Well, I've been gardening for more decades than I care to admit. Mainly vegetables of many varieties. Back in the 70's, I read an article by Ruth Stout (long since passed) on "Mulch Gardening". Subsequently, I bought her book and have been using mulch year round on my vegetable and rose gardens for many years. Less need to water as frequently and the natural decomposition occurring beneath the mulch adds nutrients to the soil. And you can say goodbye to weeds forever!

Using mulch creates a self pepetuating ecosystem within the garden soil that requires less chemical fertilizers (if any) as well a facilitating bug deterrent. The crop yield is many times better (in my opinion) than in the old days with 5-10-5 chemical feedings. I use regular feed hay for this purpose. Yeah, some farms sell "mulch" hay, but I don't like the looks of it as well as regular hay. That's just me. Know this: Mulch gardening works!