What's up everyone? Welcome back to the Epic Gardening Podcast joined again by Joe

Lample the Joe behind Joe Gardner.com and also the creator of the online

gardening academy where he has a course that is called

aptly named beginner gardening fundamentals if that's something you want to check out

Joe Gardner.com forward slash learn

today we're going over another fundamental concept in gardening and that would be the use of mulch and I actually have a bit of a confession to make when I first started out gardening like I said, I was gardening sort of under Mel Bartholomew's tutelage and I really wasn't mulching and I didn't really understand the concept behind it and that's just because I was coming straight out of the gate. I was very, very much a green gardener.

But now I use it quite a bit and it makes complete sense as to why you would and should use it. So do you think for the very very beginners we could just

start out with a basic explanation of mulch itself? Absolutely that's the

perfect place to start. Mulch is really, to me, it's a some natural product

that you lay over the soil surface

or on top of the soil surface

to protect the surface and do other things.

And so that's really the beauty of mulch is that it's not just one function or one purpose.

It does so many things to improve your plants, the health of your plants, and the health of your soil.

And the beauty of it is mulch is really inexpensive or it's even free.

And so like examples of mulch.

So, you know, finely ground bark would be an example. I love shredded leaves.

Again, that's my favorite thing. It's free. I get all I need in the fall and by the time

spring gets around, I put about a two inch layer on top of the

soil all around my plants and here's the thing about mulch whether it's leaf

mulch or shredded bark or straw or hay or grass clippings. I mean it can be so many

different things. There's a lot of options if you go to the garden center you'll see

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