This study focused on the effects of six mulching and cultivation patterns on soil temperature and soil moisture by a 2-year (2009, 2011) field experiment conducted in Ya’an Experimental Farm of Sichuan Agricultural University in the western edge of Sichuan basin, China. Six patterns of mulching and cultivation included conventional tillage (CT) with no mulch (NM) marked as CT+NM, CT with straw mulching (SM) as CT+SM, CT with plastic film mulching and maize planting along the plastic films (PAPF) as CT+PAPF, CT with plastic film mulching and maize planting on the plastic films (POPF) as CT+POPF, ridge tillage (RT) with PAPF as RT+PAPF and RT with POPF as RT+POPF. The results showed that: 1) Soil temperature of 0–10 cm topsoil (10cm ST) at 8:00, 14:00 and 18:00 in each growth period were RT+POPF > CT+POPF > RT+PAPF > CT+PAPF > CT+NM. At 8:00 mulching and RT showed significant heat preservation and the effect of POPF was better than PAPF, RT was better than CT, mulching was better than NM; at 14:00 and 18:00 10 cm ST of each treatment increased obviously, the temperature raising effect of RT and POPF were higher than CT and PAPF. SM had the stable effect on ground temperature namely having heat preservation during the declining period of air temperature (night) as its 10 cm ST was higher averagely by 0.5℃ than CT+NM at 8:00; while it showed a decline in ground temperature for SM during the rising period of air temperature (daytime, except the raining day) as its 10cm ST was average 0.3℃ lower at 14:00 and average 0.9℃ lower before the period of V12 and 0.5℃ lower after the period of V12 at 18:00 than CT+NM. 2) Soil moisture content of the 0–20 cm soil layer (20 cm SMC) varied as RT+PAPF > RT+POPF > CT+SM > CT+POPF > CT+PAPF > CT+NM in different growth stages during whole maize-growth period, RT and mulching helped collecting and maintaining soil water, 20 cm SMC of RT was higher by 10.0% than CT and that of mulching was higher by 11.4% than NM. There was a superiority of the collection of soil water for PAPF to POPF when with RT as 20 cm SMC of PAPF was higher by 2.4% than POPF, while when with CT there was a superiority of the maintain of soil water for SM to plastic films mulching (PFM) as 20 cm SMC of SM were higher by 2.4%, 5.1% than that of POPF and PAPF, respectively. Furthermore, there was a superiority of the collection and maintain of soil water for POPF to PAFM as 20cm SMC of POPF was higher by 3.2% than PAPF when with CT. In conclusion, CT+SM and RT+PAPF are the best choice for maize production in this research area.