Straw or hay for garden mulch

It is right up there as one of the most often types of mulch used. Cover your garden with hay and this will happen youtube. And if the hay was grown organicallysay, to feed certified organic animals, any straw made from that hay would be. A living mulch is similar to a cover crop, but instead of tilling it into the soil, it grows along with your food crops. And if you use haywith all those seed heads intactas a garden mulch, the. The other side of the bale is the folded side and appears as if the straw stems have been folded over in the baling process make sure that the strings are around the sides of the bale and not on the top or bottom. How to mulch your garden 6 kinds of mulch and when to. Consider the pros and cons to determine if straw bale gardening. The hidden dangers of straw bale gardening the grow. Ez straw mulch is the perfect add on solution for planting grass seed. She was planting potatoes by throwing them on the ground and then covering them with straw. Its economical, easier on your back, and is great for people with mobility issues.

How to condition a straw bale for gardening straw bale. You can plant seed directly into the bale with the addition of a little soil or compost, or you can scoop out a spot in the bale to fill with soil and then transplant starts directly into. For a gardener, however, that spoiled hay is exactly what your garden needs. Straw makes a great mulch too, but i personally prefer hay for several reasons. One side is the cut side and it looks like the ends of the straw are aligned and have been sliced off with a knife. How to use hay or straw in the garden for best results. Using straw on the bottom of raised beds theeasygarden. Hay vs straw lee royer, frederick county master gardener i am a huge fan of ruth stout, the mulch queen, whose method, in short was. If you dont use all the mulch in one year, it can be stored covered in your backyard. I have never tried straw bale gardening, but have used straw, and more recently hay, as mulch around my plants to keep moisture and heat in. Look for a supplier that sells guaranteed weedfree straw. We bartered for 100 bales of straw for our garden this year, we also tried doing some raised beds for our first time.

The first thing you need to know is that there is a difference between hay and straw. Gardenstraw is an allnatural biodegradable garden mulch that reduces watering, weeding, and damage to your plants giving you healthier plants and saving you time and money. Hay or straw can also create problems depending on the type you buy. And does it matter whether you use hay mulch or straw mulch in your garden. Heres that ruth stout garden video if youd like to watch it. In an ideal world, the best garden mulch includes a layer of hay on the bottom and straw on top, mixed with compost. Here is a list of some great ways to use hay as mulch in your own garden. Rice straw is very good, as it rarely carries weed seeds, but. However, unlike straw, the grain of hay is not harvested so some amount of weed seed is all but guaranteed. Ez straw seeding mulch features processed straw with a bonding agent that gives straw a tackiness which holds it.

It lasts longer than straw, and is denser, so you would apply about 3 inches thick, keeping it a few inches away from woody plant trunks to discourage rodents. Hay and straw are great to help build up your soil because it decomposes fast. If you dont have decent access to organic hay straw, look for a different mulch beddingfeed that isnt going to harm your gardening compostinglivestock health. Whatever you call it, its a great way to grow herbs and vegetables.

Gardening without work ruth stout 1of2 engmagyar youtube. Ive never made the mistake of using hay, or straw makes great mulch or, for that matter, a great addition to your compost pile. Using hay and straw in the garden the reid homestead. Straw mulch is a new again practice for many gardeners. Using hay or straw as mulch in the garden has the following benefits.

As the name implies, pine straw comes from pine trees, which shed their needles throughout the year. Straw mulch for gardening how to use straw mulch around. Mulch is a layer of material, organic or inorganic, layered over the surface of the soil. Her secret was a layer of permanent straw or old hay mulch over everything. Hay is easier to work with and adds more nutrients to your soil than straw. I am a huge fan of ruth stout, the mulch queen, whose method. The rich, auburn color of pine straw brings vibrancy and life to your garden, creating a landscape thats sure to be eyecatching. Straw bales and hay bales have two distinctly different sides. Uv protected plastic bag allows for storage outside. Pine straw can be an excellent option as an attractive mulch for flowers, trees, shrubs, and even the vegetable garden. Mulching with hay is a gardening secret that only a few know about. It contains processed wheat straw and tackifier, a natural powder used in hydro seeding that sticks together when wet.

Before laying mulch, remove weeds and open up the surface of the soil with a garden fork. Straw and hay, for different reasons need to be treated much the same way straw from grain harvest is extremely dry and if used as is will cause a few problems in some situations. It looks good and has most of the benefits of the other mulches. In this book, ruth shared a gardening method called deep mulch. Hay, though, just may give you the best yield youve ever gotten out of your garden. Choosing the right mulch for vegetable gardens gardener. A straw mulch is a low cost option that works exceptionally well in most gardens. The term straw was misused, but no one was injured in the process. Straw bale gardening is also called bale gardening or mistakenly, hay bale gardening. See if any of your local farmers have spent or soiled. Also like straw, hay will need to be pulled apart before being used in the garden.

