Time To Mulch

Start putting mulch around your summer plantings like melons and squash to keep the moisture in the soil. It will prevent blossom end rot on tomatoes too.

I used my bolted lettuce plants around my Swiss chard, and bolted spinach plants along my bean row. Straw is an excellent mulch also. Lawn clippings and leaves are also good. Anything organic on top of the soil is better than barren soil.

Earthworms and microbes will begin to decompose the mulch on the soil surface. Their castings will be flushed down to the roots as fertilizer at each watering. You will be literally fertilizing your plants with every watering.

When looking for mulch sometimes it’s necessary to be creative to match both your budget and what materials are available in your area. For instance, you can pick up hay bales that got rained on in the field for $2 or $3, which is what I have all over my garden now, or even cardboard or newspapers. Anything organic that can slowly decompose. To just keep the water in the soil gravel would be better than barren soil. Rocks work really well, too.

Until you can get mulch on your ground, keep it scarified to prevent the osmotic and capillary loss of water.