Hello,

This is my 2nd year for a vegetable garden. Last year my garden did amazing. My plants grew so gigantic and produced so many delicious vegetables that I was absolutely amazed. I started nearly everything from plants (not seeds). The area I planted my garden was previously a wooded area; even though the area was pretty rich in organic material, I still added about 1/2 cubic yard of manure, 1/2 cubic yard of hummus compost, 2 cubic yards of top soil, and 1/2 cubic yard of peat moss, a bag of Milorganite, and a container (1/2 gallon size) of Osmocote fertilizer... all tilled into the existing soil. (Garden is ~20' x 40')

As I said, the garden did great, but I had a ton of weeds... and weeds mean weeding.

THOUGHT:
This is what I was thinking of doing this year. Covering my entire garden floor with landscaping felt and then covering it with a thin 1-2" layer of mulch. Then just poking holes in the felt where I place my plants and then maybe framing the few things I plant from seed (peas and beans) with 2x6 lumber and not filling the frames with mulch.

My father-in-law and a friend both did this last year and neither of their gardens did as good as they have in previous years. My friend used bagged cedar mulch from a big-box store... not sure what kind my father in law used. Is this not a recommended practice? Is there a special type of mulch to use? Any suggestions?

I don't think it was the mulch as I toss the stuff around at 19 cubic yards for 2,000 square feet (of flower garden, but same thing). My flower gardens flourish. It's mid-May, I have a dwarf sunflower setting up its first bloom.

I think it's the FELT. I've seen landscape fabrics used, and they tend to reduce the size of the plants. They block a great deal of oxygen getting to the soil, which plants require to grow roots (a de-oxygenated environment is one where roots don't grow, and the roots you have aren't very healthy).

Soils under them also tend to be very wet, which isn't helping the oxygen situation any, and the fabric itself is often soaked under the mulch. Most plants like water, but not nearly that much!

I use hardwood mulch as it decays more slowly and won't suck up nitrogen like softwoods will. But I've seen plenty of great gardens in cedar mulch (which I think is hardwood), so I don't think the mulch choice is doing anything bad. One little thing is to keep the mulch back from the plant stem as it can cause rotting, but I can actually say I've never had an issue. I certainly avoid woody perennial and tree stems, but don't worry so much about the annuals.

Ok, thanks Morph.

This is what I think I'm going to do.

1) Till the entire garden. Done!
2) Add some compost, peat moss, Milorganite, and Osmocote. Done!
3) Till again! Done!
4) Lay landscaping felt over the entire garden floor.
5) Make 2x6 frames for my various plants and lay them on top of the landscaping felt.
6) Cut the felt out from the bottom of the frames.
7) Spread mulch only on the outside of the frames.

At least this way I'll have dirt/mud free walking paths that are clear of weeds, so I'll only have to weed within the wood frames.

What do you think?

Correction, I forgot the size of my garden... it's 16' x 30', not 20' x 40' as I stated above.

With the wider open area, I think it'll help. You still may end up with very wet soil, but it's worth a try.

Avoiding the frames with the mulch is probably overkill--I might do an experiment and put mulch in one or two to see if there's a difference. I doubt there will be, but I'd probably only use an inch or two for weed suppression as the felt should keep the garden moist.

It will result in 250 sq.ft. covered by felt/mulch and 198 sq.ft. open to the air. Also, my entire 16' x 28' garden is raised about 6-8 inches above the grade around the garden, so the water does drain pretty well... at least out of the top ~6 inches.

Fifty-fifty, then. It's certainly going to be much better than covering 99% and punching holes, so I wouldn't worry about it.

But keep us updated on the results of that as I'm curious to see how much oxygen can be denied without causing growth issues.

Will do... pictures to come shortly.