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Today, I’ll show you how to mulch your garden the easy way to hold moisture and prevent weeds.

We start off by getting some bales of a good quality grass or alfalfa hay. Straw works too but straw doesn’t have much nutrition in it. I like something that will decompost in the soil so that next year it will be part of the humus.

The technique is to separate the hay bale into what we call sections and they’re like little pieces of tile. Usually you need about two to four inches of mulch. You just lay them side by side. The idea is to completely cover the soil so that no weeds can come through and if a weed does come through, you can either pull it out, or just put more mulch on it. Through the summer, this hay will decompost and become part of the soil. It will contribute to the humus in the soil.

This is an area that I planted a non-determinant variety of tomato that I’m going to try to set a northwest record. So, as you can see I've mulch the entire area here where the root system will spread out. That will protect the roots. We won’t have to cultivate which will not irritate or cause damage to the roots and at the same time it will keep the weeds down and hold the moisture in.

Join me next week and I’ll show you how to plant cantaloupe and watermelons that will win first prize at the state fair.