Do not use wood mulch in your vegetable
garden. I'm going to tell you why in this episode. Welcome back to the Grow Your Self
podcast. My name is Nicole Johnsey Burke and today we're going to talk about all the
reasons why I don't think it's a good idea to put wood mulch in your vegetable garden.
So this has caused quite a stir on the interwebs. When I tell people that I don't use mulch and
particularly that I don't use wood mulch in the vegetable garden because a lot of vegetable
gardeners, they love them some mulch. I mean, they just, they love the mulch and I just don't. So
let me break it down for you in today's episode. First off, I'm talking about a vegetable garden.
So we're not talking about all gardens. Although in general, I don't use mulch anywhere.
And I'll tell you at the end why that is. Some people are like, I have to use
mulch, you know, in my ornamental garden, fine, fine, fine, but not in the vegetable garden.
So here are the key reasons why I say this is a bad idea. And let me say, first of all, it's
not that I've never tried it. I've tried it. I tried it in my own garden. This is my
husband's main theory that we should do wood mulch in our garden. Tried it in my
garden. Even in my first season with my clients, with raised bed kitchen gardens,
I tried it in theirs. So I have tried it, okay? I have tried it and I have found it
lacking. So number one reason why I don't use mulch in the raised bed kitchen gardens
with vegetable gardening is wood mulch is not done, okay? That's the key, it's not
done, it's not finished. It's on its way to decomposition, to fully returning
back to the earth and becoming soil, but it is not there yet, it is in the process.
And so in general, in my garden, I want things that are one, growing, right? Like becoming,
going from seed to plant to leaf to root to fruit, all that kind of stuff.
I want plants that are growing, in the process of growing. Don't really want them
in the garden if they're in the process of dying, although that happens. And then I
want everything else pretty much like stagnant and in a very good place. I want
everything else pretty much stationary. Now we know that soil is a living thing, that
soil is always changing and nutrients and minerals are moving from soil into the plant,
back out of the plant, that kind of thing. Water is going to be falling into
the soil, going up into the plant, and then the plant will be, what do you call
it, letting off the water. But in general, I don't wanna add to the change, okay? I want
nature to be doing its thing. I want that soil to be feeding my plants, but I don't want there
to be a lot of change happening with my soil. I want the main change in my garden, and this
is it, the main change in my garden should be happening with my plants, not with anything
else. When you bring mulch into your garden, mulch is in the process of changing.
You're catching it on its way out, all right? It's decomposing, it's
turning into soil. It will eventually, if you let it sit there, you know, if it
sits there long enough, it's gonna go from a wood chip into dust. It's gonna turn into
soil, even, I guess you'd call it compost, right? It's gonna break down into this
texture that eventually will be soil, which is great. And I want that
mulch to break down and turn into soil. I just don't want it to do it
in my garden. So as wood decomposes, as wood goes from a wood chip
into just fine soil particles, it is going to pull nitrogen from its
surrounding area. That's just a natural, I'm not a chemist, my husband is, from what
I understand. You know, this is my baseline, okay? chemical understanding. But when the wood
texture, the wood structure is decomposing, whatever it's touching, it's pulling
up nitrogen to help it do just that. So as it's breaking apart its compounds and
destructurizing itself to turn into dust, it's pulling nitrogen to speed up that process. Well,
as it's doing, that, guess what? Your plants, the ones that we want to be changing and growing and
becoming something new, they need what's the main mineral they need, the main nutrient they need
as they start to grow leaves and roots and fruit. Nitrogen. So, when you plant out all your
vegetable plants and then you sprinkle them around with wood mulch, you've now got two
things in your garden that are changing. One's coming into life, one's returning to
the earth, and they both need nitrogen to do it. So you've now created this
tug of war between your plants, which you want to grow, and your wood
chips, which you want to turn into compost, but they're now both needing nitrogen.
They're needing the exact same resource from your soil at the exact same time.
time. This is just not a good idea to me. Why would I want to introduce a new thing,
a new material into my garden that's going to need the exact same nutrients that my
favorite precious amazing plants need? No, it all goes to my plants. Thank you.
