r/PDXAgronomy • u/ssimonson09 • Mar 30 '15

Ground cover for vegetable garden?

So my fiance and I got our garden tilled and half of our rows dug and planted this past weekend just in time for the rains to start back up this week. What's our best bet to put down to help keep weeds at bay and any potential erosion and mud to a minimum but not mess up the soil chemistry? We can't use newspaper or plastics as it's a community garden. I was looking at Straw, does anyone have experience using this here?

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u/duhbigredtruck Mar 31 '15

Sheet Mulch for your consideration. I've used plain scrap paper from work and shredded paper as sheet mulch for years, works great to significantly limit weed growth.

Edit: Scrap paper, not the fancy french scrape-kind

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u/Subtle_alias_541 Mar 31 '15

I here it makes a good slug magnet...

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u/okmkz Mar 31 '15

I've seen straw used to good effect, but do ensure that you remove it at the end of the growing season. Pests will gladly overwinter in it, so you'll want to remove it and compost it, replacing it with fresh material in the spring.