Sharon, It depends mostly on what chemicals your husband is using. Somewhere on the container it should say if the chemicals are harmful to pets, birds, etc. If so, I wouldn't use the clippings. That said, I see no problem using less-toxic clippings as mulch on flower beds, but wouldn't put them on the vegetable garden. If you are working to be organic, then the residual chemicals could negate your efforts. Good luck with your gardens, and send some of that Tennessee rain to Texas!

I put down cardboard (or newspaper at least 6 sheets thick and overlapping) and then mulch over that anytime during the year before the ground freezes. Then in the spring it is good for digging into. I have been doing this for years. I till pretty much the whole garden once a year, usually in spring to incorporate whatever grew and whatever I want to add (not much, usually). I only till about 3" deep, max. I have not had a big problem with weeds because a) I plant rather closely, kind of pushing the envelope in terms of spacing because I want the plants to shade out weeds and lessen the need for mulching and b) I hoe. Hoeing is not at all bad if you have a good hoe. I use a stirrup hoe. I actually enjoy cutting their little heads off.:) I don't use raised beds, either. To me that is just extra work and money. I use regular 4' wide rows with 18" between, each row having a double length of soaker hose. Works good for me, especially because my beds can follow the curves of the sun in my yard instead of being straight, but lots of people love those raised beds. Some people would object to my practice because I don't use a lot of mulch once the stuff is planted. I hoe instead ('dust mulch'). It depends on how much water is in the soil and what is growing there. I have a bed that is pretty dry with no mulch that works well because the plants there like that--they're mostly Artemisias, although I also have a bunch of peppers there that are doing well. Those I have mulched with composted manure. Then I have most of the veggies in beds very thickly planted that get a lot of water and no mulch because they don't need mulch--they create their own shade. I keep the space in between rows very small, like 12"-18". I have also tried living mulches, like letting wild portulaca grow and weeding out everything else in between my tomatoes. This worked pretty well, but I think it was actually more labor intensive than having no mulch at all, because I had to hand pull the weeds instead of hoeing. For watering, I use soaker hoses and water only in the early morning, so it has time to soak in before it gets hot and is wasted in evaporation. Yes, people say you have to cover them. I have never covered them and in my highest watering months I think my water bill has increased maybe five bucks. Covering them for me just gets in the way of hoeing.:) I have clay and I think it is great for growing. Everyone complains about it, but I have gardened in sand and I would take clay any day. Clay has tons of nutrients in it. As long as it doesn't get sopping or get hard on top, it is good to grow in, in my experience. I guess what you can use the city compost for would depend on what it was made of. It must be grass and yard waste, no? It might have broadleaf herbicides in it, which wouldn't be good for your garden. I usually get composted manure instead, although the local prison has a program where they give away compost made out of food scraps. I haven't gotten around to trying that yet, but you might see if your local prison, if you have one, has such a program. I think that would be quite safe and you sure can't beat the price. I know what you mean about next year. I am already planning my next-year garden. Definitely going to be more peppers!

I have never had a problem growing anything in my garden soil when i have added leaves and tilled them in the super early spring (like mid February). We use a cover crop in the fall and winter, then add leaves and till under. You cannot find a trace of cover crop or leaves by mid-April when we plant the garden. However, I believe it largely depends on the climate. That's just my opinion though, have no scientific research to back it up. We warm up pretty quick in the spring, so the soil organisms have plenty of time to take care of the garden spot. I would think with a short resting period before planting, if you tilled it in, you should be okay if you are in a warmer environment. The first time we did this method, we tested an area about a quarter of the garden space. We figured that way, all was not lost if it didn't work. Good luck!

Probably covering it with the plastic delayed the decomposition, though unless leaves are ground up they can take some time to break down. That said, moving them aside and planting will probably work without a problem. It might take the soil a bit more time to warm up - though the black plastic should have taken care of that issue. Ruth Stout used to cover her entire veg garden with any organic matter she could get her hands on, and never tilled it - just added more mulch each year, pushed it aside to plant seed or seedlings, and pushed it back around the plants once they were up. (The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book) -Rosalinda