Gardening and Horticulture - Mulch in vegetable gardenb

I'm a novice vegetable gardener and am wondering if it's ok to use cedar mulch in my garden to keep down weeds. Are there any pros and cons to this approach. I'm using plastic between the rows to keep down weeds and using this mulch in the rows themselves between the plants. Thanks for any feedback or alternative suggestions.

in my garden. Keeps the weeds down and the cats out. At the end of the season, I turn it under and it decomposes.

Fence it so dogs can't get in there.

Byron

Hi hahnd,

Everybody has a different opinion on what mulch to use. I'm surprised you haven't had more replies.

I have used cedar mulch on flowers for asthetic reasons, but I don't use it in the veggie garden. The main reason is it's too expensive. I suppose it's not too costly if you just add it to the rows of plants.

I like straw and cover the whole garden with it.

First I lay down about 8 layers of newspaper (until I run out of my supply) and cover that with straw--just enough to keep it from blowing around. Then cover the bare areas with enough straw to stifle the weeds and keep moisture in. In the fall, I till it all in and it adds "tilth" to the garden. Straw doesn't really have any nutritive value tho, but if you need a lot, you can generally find someone that will give you a little bargain on it. Not sure if this is a bargain compared to other areas of the country, but I just bought 15 bales for $3.50 a bale.

Gami