to our garden. I did pay attention to my great grandmother who taught me about newspaper and cardboard to battle the weeds and I love how it works so well! Thanks for the thoughtful timely post!

    Reply
  31. Lisa Cress says

    June 27, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    Great blog post! Thanks much!

    Reply
  32. Irina says

    June 27, 2021 at 5:17 pm

    I prefer mulch

    Reply
  33. Lori Byrd says

    June 27, 2021 at 6:00 pm

    I mulch every year. Looks so pretty.

    Reply