You've got to be kidding! You mean I can have a vegetable or flower garden without the usual work that goes along with it? Come on, get serious. It's true according to Ruth Stout, sister of Rex Stout, the famous detective writer. Her passion was gardening and she wrote several books, all of which say we can have our garden without having to do the backbreaking work of plowing, spading, sowing cover crops, harrowing, hoeing, cultivating, or pulling weeds with its accompanying problems.
We are asked to put eight inches of mulch on the area we wish to garden. Then push back the mulch on both sides of the row we intend to plant. We are asked to sow the seeds in a small ditch we have made along the row that is uncovered. The level of the ditch is determined by the size of the seeds of the plants that we wish to grow. When the plants start peeking their heads up through the soil, we move the mulch around each one so that the mulch will smother out the weed seeds. Now the plants that you want to grow are not covered by the mulch and they are allowed to see the sun and breathe the air.
The previous eight inches of mulch you laid will experience compaction and be reduced in size to much less. Because of this, weeds may poke their heads through the mulch. No big thing - just add more mulch and the weeds will disappear.
When you live in the desert country of Arizona, you give your plants water. The mulch helps to hold it and gives it to the plant and its soil over a longer period of time.
Mulch is any vegetable matter that rots - no animal matter - including hay, straw, leaves, pine needles, sawdust, and weeds. You must be careful as certain weeds that are not dead and certain branches from the chipper will cause you problems that can only make your life more difficult.
Where do we get the mulch? Anywhere you can. You can get hay from a hay dealer and you don't have to buy the best hay he has, since you are not going to feed it to thoroughbreds. Buy rotten hay or soiled straw. Go to a cotton gin and get their cotton seed hulls or trash. If you have a large lawn and loads of grass clip pings, you can use that for mulch. You can use shredded newspaper or cut up cardboard, old (or new!) carpet, or your own homemade compost.
The best time to mulch is now. No, you don't have to wait for falling leaves, or fall. Do it now. To put eight inches of mulch on a 50' X50' garden, I recommend 25 fifty pound bales of hay. All will probably not be needed, so what is left can be added later when the mulch you put down is compacted. I would recommend always having some around to use.
See, the excuses we used to deter us from growing a garden before are no longer valid. With mulch, a bad back does not enter in or stop us.