Mulch is a lazy gardeners best friend. I might not be lazy, but I sure like efficiency. Now that my friend and I had weeded the tomatoes, it was time to mulch them. I am a huge proponent of heavy mulching, so today we’ll talk about mulch. A lot.

Note: The video version of this post gets released on Monday, July 22, 2024.

The garden neighbors donated more grass clippings. They never stay on the pile for long. Grass clippings are great as mulch. And lucky for me, most of my garden neighbors like short neat grass.

I will never understand why you would pay to mow a square of empty lawn no one uses at all.

When we’d weeded the bed, we’d also dug in the edges, so I could label the plants. The pens still suck. Sorry, they are such bad quality. And expensive, too. I have finally caved and ordered new ones. I got a full refund for these bad ones. I’ll spare you yet another bad-quality rant today. Instead, let’s talk about mulch.

I am a huge proponent of mulching heavily. Last fall, I asked my garden neighbor for his leaves. He was happy for the shorter path to get rid of them. I was happy for leaves.

When I’d planted the garlic, I’d mulched with a thick layer of straw first. I’d bought the straw from a nearby farm. I prefer using what’s already here.

A few weeks later, the straw had been mostly turned into soil, so I added a thick layer of leaves.

Yesterday, I chatted with the same gardener. He’s now also donating his grass clippings very happily. His trees already think it is fall. He’ll donate leaves soon…

These grass clippings were left by another neighbor. They’ve had a chance to dry. I am excited for the mulch. And grass clippings make extra nice mulch.

And because the neighbors are much better at maintaining perfect lawns than I even want to be, I am sure there aren’t even seeds in there. It’s like tiny straw.

Carefully, I spread it around the tiny chard and beets to not smother them along with the weeds.

Weeds are also how I choose where to mulch first. I’d weeded this part of the sunflower bed days earlier. With mulch on, it’d be less work from then on. Bare soil is bad soil.

The grass had been tall when my husband scythed it down. I used the hay to mulch the potatoes.

Mulch is not just about weed suppression. Potatoes grow their spuds toward the surface. There, they turn green and help with photosynthesis. But green potatoes are bad for eating. So, I add mulch to cover the soil.

With the mulch, the bed almost looks like a garden bed, doesn’t it? There is a lot of room in this bed at the moment. I had hoped for a lot more pepper plants. We’ve started seeds for two varieties of chilies to grow indoors.

Before we headed home for the day, we excitedly got to meet the neighbor’s newest rescues. They were still so shy then.

Pepper was not sure about the new friends at all. Apparently, these smell very good. All the dogs in the area go nuts around them. Pepper would like to eat them, too. So, we keep them apart now.

The next days brought more rain. I was so sick of it, I was in bad mood for most of the day. As most days, there was a pocket of sunshine in the late afternoon. I didn’t feel like heading to the garden but some things could not wait, so I headed there anyway.

The original instructions had said to soak in the bags. That did not work at all, so I dumped the straw into the bins.

Soaking took a while, so I decided to dig holes in the meantime.

I spread some parasol spawn under the walnut tree. No straw required here. Just a hole in the lawn. The spawn even gets covered with lawn again.

I tried for a second hole under a hazelnut tree but there were too many roots everywhere. I gave up and checked on the rest of the garden instead.

I even managed to find out a bit more about what this unknown squash is.

My day was made a bit better by this entire party of pollinators on the onion flower I’d left for seed. I found the coming and going fascinating to watch. The bumblebee fascinated me for quite a while.

A walk through the garden always means some weeding. At least horsetail always has to go asap.

The carrots and brassica would get more help against the weeds soon. Considering I never actually put the wooden boards I’d prepared onto these beds, germination had been great.

The corn, too, needed some help against the weeds. I’d get there soon.

In the greenhouse, the balcony tomatoes were doing great. They were heavy with fruit. Everywhere around them, green was poking through.

I’d come here in a bad mood. But with everything looking this good, how could I leave with anything but a smile on my face?

Heading to the garden is almost always the right choice. Today, abandoning the mushrooms had been.

Even after some garden time, I did not feel like filming that night. I turned on music, and cooked without you. So, instead, here is dinner from a few days earlier.

These are potatoes from volunteer plants in the garden. Every variety the former owner ever grew is here.

Some of our garlic grew mono-cloves, so as one round big clove that never separated.

We are currently cooking with our own garlic, onions, and potatoes. I hope the list will grow soon. But even just a few ingredients from our own garden make even simple meals special.

The rosemary was from the balcony, too. Yay!

I am excited to add more of our own ingredients over time. This might be a bad garden year but I have faith. I have faith in my plants, faith in myself. There are already small successes everywhere.

This side salad, for example, was made with lettuce from our balcony. We have harvests.

It can be easy to focus on what has not worked–especially with dark rainy weather. Look at the little successes instead.

So long, and thanks for being here.