Happy New Year! I am not big on resolutions but I have made a promise to myself to do a little more gardening. I have been told that mulch is a good thing to use but I cannot locate any. I saw previous posts where you can just go out and scoop some up - but the posts were 5 years old so I don't trust that they are accurate. Any mulch info would be great - I have a huge garden area. Also, I am looking for jasmine, Star Jasmine specifically, but any jasmine will do. Thanks, and, again, Happy New Year.
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Tina and Larrie,
Mulch is anything that you'd put at the base of a plant(s) to prevent weeds from growing there, or for water retention. It is something you gather and can be as simple as the cut grass or fallen leaves raked from you yard, or flattened cardboard with the tape and/or plastic coatings removed.
Compost is what you'll want for improving soil, feeding and nurturing microbes in soil, attracting the worms necessary for healthy soil, aerating, and holding moisture. Compost is something you make with the general recipe of 1 part nitrogen to 10 parts carbon. Nitrogen is fresh or green: kitchen scraps, manures (not dog, cat, or human), pulled weeds, fresh cut grass. Carbon is dry or brown: cardboard, dried leaves, straw, or coconut coir.
Mix the carbon and nitrogen, keep the mix damp and covered. With decomposition you'll get heat needed to be sufficiently hot to destroy the seeds. Turn the mix at least 1 x week, check moisture, recover to keep cats, dogs, chickens out. I use big sheets of cardboard for this. As they get wet and deteriorate, they compost, so just add more on top. Compost will finish in 2-4 weeks, depending on the size of the material you start with. It can be used to top dress your plants, acting as a mulch, or to mix with your existing soil to improve it, and for plant starts. Also, do not overlook the power of compost tea as a foliar spray!