Yesterday when I was planting the second batch of cucumber plants I was struck by just how nice the soil under the thick leaf mulch is. Not a weed in sight, moist and still aerated.
As compared to simply adding compost on top which allowed weeds to grow, not to mention all those volunteers.
I took a better look at them and they are beginning to distinguish themselves. I have two cucumber plants and the rest are cantaloupes. Last year I grew only Napoli cantaloupes so all of the seeds in the compost would be from that. It is an F1 hybrid which will not breed true so there is no telling what I might get.
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| See the larger jagged leaf? It has a rougher surface indicative of cucumber. |
After planting the cucumbers, I got the old leaf chopper out and sucked up any stray leaf mulch that had escaped and collected in the corners and along the sides of beds. I dumped this under the zucchini plant. I feel that leaf mulch helps reduce squash vine borers because the stems do not come into direct contact with the soil.
Love leaf mulch. I collect bags and bags of leaves in the fall. Wish we had a chopper to crush then finer, but they still work so well at keeping in moisture and suppressing weeds.
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