It is much more likely to have the long lasting chemicals of the pyridine family on it. How to use mulch to stop weeds in your vegetable garden. Ruth stout and permanent hay mulch mother earth news. Then use wood chips for your walkways and flower beds. Unlike hay, straw isnt nitrogen heavy, so if youre compost pile is full of other nitrogenrich materials like chicken manure and grass clippings, straw is better choice. What you need to know about mulch for the vegetable garden. More on straw and strawlike things at a later date, but in contrast hay is just grass that is mowed, dried in the field, raked to decrease chances of. Spoiled or regular hay, straw, leaves, pine needles, sawdust, weeds, and garbage are great for mulch or any vegetable matter that rots. Get free shipping on qualified bulk mulch, straw, mulch products or buy online pick up in store today in the outdoors department. Mulch can be made of anything from compost to plastic sheeting, from straw to gravel. Non organic straw hay bales are good to sit on or make into a straw bale house, but thats about it. Get the lawn youve always wanted with the help of ez straw seeding mulch with tack. But when the seed heads are removed, the plant stalk thats left behind is straw, a hollow tube that has many uses, including animal bedding on farms and mulch in gardens. Whenever possible, apply your mulch straight after good rainfall.

Straw is mostly carbon and as a material is similar to, but with less nutrients than grass hay. Some straw mulches may be mixed with hay, which can weed seeds that can sprout in your garden rows. But when it comes to the vegetable garden, mulching gets a bit more complicated. When mulch is decomposed by microorganisms the nutrients in the soil increases. Over the years, ive mulched my vegetable garden with oat straw, newspaper, grass clippings, burlap coffee bags, leaves and black plastic. Any problems i have had are not due to my vegetables dying, but rather volunteers, as we like to call them, sprouting from viable seeds left in the bales and trying to take over the space. You can support our effort by making a small contribution through patreon. The first key to using straw as mulch is in finding the right types of straw garden mulch. Mold growing inside a confined space, where we breath in the concentrated spores, is very potentially harmful. Whats the best natural mulch for your garden the plant. Hay and straw are often both used as weed control mulch in the garden but the results you get can be quite different. Make sure you know the difference in straw and hay so you wont confuse the two. Straw and spent hay are both inexpensive and available most everywhere, so they are an easy option for using in abundance to mulch with. This is the way i would choose if i had enough property and the means to harvest the hay.

Hay and straw both make great mulch in the garden as long as they werent treated with persistent herbicides or contain noxious weed seeds. How to choose the best type of mulch for your garden. Garden mulch straw does it have to be organic to be. Another great mulch for the vegetable garden is straw, salt hay, or weedfree hay. The amazing results of simply mulching your garden with hay or straw may surprise you. When it comes to garden mulch, there are a few you will want to avoid all together. This thick layer of mulch prevents weeds seeds from germinating, and the straw or hay breaks down and contributes to the nutrients in the soil. But hay bales are from the entire growth, and that includes seed heads and all. When the plants are left intact and bundled up, its hay.

Search the internet for information on using hay vs. The straw i use for mulch spouted like crazy, and had to. If you need to get it worked into the soil to build up the organic content, perhaps spread it out along the garden and run over it with a lawn mower to shred it before tilling. If you can do this youll be good to go using hay to mulch your garden. The new layer of mulch will act like a blanket, trapping the moisture in the ground for much longer. Even the most beginner gardeners among us know about mulch, but there are so many different options. Hay or straw which to use for mulch tending my garden. My fruit trees and shrubs get mulched with bark or wood chips, and i mulch the perennial beds with cocoa shells or compost. Like straw, hay may have been sprayed with an herbicide, which is why old hay is a must.

The answer to clay soil is not to grow in pesticide laden straw bales which are. Its the perfect add on solution for planting grass seed. If you have enough property to grow your own hay for mulch, you can harvest before the seed heads develop. We have several large pine trees on our property and i use the pine needles to mulch various fruit trees and garden beds. Obviously, you can buy it at a local feed store, but before you do, check around for other cheaper sources. Living mulch provides the same benefits of other types of mulch while also enriching the earth. In deep mulch gardening, the gardener mounds several feet of straw or hay over the soil and then separates the mulch to plant in rows. Straw bales are the leftover stubble of a crop in the field. Straw comes in compressed bales and even a small bale usually provides enough mulch for a small garden. Hay tends to have weed seeds in it, ive used hay a few times to suppress weeds only to have grass seeds sprout making it worse for weeds than before.

The method of mulching heavily with hay has enjoyed widespread if unpublicized use for many years. Planting sweet corn can readily be sown by merely pushing the seed kernels into the ground through the hay mulch. A new use of straw bales at least to me is the practice of planting crops directly into the bales, or straw bale gardening as its come to be known. A garden mulch option that you dont often hear about is living mulch. She was best known for growing potatoes by just throwing them on the ground and covering them with hay. Mulching your garden a comparison between straw and hay as mulch for the vegetable garden from garden author doug green at. Pine straw also has a practical use as a natural garden mulch. And when used, it will create a lot of weed problems in your garden. Straw mulch in a vegetable garden home guides sf gate. Ruth stouts system for gardening mother earth news. If hay gets wet and spoils, farmers cant use it to feed their animals anymore.