I have my garden mulched to prevent weeds. It works great. I just put some newspaper down with wood chips over it. When I start planting my Fall crops, the layout of the garden will be different, so what do I do with the mulch? Do I just rake it out of the way? Do I turn it into the earth along with the newspaper? I'm curious how people handle this.

I just rake mine out of the way & then reuse it. I don't till it under until the garden is pretty much done for the season.

It depends on the health of your soil. I mulch with spoiled hay, and to begin with my soil was so shy of organic material that for the first two years I tilled it all under in the fall along with compost and manure, then blanketed the whole garden with mulch for the winter. In the early spring, I would rake off the mulch, build up my earthen raised beds and replenish the mulch and at planting time, dibble through the mulch as detailed below.

Where I have now built up good soil, I have constructed permanent raised beds and I do not till these. In the fall I just knock down the old plants, ala Ruth Stout, add a layer of manure, then compost and tuck it all in beneath a blanket of mulch and wait for snow. In California, I guess you probably want to just let the beds rest a few weeks and occasionally water them to keep the soil healthy.

In the spring, I use my hoe to push aside the mulch and then I direct seed things like carrots, lettuce, beets, radishes. For plants that need more spacing, corn, beans, peas, I don't pull back the mulch, I just dibble through it with a dibber stick and then poke the seed in to the proper depth.

For indoor starts of herbs, squash, cukes, bedding plants... I use my bulb planter to remove a core of soil and mulch before planting.

For larger plants, I do the same, but with a shovel.

Yep, rake it away, replant, let seed spout or if setting transplants, just tuck them back in with the old mulch.

Newspaper mulch doesn't last long here in the damp north unless it is very thick. I use a single layer when I use it at all and it is gone before it becomes unsightly garden litter blowing around the garden. (Except when the chickens discover it under the other mulch and then they delight in tearing it to shreds.)

Don't turn the wood chips under now due to the problem of the chips temporarily redirecting a sizable amount of your soils nitrogen to the process of their decomposition. Leave them on the surface where they can immediately serve as mulch for your winter crops.

The newspaper you can till under, read again or recycle. I don't think they offer much to the soil nor do they tie up much nitorgen.

Wayne

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For plants that need more spacing, corn, beans, peas, I don't pull back the mulch,

How do you ever get your soil to warm up in the spring? You must have more patience than me. My ground stays frozen much longer under mulch so I pull it back just to let the sun warm the soil.

If these fall crops are to be started with seeds in the garden all that needs to be done is rake the mulch aside, enough to give you a planting furrow, plant, and when the seedlings are up and growing slowly move that mulch back in place. It the fall crops will be started slips just open enough of a space to plant and when those slips are growing robustly move the mulch back into place.
Pogo, how did your soil become frozen under the mulch? Was it put in place too late in the year, after the soil froze? I've not had my soil freeze under the mulch in many years, too much mulch and too much snow cover.

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Originally posted by pogo:

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For plants that need more spacing, corn, beans, peas, I don't pull back the mulch,

How do you ever get your soil to warm up in the spring? You must have more patience than me. My ground stays frozen much longer under mulch so I pull it back just to let the sun warm the soil.

Pogo, I suspect in other climates that might be a good idea, but not here. The soil is usually thawed out and workable by mid March, but that's still 2-1/2 months too early to plant.

I've made the mistake of planting beans in late April and had them grow to remarkable size by early May only to be killed dead by subsequent hard freezes.

I really can't plant much before June 1 regardless of the soil temperature.