Mulching across the Twin Cities with the Shredded Mulch Project

2023 Establishing the trial & collaborations

The collaborative team of Urban Farm and Garden Alliance, the Jelinski Soil Lab, the Rogers Lab and 6 community garden sites spent the first season of their NCR-SARE supported project studying mulch in vegetable cropping systems, rounding up impressions of varieties of mulch, and injecting all sorts of resources into Twin Cities community gardens! 2023 was an exciting season.

Outreach Milestones

  • 28 Community events supported at community gardens, festivals, tours & field days

  • 1600 participants interacting at these mulch events

  • 59 community growers trialing mulches

  • 37 different educational modules created and shared at mulch activities

Garden Topics

Why use mulch;
What is the Mulch Project;
Types of mulch
Planting bareroot strawberries;
How soil tests are taken; What soil parameters are being measured;
Bindweed and control
Horseradish growing;
Container gardening; How to plant containers
Pollinator plants and benefits to vegetable growing;
Trellising vine crops;
Intercropping; Setting up side-by-side trials;
Growing mint in containers;
Bulbing onion planting;
Japanese and Korean weeding tools;
Mushroom growing in gardens, mushroom ID, Pesto making,
Scape harvesting
About jumping worms
Making fire cider;
Planting garlic
Make your own herbal bath soak;
What are dragon tongue beans & giveaway
How to use & preserve collards
Herbs and their scents for potpourii
Monarchs and butterflies in the garden
Herb seeds and seed starting
How to grow veggie crop information
How to repair a garden hose
Mid-season planting for fall crops;
Herb exploration and identification;
Heat island effects and adaption techniques like shade trees & mulch
Brassica family interchangeability Swede Midge information
Herbed salt how-to
How to cook squash
Shredded cardboard research field plot
Herb uses, i.e. lemon balm



UFGA Cardboard MulchStephanie HankersonRecap, cardboard mulch