Mulching Strategies

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Mulching is the practice of placing dead plant material on the surface of soil to achieve a mix of effects: 1) suppression of unwanted vegetation, 2) reduction of evapotranspiration, 3) import of nutrients, 4) reduction of erosion, and creation of a permeable soil surface. The timing, material, depth, organization and application methods vary depending on the situation, available resources and equipment, and desired results.

Windrow Mulching

This strategy attempts to use the natural productivity of a field to produce a deep mulch within a strip, to support conversion from pasture to woody vegetation. The pasture is mown and material is gathered in a strip, either with a scythe, or mowing and windrowing equipment. A spring cutting and windrowing may produce a strip of dead pasture where planting is easier, the following season the process is repeated to provide a summer mulch for the new planting.

A windrow mulching system could begin with a cover crop such as winter rye, planted densely in early fall, following summer fallow tillage to control competing vegetation. The winter rye rapidly establishes a monospecific stand, and produces biomass by early summer, when it is mowed and windrowed to produce woody planting strips in the following winter.

Wood Chips

• Also called Ramial Chips, when provided by tree services.
• Competition for chips has increased over the last two decades.

Spoiled Straw/Hay

• Horse barns and dairies may have hay that has molded, and is not fit for consumptions.
• After Thanksgiving holidays, many supermarkets have displays that include bales of hay that are saturated and need to be disposed of.

Chop and Drop

• Growing material on site purely for the purpose of turning it into mulch.

"Cut and Carry"

• Areas within or near a site can be cultivated for production of mulch, that is then carried or transported to a planting strip.

Slash Piles

• Woody debris or logging slash can be loosely piled to create areas resistant to ungulate browse.
• Mulch suspended on much slash can supress weeds by increasing the effective "depth" of the mulch, requiring more growth to reach light.

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