Summer is a great time to mulch. You don’t want to pull out plants and leave bare ground or the soil will bake in the heat so it’s better to just cover grassy areas with a thick layer of mulch.
Woody bushes like blackberries do well with wood chips. The deeper the mulch, the more weeds it will suppress. When dealing with plants like bermuda grass and bindweed though, no amount of mulch will keep them out completely. Using a layer of cardboard under the mulch will make the weeds grow on top of the mulch, which makes them much easier to remove. If you put your drip lines under the cardboard, your bushes will be watered and the weeds will not. I have found this method very effective, and cheap!
Lay your drip line first. If you’re using a drip hose, put emitters at the base of every plant. If you are using drip tape or soaker hose, make sure it doesn’t have any rips. Just test it before you put mulch on top.
Lay down a solid layer of cardboard. Overlap all of the edges and any holes. You can rip slits in the cardboard to get the stems to stick up through the cardboard without gaps. Feel free to use multiple layers of cardboard. Don’t use cardboard with plastic coating or a lot of colored ink. Remove any tape, staples, or large stickers as much as possible.
Dump a THICK layer of wood chips on top of the cardboard. If you only use 1-2 inches of wood chips you’ll have to put down a new layer of cardboard and wood chips the next year. If you use 3-4 inches you might make it 2 years. If you use 5-6 inches you probably won’t have to add more mulch for 3 years. Wood chips are cheap, or free, and your time is valuable, use it wisely!
Links to More Information
How to Grow Thornless Blackberries https://youtu.be/2ggAxOeSxl4
Creating a Berry patch http://forums.growmyownfood.com/uploads/699/O3CZEIIJ29AW.pdf
I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have got you book-marked to look at new stuff you postÖ