The wood mulch can break down elsewhere and when it's completely broken down and is
compost then. then it can come into my garden, but not before. So that is overall, like I'm
going to give you a couple of other reasons, but in general, that is the overall
thing. Now you're soil people, you're soil scientists and you're,
you know, people who are really into like the breakdown and the minerals and the this
and the fungi and all that, they're going to say, Oh, but as those break down, then, you
know, it creates new, it brings in new, nutrients and new, all kinds of new things
that, that feed your soil. Yes, I agree. But let it decompose outside of my garden because
that, even that little small need of nitrogen, nitrogen that happens when that mulch is
decomposing, it interrupts the process. And I've seen it again and again and again, I'll go on a
garden consult. I've seen it in my own garden when I get a soil that has too many wood chips in it.
I see the struggle of those wood chips sitting on the top of the soil Trying to break themselves
down pulling up nutrient nitrogen at the same time as my plants Struggling to get the
nitrogen they need to grow to the next level and so that's the number one reason why I don't
put wood chips I don't put wood chip mulch in my garden reason number two as if we need another
one that one is just done That reason number two is the pest. So many of the pests that
are going to prey on your vegetable plants, they love the tenderness of those
vegetable plants. They are hiders, they are by nature, they have
learned to camouflage themselves, to make themselves invisible to the naked eye and
to find places where they can hide and they can, in that hiding place, they can hide. nest,
they can multiply, they can lay their eggs, and they know that they're tiny, okay? They
know that they have a lot of predators, they know the birds are coming for them,
they know that larger insects are coming for them, and so they've adapted, right?
They've evolved to hide. Well, guess where they love to hide? Underneath wood mulch.
They love hiding there. All those little pieces of wood you're putting in your vegetable
garden, you're essentially saying to all the caterpillars and the moths and the slugs and
the snails, you're saying like, "Come on in. I just made you a house. I just made you
the best place to hide from all the birds." And I found that again and again when I go to a
garden that's got this nice thick layer of wood mulch around their vegetable plants,
I pull it up and there are loads of wood mulch around their vegetable plants.
roly-polies and slugs and snails and all kinds of things, creepy -crawly things,
hiding right under that wood mulch. And that's the number two reason why I would
not put wood mulch into a vegetable garden, because you're essentially
creating a habitat for the pests, the very exact insects you're going to want
to stay off your plants. You've just created a habitat for your plants, you've just created
a habitat for your plants, you've just created a habitat for your plants, you've just created a
habitat for your plants. a habitat for them by, by putting that wood mulch in.
So that is reason number two. All right. So reason number one, it needs the
exact same nutrients that your plants need to grow. Reason number two, it is creating a
hiding place, a habitat for all those pests that are going to come and eat your plants.
So you're not just fighting for the nutrients. You're now basically, you've brought the
enemy in. okay? You've crossed enemy lines here and let the enemy get the secret passage
into your base camp here when you create, when you add wood mulch. The third
reason, and maybe probably the best, even though the first two are pretty convincing,
and that is because the main reason I don't use wood mulch is because that's planting space.
Nice. Yeah. duh, you know, that's room to put plants in. So a lot of people, the
typical way to plant a vegetable garden is one plant, three feet, another plant,
three feet, another plant. And if you look at most gardeners online, most vegetable
gardening books, some are different, but most, they've got a bed of cabbages,
and it's got 12 cabbages in it, and then they've got a bed. bed of peppers and
it's got 15 peppers in it and that's it it's just the pepper bed and the cabbage bed and
the tomato bed and so of course they're gonna put in those tomatoes and then they're like Oh,
I got a mulch right because there's all this empty soil and they'll comment on all my posts and
say Oh, there's no way my garden would survive You know if I didn't mulch it because it would
just dry out and the assumption is that the soil is just bare Well for my gardens if you look
on my gardens online in the Gardenary style, is that we plant every square inch of a
raised bed. That is prime real estate, my friends. That is like beachfront property.
You've spent a ton of money to set up your raised beds to get the soil just right,
to have the irrigation. Why on earth would you give any inch, even a square inch of
room to a piece of wood mulch? That's not going to happen. to provide you any food,
any beauty. It's not going to feed anything. It's just going to sit there and decay and
turn into soil. Why would you give prime real estate on the beach to a piece of wood mulch?
No. So what I do instead is I break my plants up into categories, large, small, and medium.
And when I plant, say, a bed of tomatoes, I'm going to come right back underneath those plants.
