I mulch with lawn cuttings, which can get pretty hot when decomposing. I just keep them pulled back from the bases of the bushes a couple inches.

You don't say what the mulch is made of so I am assuming it is compost (possibly with manure since you are also taking about putting it around your veggies). If you purchased it, it is already aged and should not burn any of your plants.

As a general rule, it is always a good idea to keep any mulch a couple inches away from the stems.

I mulch....with wood chips....or my own compost or grass clippings or whatever I have....
My mulch is about 2 inches deep....right up to the stem of a plant....
Never a worry....thick heavy mulch can provide a hiding place in the winter for voles and mice....so thick mulch right up to the stem is not good. For grass clippings to get hot enough to burn a plant....they would have to be about 4 or 5 inches deep and very fresh, wet amd green.
I have been gardening for more than 45 years.....never had any harm come to a plant from mulching. However I have seen people that pile a garden 6 inches thick with shredded cedar and that's just about like planting a plant 3 inches too deep in the soil.
Moderation....and just use your head.....gardening isn't really hard at all.
Linda C

Looked at the bags and it says Cypress Mulch - Decorative ground cover. Maybe I shouldn't use it on the veggies, huh? How about the bushes?

I mulch my flower beds in front of the house with cypress mulch about 3" deep, and it is very attractive as far as looks go. And as I'm putting it down, I stick my fingers in and nudge it back from my plant stems about an inch (to me it seems like the plants would "smother" if it's too close, but that's probably all in my head... I just know they don't recommend that it's piled up around the plant stem). Mulch also helps to keep the weeds down (in the flower beds) and helps retain water so the ground doesn't dry out as fast. This would be important especially if you're just about to plant these now, in this hot weather because you'll have to keep them watered REAL GOOD for about 2 weeks. As for the veggies, I'm sure it would help deter weeds and retain moisture, but I don't grow veggies so I don't know if there would be any detrimental (sp?) effects there. I have another flower garden in the back that is mulched with shredded and aged cut-down trees that a friend of mine lets a guy dump on her property.

Long story short, I'd use it. To me, mulch really "sets off" your plantings, and whatever grass does grow up through you can always spray with round-up (just don't get it on your burning bushes!).
Gail

:) listen to Linda. she's been gardening longer than I've been alive, and while I'm just a novice by comparision, I will almost BET that my garden looks better than the gardens of whatever nitwits are talking trash about mulch in general- if they actually even DO their own gardening!

take a look at any healthy forest- there isn't anyone to rake up the leaves in the fall, but the spring plants come up every year anyhow...hmm. could mother nature be mulching?

actually, the entire practice of mulching is us humans trying to recreate mother nature's way of making sure her plants have food.

I'm busy rehabbing a house that used to have one of those 'pride of the neighborhood' gardens- the old gent across the way actually gave me a bottle of wine that was made from the grapes the previous owner grew...and mulch is my best friend. mulch hides the layers of newspaper that I am using to smother the THICK layer of weeds in what used to be the victory garden. mulch keeps my cucumbers off the dirt. mulch keeps my bleeding hearts from wilting the moment the warm weather comes. mulch keeps the roots of my clematis happy.

mulch makes my husband happy, since he thinks it makes the garden more 'intentional' (I use my tall lilies as bean poles, and cooking herbs as accent plants at the feet of my morning glories)

and while I would LIKE to use the fancy bagged mulch...there's a mulch pile over by the community center, and once a week, with my recycling tubs and a coarse screen, I collect myself two tubs of mulch minus the big bits of bark and branch (I'm cheap, not lazy) for free...

and no, I've never had a problem with ants, termites, weed seeds, or anything else that people tell urban legends about.

Clap! Clap! Clap!!
Linda C

I posted a follow-up, but it looks like it didn't work. Thanks to everybody - I've got my husband putting the mulch in a wheelbarrow right now and soon I'll be off mulching!!!! Hope all my neighbors get a good look - maybe they'll learn something from me, instead of me having to listen to all their stories about how good this grew, how big that was, I'm the only one that can grow that!!, etc. Thanks, everybody.

Pat

This string of posts is excellent and enjoyable reading. Please forgive me if this has been covered but I am not completely clear on something. A tree trimming service here in town converts their trimmed branches and such into bark as has been described. When I went and picked up my cubic yard of wood chips today, I was told it was just cut a few days ago. I assume he means the chips and not the tree. Is this considered safe to use in my flower beds? Sounds like to me that as long as I don't hug the base of my plants with it all is well.

Thanks, Kate