In today's Q&A, I'm going to address a question that I get quite often, but most recently

it was asked by Kim. She said she just bought mulch and she wanted to know whether she needed to

put drip lines on top of the mulch or below the mulch. Personally, I don't think that there

is a right or wrong way to do this, as I have done both.

But I do know Kim, and I know that she lives in Austin, Texas, which is really hot.

So I recommended to her to put the drip lines under the mulch, just because when you get so hot

and you don't have a whole lot of rain, I would prefer the drip

lines and the moisture in the drip lines to go directly to the plants instead of having to

seep through that mulch first, especially like I said, when it is so hot.

That said, as a general rule, I usually put my drip lines on top of the mulch, mainly because I have sliced my drip lines

with my sharp hoe more times than I can count.

And when that drip line is underneath the mulch

and you can't see it, you're more likely

to damage the drip line.

If you only have raised beds or an elevated raised bed box like I think

Kim does, you're not going to have that as a risk as much. I mean, you still can when you're

hoeing depending on, you know, if you're using a handheld weeder or something like that, you

still have to be careful, but it's not going to be near as much of a risk as it is for me

when I am hoeing and weeding with a sharp tool in my ground bed. So for me, I just have to weigh

the pros and cons. The pros of putting it underneath the mulch is the water is going to get directly

to the roots of the plants quicker, not having to go through the mulch.

The con is that I might damage the line in the process. So those are the things that I weigh.

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