Straw mulch

I usually grow very dense and use living mulch. I really like this method. One of the down falls is It's very bare in the beginning of each season. This isn't a deal breaker because it's not as hot in early spring, and in fall which is my second growing season there's still lots of plants covering the soil.
So why am I trying straw mulch this year? A few reasons, one is I haven't tried it, and I'm always looking to improve my garden.  The main reason is most of my garden beds are hugel beet. This is an amazing way to grow, and for me there's only one negative. My beds sink several inches each year. I don't know how much I spent on soil this year, but it was way too much. I had some of my own homemade compost, and if the bed is very low I will steal soil from the chicken yard. I don't know if it's realistic to think I can make enough soil, and or compost to keep my beds topped off.  
I decided to try straw. It's cheap, it keeps the soil cooler, keeps the moisture longer, and  I'm hoping it will decompose in place reducing the need for so much soil. ( the straw I got is wheat straw. I did seed seed heads, so I may get wheat. That's fine, I will just chop and drop it)
I bought the straw, tested it by growing beans. The beans grew and looked normal. There it sat. Last year I did this, and never used it. This year I was determined to use it. I put it around my veggies the other day. I have to say I hate the way it looks. I definitely waited to long, because the plants are abundant and pretty big, so I had a difficult time getting it into place. I did try to chop it up, but my chipper would just clog, and all the other ways I saw to chop it was just to much trouble. It's done now, so I hope I get good results. Of course after I did this I watched a video where paul was saying hay is a better option because each time you water it's like fertilizing. Oh well there's always next year.
I did try shredded cardboard as mulch last year, and I really liked it. It does break down very fast. I do have a lot of shredded cardboard, but not enough for all my beds.
What do you use to mulch your veggie garden?

I use straw mulch around my fruit trees and it does a really good job at suppressing weeds without me having to think about it. The main thing I noticed is you want it thick, like 10cm minimum, otherwise weeds just push through and you end up worse off because now they have a nice moist layer to root into. Slug pressure went up a bit the first year but once the birds figured out they could find them under there it balanced out. Curious how it works on your hugel beds since those already hold moisture so well.

Jen,

I am a big fan of straw mulch.  So long as it has none of those nasty chems, it does nothing but good.  It suppress weeds, drastically slows evaporation, moderates soil temperature, moderates soil moisture, and when the garden season is all done, it breaks down and attracts worms which use it for their own food and thus feed the garden.


I think you will like the results!

Eric

I think the straw mulch is a great plan regardless of the application time. You are conserving moisture and giving the soil life something to feed on. I will be mulching my garden with grass hay that I have recently cut. If you look under the mulch you may find earthworms coming to the surface for lunch. Mulchless in the spring is good in our cool climate as we want the garden soil to warm as quickly as possible. I have my neighbors' cattle on our grassland this summer and the 2 years of mulch (duff) accumulation is really paying off in moisture conservation. We are at about 60% of normal precipitation for 2026 and our warm season (prairie) grasses are green and lush.

The straw mulch worked pretty well. It definitely last longer than the shredded cardboard mulch.
It's time (late actually) to transition from the summer veggies to the winter veggies. Because my beds are filled hugel style there's always sinking, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. My question is should I pull the straw off, top off the beds, then put it back?  Or should I leave it where it is, top off the beds, and add new straw? If I don't remove it I will use less soil to top off. Will leaving it cause depletion of nitrogen? Can I off set that by adding organic alfalfa pellets? Is it just better to remove it?
Thanks

I leave it in place and put soil on top. In dry years sometimes several layers of straw then soil.
I have not noticed lack of nitrogen, plants look fine. But if your base soil is low N it might be a problem.