Bark Vs Mulch: The Best Option in the Vegetable Garden

When it comes to deciding to use bark vs mulch in the vegetable garden or flower beds, you have many different materials to consider. Let’s explore the best options when deciding on bark vs mulch.

But wait, there’s a twist! While I do think that mulch is the best option it’s NOT the traditional form of woody mulches that you may be thinking of.

Bark Vs Mulch: And What About Wood Chips?

Tree bark, woody mulches, and wood chips are all different types of mulch but all come from trees. Tree bark is exactly what it says, the bark form a tree. While wood chips are the inside of a tree all chipped up. Lastly, woody mulches are a blend of all parts of a tree.

What is Mulch?

Let’s be clear, mulch isn’t just woody mulches from trees. Mulch can be made from many different materials, both organic matter and inorganic matter. Simply put, it is a layer of material used to cover the surface of the soil to suppress weed growth, retain soil moisture, protect soil from heavy rains and soil erosion to support plant growth.

Different Types of Mulch

• cedar mulch
• hardwood mulch
• shredded wood mulch
• wood chip mulch
• untreated wood chip mulch
• compost mulch
• pine needles
• river rock mulch or stone mulch
• shredded leaf mulch
• sawdust
• grass clippings
• straw mulch
• hay mulch
• bark mulch
• pine bark nuggets
• living mulch

Inorganic Mulches

• Rubber mulch
• Sheet mulching with cardboard
• Plastic sheeting, silage tarps or weed barrier fabric

Let’s Start with Cedar Mulch

You guessed it, cedar mulch is made from the bark of cedar trees. This makes it a hardwood mulch. This means it is organic matter that takes a long time to break down, making it a bad choice to use in your annual vegetable plants or flower beds, as it reduces the available nitrogen.

Don’t get me wrong though, you can use it in walkways in the vegetable garden for weed control and aesthetic appeal. For long term weed control you can use large pieces of cardboard under your mulch layer.

What About Hardwood Mulch?

Hardwood mulch comes from shaven pieces of wood from dicot trees. Usually oak, hickory, maple, and cedar trees. Like cedar mulch, hardwood mulch will also tie up nitrogen, robbing your vegetable garden of nutrients. As a result, hardwood mulch is more suitable for landscape design.

Shredded Hardwood Mulch

This type of mulch is often a blend of hardwoods. However, it is shredded up into much finer pieces. Consequently, making it decay faster, which makes it a better choice as it adds more nutrients and organic matter to the soil. In fact, it will not tie up nitrogen as long but should still be used sparingly in your vegetable garden beds.

Using Wood Chips as Mulch

Just like many other types of mulch, wood chip mulch can cause nitrogen to be unavailable to your plants. To avoid this, only use composted wood chips that have had at least 4-6 months to breakdown.

Using composted materials as a top dressing is always an excellent choice to fertilize your vegetable garden.

Compost Mulch

Compost mulch, simply put, is using organic matter as a ground cover that will breakdown over time but not tie up nitrogen. This can be different garden soil amendments like compost, grass clippings, leaves, shredded paper, and chop and drop plant matter.

These different materials are a good choice for mulch in the vegetable garden or flower beds. Above all, a thick layer of finished compost can also do the trick while providing valuable nutrients for plant growth.

Pine Needles as Mulch

Pine needles from pine trees can work as mulch but will lower the ph, making it less alkaline soil. This could be too acidic for most vegetable gardens. However, some acid loving plants, such as blueberries, thrive in lower ph soil.

Pine needles also take a long time to break down. They may not be the best mulch for your vegetable garden or flower beds.

River Rock Mulch or Stone Mulch

While rock mulch isn’t really bad for plants they don’t do much for them either. Rocks do not breakdown and feed the soil or plants overtime. Too much rock can also cause compaction problems.

Rock Mulch is a great way to add aesthetic appeal to your landscaping project but it is not a good choice in the vegetable garden.

Shredded Leaf Mulch

Shredded leaf mulch is an excellent choice for ground cover around your vegetable plants. Just be sure they are shredded so water can get to the soil. Otherwise, putting a thick layer of whole leaves can block water from reaching the soil.

Leaf mulch is a great top dressing, gradually decomposing and releasing nutrients into the soil to feed your plant roots for healthy plant growth.

Sawdust Mulch

Sawdust is an extremely high carbon material. Carbon will absorb available nitrogen making it unavailable to your vegetable garden inhibiting plant growth. When considering different types of mulch, its a good idea to stay away from sawdust, as it could contain harmful chemicals.

Grass Clippings as Mulch

Grass clippings are an excellent choice for ground cover and vegetable garden mulch, as long as they aren’t full of grass and weed seeds. They are a great option to add nitrogen and decompose quickly. However, too thick of a layer can become slimy and anaerobic so apply grass clippings in thin layers only.

Straw Mulch

Straw mulch is a popular choice in the vegetable garden and flower beds for ground cover. It is cheap, good for your soil, and easy to work with. Furthermore, it provides weed control and regulates the soil temperature and soil moisture. Just be sure its straw and NOT hay, which can be full of harmful chemicals.

Hay as a Mulch Layer

When I first started gardening, I was a sucker for hay as a mulch layer. After all, it worked so well and was so cheap. Back in the day, Ruth Stout had great success using hay in the garden.

But before you go out and mulch your garden with hay please know that it can POISON your garden soil with harmful chemicals. In fact, most hay these days is sprayed with a persistent herbicide which can stay in the soil for up to three years, some studies showing even longer.

In my opinion, there are far better options that will benefit your garden and not destroy the soil quality. Herbicide tainted garden soil has destroyed many vegetable gardens. It can also be a fire hazard and full of weed seeds.

Living Mulch

This is an option that many gardeners often forget. Surprisingly, there are many different options for living ground cover to suppress weeds and add beauty to your garden. Living ground covers to consider are Perennial Peanut, Asiatic Jasmine, Powderpuff Mimosa, or Periwinkle.

Inorganic Mulches in the Vegetable Garden

When deciding what type of mulch to use in the vegetable garden for weed control or weed barrier there are various factors to consider. Do you have an area that needs weed suppression? Inorganic mulches such as plastic sheeting could be a good choice.

Plastic Sheeting or Silage Tarps

One of the best options for weed control is to tarp your annual garden between seasons with plastic sheeting or silage tarps. At the end of the gardening season, when the weeds have taken over, I simply cover my garden with a tarp or plastic sheeting until I’m ready to amend beds for the next season.

You can also use weed barrier fabric