Are you wondering about any particular type of plants? I use small bark mulch around all my perennials, and grass clippings around all my veggies. Everything I have is mulched with something--to conserve moisture and to keep the surface of the soil soft enough that the water will soak in more than run off.

Skybird

The entire yard save for hardscape and turf is mulched. I use the free wood chips from the city. The veggies have a straw mat mulch.

Dan

So far this year I've been mulching with tree leaves and cuttings from the clover. I'm also experimenting with using clovers as a living mulch around the melons, winter squash and in the new bed which has a variety of vegetables.

I have mulched my paths in the perennials but bad experiences with mulch in the veggies have kept me from using it there - with one exception. Besides, I would need an 18-wheeler load to mulch all the veggie ground.

The exception in the veggies is the potato patch. But, I want to tell you, my worse experience with mulch was trying to grow potatoes under hay -- the voles got under that hay and absolutely destroyed my potato crop!

So, why do I mulch potatoes these days?? Well, I don't put it on too early, don't put it on too deep, and I need to put something on - I figure.

Potatoes really should be hilled and semi-decomposed compost is a good choice to move onto them. I will be doing that this week! First a little organic fertilizer, then as much compost as I think will do the job of keeping the tubers from sun damage.

. . . just what I do.

Steve