And I'm also going to-- plant peppers and basil and bush beans and marigolds and arugula and some
herbs like oregano and rosemary and thyme. I'm going to fill in that entire bed with medium
and small plants in between the large plants. So I'm not suggesting that the soil needs to be
bare. It doesn't. That's going to be terrible. I'm not saying leave the soil bare. I'm saying instead
of. of putting mulch there, put some plants there. In fact, our company's practice is that
six weeks after the garden is planted, we should come back and shouldn't be able
to see any bare soil. In other words, there shouldn't be any room for mulch.
There should be plants everywhere instead of mulch. And some people call this the
idea of living mulch. I don't like to say that because mulch has an idea
of, like, it's-- it's not useful, right? So I don't even need the word mulch mulch
is out. No mulch. Okay. No mulch. We just need plants. And so instead of thinking, Oh,
no, I can't have bare soil, which is true. Instead of solving that problem with a
bunch of wood chips, let's solve that problem with my method of intensive planting.
Now, if you want to learn this method, this is in my book, Kitchen Garden Revival. I
teach it it in chapter five, where I teach you how, no, number six, where I teach you how to
intensively plant. And this is a method I teach all over the internet about packing in the plants.
And when you pack in the plants this way, there isn't, you know, you won't even think about
having mulch because your mulch is literally going to cover up the seeds and the plants that you have
in the garden and will keep them from growing. So. So that is the deal, you guys. Those are
the three reasons why I don't use mulch in the garden. Number one, it's creating a tug
of war between your plants that you want to live and the soil that is decomposing.
So you are now creating a quick run, a big competition between who's going to
get the nitrogen? Is it going to be the plants that you want to grow or the woodchip?
wood chips that are trying to decompose? Number two reason not to use wood chips is it's
a hiding place for pests and disease. So many things are looking for a cold, cool,
dark, moist place to put up a hotel and to have some kids and to multiply
and run the place. And when you set up a wood mulch situation in your garden,
you are literally putting out the welcome mat and saying come on in. And then the
final reason is because this is prime real estate. Your kitchen garden, your vet
shovel garden is such important real estate. It's cost you so much time and money to
create this space. So why give it over to something as useless as mulch? Put plants
there instead. So you're gonna keep it watered really well for the first few weeks.
as those come in. And then within six weeks, you shouldn't see any soil. And all
that soil is protected by plants instead of by mulch. Now finally,
I wanna end up just by giving you one tip. And if you plant this way,
if you go at the garden the way I do, then you do have to take the intensive planting
pledge. So this is in my book in chapter six. But essentially, you have to promise that you're
going to prune and harvest and enjoy and use your plants. So this works. It keeps pests at bay.
It means you don't have to water your garden a lot. But it only works if you prune
and harvest because you're going to have so right if you just had that one
bed of tomatoes or one bed of peppers, then you can wait all day long to go take care of
those plants because they're just like. like eight of them. But if you plant my way, you're going
to have loads of plants all over the garden. And so you've got to come and prune and use and
harvest and enjoy from those plants in order to make sure that every plant has the right amount of
space it needs to grow to its fullest potential. I'm sure you're coming at me already from the
desert, from the really hot places of the world like Houston and Florida. and Arizona. I've
heard them all, I've heard all the excuses, okay? But listen to me, I have done this kind
of planting in the very hot summers in Houston, Texas. I have done these in the very
cold places in Chicago. Times I didn't have irrigation systems in my garden.
And I do this in Nashville where my garden, we hit over a hundred this last summer. I had
no irrigation in my beds. beds. So this system works if you work the system.
If you plant intensively, if you prune and harvest often, you will not
need wood mulch in your garden and you will save yourself from the nitrogen fight,
from the pests that are gonna hide and live inside that mulch, and you're gonna get
a much more productive, beautiful, delicious, amazing mulch. full garden when you plant my way.
So what do you think? Are you up for it? Tell me in the comments, come and tell us online what you
think of the no mulch method for the garden. I can't wait to hear your opinion, on my opinion,
that mulch just doesn't belong in a kitchen garden. Good luck in the garden. I will see you
next time. If you want to grab our resources, head to gardenary.com/calendar. We've got a
calendar to show you what to plant and when all you have to do is put in two dates.
We do the rest of the work for you. This calendar is going to help you to plan out
your whole year and make sure you know what plants need to go in between all those plants
so that you don't have to use any mulch either. I'll see you next time on the Grow Your
Self podcast. Bye for now. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow Your Self
podcast. You can keep listening anywhere you love getting your podcast. delivered.
On Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And
if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more,
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