I never have enough mulch, and can't afford to buy the stuff. Hence soil moisture fluctuation problems. From now on and hereafter, I'm going to mulch with cardboard and newspapers --- I can get that for free! And then make sure the watering gets through the mulch into the root zone.
Agreed with the water/heat/dry bit. We’ve had that problem in the past and just assumed that was the issue last summer. Little did we know. I use a soaker hose on top of the newspaper/mulch and it gets through just fine. Ditto rain. And the great thing about newspaper with hay on top (or whatever you use) is you can get in your garden after it rains 1.5”. YOu’re not up to your knees in mud and muck. Weeding is a cinch, too. You don’t have to!
We let our grass grow longer than those in HOA probably could as we’re in the sticks. Hubby then sweeps that up with a leaf sweeper and that’s free mulch. We also offer to leaf sweep neighbor yards in the fall and bag those up for use.
I try to keep tomato/pepper/eggplant/potato plants and parts out of my compost pile to stop disease spread. Those got in a separate area of the yard if they look healthy (under some oak trees) as I hate to toss good organic material. If they look suspiciously diseased in any way, they get tossed in garbage can. I might try burning them this fall though. I’ll have to read up on that.