Should You Mulch Your Container Vegetable Garden?

Should you mulch your container vegetable garden? I’m sharing my thoughts and experience after seven years as a container vegetable gardener.

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Should you mulch your container vegetable garden? It seems like just one more garden task to remember on top of all of the other ones that we have to do. So, is it really necessary? I’ve been container vegetable gardening for 7 years, and at this point, I have over 20 different containers here in my urban backyard. So, the short answer is yes. You should be mulching your containers, but it’s a little nuance. There’s some things to know about it. So, in this video, I’m going to give you all the reasons why you should be mulching your containers, and I’m going to share different mulch options, as well as my preferred choice. Let’s get into it. Container gardens dry out a lot more quickly than ones that are in the ground. And so, it’s especially important to find ways to retain that moisture within the container. One of the ways that you can do that is by including coconut core or Pete moss within the soil. In addition to that, you can add a layer of mulch. This is going to help create a barrier so that the moisture stays in the container rather than evaporating more quickly. This is especially important in those hot summer months when you’re trying to grow those tomatoes and peppers and the afternoon sun is just beating down on those containers. Having that layer of mulch is going to mean that you will have to water less frequently and your plants will be a lot happier. The next reason is temperature regulation. That protective top layer of mulch is going to help regulate the soil temperature within your containers. This is especially crucial again in those hot summer months because it’s going to be able to keep that soil a little cooler than the outside hot temperatures. This is going to be really good for those plant roots. Next is disease prevention. So, when you have just soil without mulch, every time it rains or if you’re hand watering, when you water that soil, the soil is going to splash up onto the lower leaves of your plants. And what that’s going to do is possibly cause some soilborn diseases to get onto your plants. By having that layer of mulch, it actually helps significantly reduce that splash. And so, the water is not going to then hit your plant leaves. So, it’s going to help prevent some of those soil born diseases from getting onto your vegetable plants. Another reason to use mulch is that it can actually add nutrients to your soil. Now, it’s going to depend on what type of mulch that you use, and we’ll get to that. But by adding certain types of mulches, you’re adding those nutrients because if it is a nutrient-rich material, every time you water those containers, the nutrients are going to go into the soil and then be taken up by the plants. The last reason is aesthetic appeal. Now, some people don’t care what their gardens look like, but for me, my container garden is also in my outdoor living space. We spend a lot of time out here, and so it’s important that it looks nice. And for me, adding that mulch, well, depending on what type you add, which we’ll get to that, can make those containers look a lot more aesthetically pleasing. So, when should you add the mulch to your containers? I always add my mulch after I plant my transplants. And then if I’m going to direct seed outdoors in my containers, I’ll hold off on adding that mulch until after they’ve already sprouted. And that’s because if you put mulch on top of freshly planted seeds, it might hurt their germination ability because it’s adding that extra layer that the seedling will have to get through. So transplants, I put the mulch on right away, but those seedlings, I’m going to wait until they sprout and then add that thin layer of mulch and then add more as they get a little bit bigger. Now, I will continue to top off my mulch throughout the growing season. I don’t have a set rule for how often I do this. I just kind of watch it and decide when it needs. It usually ends up being every 2 to 3 weeks. But by adding that additional mulch onto your container, you’re going to be able to continue adding nutrients. And you’ll notice in your container as you water and as the season goes on and as it’s raining, the soil level will decrease a little bit. And so, by adding that mulch, you’re then kind of evening it out again. How should you apply mulch to the container? So, I usually do about one to two inches as that top layer. That’s what I have found to work for me. Some people will advise that when you’re adding mulch, you avoid putting it against your plant stems. I personally don’t follow that. I have not had any issues, but that is something that you can consider doing if you want to be extra cautious. We’ve talked about why you should use mulch and how you should use it. So, now let’s talk about what you should actually use. I’m going to start by talking about what you don’t want to use, and that is those dyed landscape mulches that you can find in abundance at your garden centers. The reason that you don’t want to use these is because they are dyed with chemicals. And so, if you’re using these dyed mulches in your containers, every time you water them, those chemicals are then going to leech into the soil, and that is not good. So, you want to avoid those dyed landscape mulches. Instead, what you do want to use is organic materials. And there’s several different options and each of them kind of has different characteristics with it. One option that has a lot of nutrients in it is dried shredded leaves. What some people will do is they will rake up their leaves in the fall, put them in the leaf bag, shred them up, and then in the spring they will use that as mulch in their containers. Now, I do keep my dried leaves and shred them up, but I will put them in the container rather than use them as a mulch just because I don’t think it’s very aesthetically pleasing. And like I said, that’s something that’s important to me. I feel the same way about grass clippings, which is another option, but obviously that is a very lowcost option, especially if you already have grass in your yard that you are having to mow. So, some people will keep their grass clippings and use that as a mulch. You just want to make sure if you do that that your grass hasn’t been treated. Other options are straw. You could use hay. I would advise against that because it will sometimes have weeds in there and so that could kind of create a mess in your containers. No need to bring weeds into your containers. cuz that’s one of the benefits of not growing vegetables in the ground. Another option is pine needles. And then lastly, you could use wood chips. You just want to make sure that they’re kind of more finely ground up rather than big pieces of bark. That’s going to mess with the nitrogen levels in your soil. So, what kind of mulch do I use? Well, I’ve been using cottonber compost for the last several years. I actually just accidentally stumbled upon it at my local garden center. I bought it, gave it a try, and I really liked it. So, why do I like my cottonber compost? Well, there’s several reasons. One is that it does meet that need for a really nice look. I think it looks like a traditional mulch, and so I really like the way that it’s looking in my containers. It’s really easy to spread and work with. More importantly, though, is that it’s really nutrientdense. So, cotton b compost is the leftover parts of the plant after the cotton has been harvested. They let it turn into that compost. Let it sit and it’s actually really rich in protein and carbon which is important for the development of your plants and it has all kinds of other nutrients in it. So just that added benefit of every time I water I know that those nutrients are getting into the soil and being taken up by my plants. So that’s what I’ve been using. Whatever mulch you decide to go with, just make sure it’s an organic matter. That’s going to be the best that you can use for your vegetable container gardens. I hope you found this helpful and that you have a great growing season.