 Hello! I'm Bethany O'Rear, a regional agent for Alabama Extension. Thank you for joining me today to learn more about mulch, a part of our series for home vegetable gardeners called Grow More, Give More. At the end of this talk, you'll see a list of several publications you might find useful at our website, aces.edu. I know mulch may seem a little out of place when you think about vegetables, but it's very important in the garden. If you're not familiar with it, mulch is just a general term for a substance that's placed over a growing surface, like a garden bed or row, to help plants thrive. Mulch is that very top layer that helps protect plants, and as it biodegrades, it actually helps improve the soil. When you walk through a wooded area in late spring, you'll see last year's leaves have started to break down and new plants are peaking through. That's nature's version of mulch. Mulch is effective in so many ways. By blanketing the soil, it helps prevent evaporation of water, keeps our southern soil temperatures relatively moderate, and it helps prevent weeds from sprouting. So the mulches that we're talking about today are derived from plants. They are biodegradable. That means mulch materials will break down over the growing season and become a part of the soil. For many growing areas in Alabama, that natural material will help improve soil structure which has red clay as a base, and it just makes the garden look good. Mulch can be bought or made at home. Straw and pine bark are popular mulches that can be bought in bags or in bulk from garden centers. Mulch lawn clippings are a popular home source, but you need to be careful to not layer them more than an inch thick and make sure your lawn hasn't been treated with a general herbicide. Clippings from a treated lawn could affect the plants you want to grow. Newspaper and cardboard are great sources of mulch to apply between plants and between planting rows. Even colored newspaper print has been approved for vegetable garden use as newspaper inks and paper have changed dramatically over the last 20 years and are much more environmentally friendly. These items are often used as an under mulch with a more decorative material like pine bark or straw placed on top of the newspaper or cardboard to finish the job. Generally speaking, a mulch like pine bark or pine straw can be spread in a depth of three to six inches. You don't need to take out a calculator as we talk about volume for a gardening bed. Today's tip, 27 cubic feet of area is covered by one cubic yard of mulch. Mulch is typically sold at garden centers in bags containing two cubic feet. Now you can do the math. For more information check out our resources at ASIS.edu. If you have gardening questions we have answers. Call the Master Gardener Helpline at 877-252-4769. Thanks for watching. Until next time, happy gardening.