🌾 Mulch: Soil’s Protective Blanket

Mulch acts like a natural shield for your soil. It keeps the surface cool, reduces evaporation, protects against erosion, and slowly feeds the microbes and fungi beneath the surface.

Whether you’re building a vegetable garden or establishing food forests, mulch is a key layer in every regenerative system.

🌿 Types of Mulch

Wood Chips: Ideal for fruit trees, native landscapes, and long-term fungal beds.
Straw or Hay: Great for annual gardens — breaks down quickly and helps retain moisture.
Leaf Litter: Mimics forest floors — full of carbon, minerals, and fungal spores.
Grass Clippings: High nitrogen, but use in thin layers to avoid matting or heating.
Living Mulch: Known as a cover crop, this provides the benefits of mulch, while also feeding sugars to soil biology. This is typically the best option, once it grows more than 4-6 inches, you can trim down to provide foliage that breaks down.

🛠️ How to Apply Mulch

Apply 2–4 inches thick for moisture and weed control.
Keep mulch a few inches away from stems and trunks. This can lead to rot around the base
Top off seasonally as it breaks down into compost.
Layer with compost or manure for added fertility.

💡 Pro Tip

If you can’t find mulch — start with free leaf bags from neighbors, tree trimming companies, or local city mulch yards.

In surrounding areas, you can use https://getchipdrop.com/ which is a free mulch service. Note the amount received and time received is not controlled, drops are typically around 1-3 weeks. Expect a large amount of wood chips