Video Transcript

Hi. I'm Farm to Table chef Teca Thompson at tecathompson.com. And today we're talking about how to use cedar mulch on your vegetables. So, I'm just going to start with a big bucket of cedar mulch. You can get this through your local nursery or home and garden store. And then I'm going to mulch today to demonstrate around tomato plants. So you want to make sure the plant is about 4 to 6 inches high at least. And then make sure the plant is set into the ground and that it's big enough to kind of handle a heavy mulch like this. You also want to make sure that, I've trimmed this plant, so if it's a plant that you're mulching around that you can trim you want to just trim it up a little bit allowing an area for the mulch. So the mulch is not going to go right against the tomato, but you just want to make sure that there's no leaves that are hanging that are long and can be burnt by it and then affect the tomato plant. So I'm just going to take a really nice big helping of mulch. And I'm just going to mulch right in between my tomatoes. Now you don't want to actually touch the stems, you want to leave a little barrier, about a one inch to two inch barrier around the plant. And that will allow the plant not to be burnt or disrupted. Because sometimes the mulch can be a little pungent and heavy duty. So the great thing about cedar is not only is it going to keep in moisture and keep down the weeds like in a normal mulch, but the heavy smell of cedar really disturbs bugs. So it's probably actually going to help you with bug control, a natural bug control as well as the other benefits of mulch. So you'll want to lay it down just like this, a really thick layer around all of your plants wherever you choose to use cedar mulch. And that is pretty much how you do it. Just a thick nice layer making sure that you leave an area around the plant and this will help you hold in the moisture, keep away bugs and that's how you mulch your vegetable garden with cedar mulch. I'm Farm to Table chef Teca Thompson at tecathompson.com. Thank you for watching.