Many gardeners do not think mulch is important for anything other than visual appeal.  While mulch will help make your planted garden look more tidy organic mulch has many other benefits that make it a vital part of your vegetable garden.  For starters organic mulch will help cut down on the growth of weeds that could ruin your new garden.

Organic mulch will also help improve the quality of soil in your vegetable garden.  Unlike non-organic mulches, organic mulch will decay and decompose overtime becoming a layer of rich and fertile topsoil.  This will add nutrients to the vegetables in addition to its other uses.

Before the organic mulch decays it will help keep the water used to water your new vegetable garden from evaporating before it has a chance to do its work.  It will also help keep the temperature of your soil even by warming the soil during the winter and cooling it during the summer.  This is a great feature to those who grow vegetables all year round.  The old newspaper helps perform another function that will help your vegetable garden thrive.

When you are ready to start laying down your mulch to protect your newly planted vegetable garden you should have a good supply of old newspapers available.  These newspapers should be placed on the ground before you lay down your mulch.  The newspaper will help protect your organic vegetable garden from the insects that will be attracted to your mulch.

There are a few things to remember when choosing your mulch and laying it down over and around your garden.  For starters avoid using hay for organic vegetable garden mulch.  Even though hay can be found easily and purchased cheaply in many areas it is often filled with weed seed.  You will be helping to cause the problem you are trying to avoid. 

Also, make sure you do not lay the mulch down too thickly.  Mulch should be no more than two to three inches thick and once it is laid down you should still watch the mulch carefully.  Make sure the mulch is not matting together since that can prevent water from reaching your vegetable seeds.  Another thing to watch out for is slimy mulch which can occur when some of the materials used to create a layer of mulch become slimy as they decay.  If this happens simply shovel the slimy mulch away and replace it with a fresh layer of organic mulch.