Grow your own Mulch

[veggiechicken]

Lots of threads recently about "mulch" and how to obtain enough suitable material - compost, manure, cardboard etc.
Instead of bringing manure, wood chips, cardboard, should we be growing our own?

Green manures can be grown but how about growing plants that generate a lot of foliage, just to use as mulch?

The obvious one is comfrey, large leaves, bounces back quickly after being cut down and is good for the soil.
Spinach and chard would also be good.

Good article at Balkan Ecology Project : How to grow your own mulch?

Any ideas, Grapeys?

[Thelma Sanders]

Comfrey and grass cuttings from the allotment paths - does the grass count?

[veggiechicken]

Of course, grass counts.
I'm wondering about growing clover paths - flowers for bees, nitrogen fixer in the soil and the chickens might like it - and it looks prettier than grass.

[Jay-ell]

Docks, nettles, dandelions - my plot is full of dynamic accumulators

[Baldy]

Nasturtiums... some might view the self seeding that then follows as a downside but the plants are easy to remove...

[Penellype]

No reason why you can't mulch with things that you have grown in your plot/garden. However, whatever you grow, you are not going to have enough of it unless you deplete the nutrients from one part of the garden to feed another, or add nutrients from outside. The simple reason for this is that you can't create nutrients out of nothing. Assuming that some of the vegetable matter is not being returned to the soil (ie you are eating it), you will need to replace it from elsewhere.

[4Shoes]

Of course, grass counts.
I'm wondering about growing clover paths - flowers for bees, nitrogen fixer in the soil and the chickens might like it - and it looks prettier than grass.

Clover smells so good. Go for a dwarfing variety. On impulse I bought a packet of red clover - must be 10 years ago now. Turned out to be a green manure and not suitable to grow in lawns and paths.

[Bren In Pots]

Comfrey and grass cuttings from the allotment paths - does the grass count?

I usually mulch with grass but this year the lawn was mostly brown so I hardly had any clippings to use. Did have plenty of Nasturtiums popping up all over my veg beds so they helped.

[Thelma Sanders]

Of course, grass counts.
I'm wondering about growing clover paths - flowers for bees, nitrogen fixer in the soil and the chickens might like it - and it looks prettier than grass.

There's a lot of clover already in my paths - probably more clover than grass, by accident rather than design though It seems to take a bit longer to recover from a short mowing than grass, I find., though

[bramble]

My grandfather always grew nasrurtiums in with his potatoes.

[Snoop Puss]

I'm in a fortunate position of having quite a large area of land that I'm hoping will prove a mulch source for my veg patch. And I'm glad to deplete it of nutrients because I want it to revert to being a wild flower meadow. Ploughed it up on the recommendation of the forestry agent to reduce the fire risk, but that brought up nutrients and so now just awful wild grass. Didn't do much in the drought this year, but am hoping to get scything the grass next year and hoping that that will eventually provide the conditions for wild flowers.

Meanwhile, how about lettuce? I've got about a billion lettuce seeds (you get so many in a packet and I have rather a lot of packets...). I'm guessing that they would do too.

[veggiechicken]

No reason why you can't mulch with things that you have grown in your plot/garden. However, whatever you grow, you are not going to have enough of it unless you deplete the nutrients from one part of the garden to feed another, or add nutrients from outside. The simple reason for this is that you can't create nutrients out of nothing. Assuming that some of the vegetable matter is not being returned to the soil (ie you are eating it), you will need to replace it from elsewhere.

I don't think "Mulch" has to be nutritious - its something to suppress weeds, retain moisture in the soil and ultimately to decompose. Cardboard isn't "nutritious" but people use it as "mulch".
When you have areas that aren't used for growing food, as I do, I'd like to use it to produce other useful stuff, like "mulch".
Large leaved, quick growing, slow to seed, no hassle plants would be ideal. If they are a by-product of something edible, even better.

[Snadger]

Clover smells so good. Go for a dwarfing variety. On impulse I bought a packet of red clover - must be 10 years ago now. Turned out to be a green manure and not suitable to grow in lawns and paths.

'Suckling clover' is often found in lawns that are close mown. It has little yellow flowers.

[bario1]

Grow a large bed of red veined sorrel, that stuff is perennial, indestructible, large-leaved, prolific and looks fantastic. You could even put a few of the young leaves in salad, if you don't mind ruining a perfectly good salad.

[Snadger]

The main difference between green manures and mulches is that green manures are usually dug in in-situ whereas mulches can be utilised any where.

Broad beans though can be grown through the winter and either grown to fruition of have there tops lopped of and used as a mulch anywhere and there roots dug in in-situ to give a bit of organic matter and allow the nitrogen fixating nodules to release there nitro.