Straw and hay both have seeds in them, depending on the machinery and time and conditions when they were baled. Use either one you can get. Laying newspaper down on the surface with the straw/hay on top is good, but just straight straw/hay, deep enough, will do just as well. The trick is to keep the soil covered enough so sunlight doesn't penetrate to the soil to wake up the unwanted seeds. But even if you do have a few that sprout, the soil under the mulch is so soft and moist that they are very east to pull out. Lay the pulled weed on top of the mulch and it becomes mulch, too. If you happen to have chickens, open a bale of straw/hay in their pen and break it into several chunks. They will pull the rest of it apart and pick through it find the seeds. Rake it out in a month or so, and put it on the garden, and you will have very few seeds sprout because the chickies have eaten most of them. Wood mulch wouldn't be so bad if you follow a few basics: The main problem is mixing the chips with the soil: the chips use the nitrogen in the soil to assist in their breakdown, and their isn't enough remaining for the plants. But if you only lay the chips on the surface, the only nitrogen use is where the chips meet the soil. You could even help that by scattering some alfalfa meal (from the feed store -- much cheaper than the garden store) on top of the soil, then putting the chips on top. BUT you have to remember to not to mix the chips into the soil at the end of the season, but rake them off into a pile. You could just let them sit there and reuse what is left next year (still, just on the surface), or you could mix them with alfalfa meal as you make the pile, and sort of make a compost pile with them. But wood chips do very well under perennials. You can still add the alfalfa meal if you want, and put the chips on top. Sue

Do you know what prevents plants from forming extensive roots in the germination cell? It depends on how technical you want to get. ;) A detailed scientific article is linked below but please note that it is still in development - accurate but work still needed. Also, this article is one of the many sources already linked in the discussions I linked for you above. Basically it boils down to (1) the type of cells found in the different types of roots. Initial roots contain only the cellular structure imposed on them by the seed embryo DNA. And (2) when, in the growing process, the fibrous root cell development is triggered - true leaf emergence. Stage transplanting magnifies that triggering by providing a new growing environment and a deeper environment that forces additional fibrous roots to develop along the now buried stem. Plants left to go along in their germination cell will, eventually, develop the needed fibrous roots, but not as quickly nor to the same degree. The article linked above shows you pics of the root development on transplants vs. non-transplants. Also, since in nature seeds sprout pretty much where they fall and no one is there to poke them deeper in the ground, how come those plants develop fine? Apples and oranges to a degree as the goals are so different. ;) First, while some seeds in the wild may indeed sprout where they fall, the parent plant "planted" (scattered) thousands of seeds. Of those thousands how many germinated? Studies using both wildflowers and trees show less than 10%. Second, of those that did sprout, their survival rate is quite low - less than 20% - not something we want when germinating for the garden. Only those very few that chance allows to fall in just the right place with just the right soil, just a lucky wind that covers it or a wild creature poops on it, the right nutrients, sun exposure, and moisture will ever grow to compete with its parent. Hope this helps. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: How Plants Devlop Roots

Paula you can either pot your seedlings now or wait and plant HOS later, either way you will get few plants to grow. Question- how precious those foxglove/ delph seedlings to you? How much time are you wiling to spend on them? Do you want to save all and every one of them? How adept you are with your hands to untangle them gently and not damage roots too much? I start all my seedlings- indoor or out in containers. There is certain point when those seedlings become look too crowded. If seedlings are very precious to me I or they have long tap roots I will replant them early on. I have some foxglove I started early indoor- they all planted into individual cells and already planted out- those are Camelot and Foxy varieties for first year bloom. Now I have few other foxgloves coming from WS-they are tiny babies yet- most likely I will do HOS when they big enough to handle.

Hi Bruce, Welcome to the forum. We have a great time here and all of us learn a great deal from one another. It's quite simple really. In a hill, you start with 4 to 6 sprouts, let's say, and they all are competing with one another for water and nutrients. As you thin the plants and keep only the 3 plants...and then thin to 2, they still are competing for whatever their roots can pull up out of the soil. Since you leave 2 plants in a hill, the competition for nutrients and water never really stops so the two plants will tend to be ever so slightly less productive than a single plant on one hill would be. When you plant single plants in single rows, they do not have to compete with any other plant from Day 1, and really they do not have to compete for a long time.....not until their massive roots are competing with the massive roots from the next closest plants. However, because Squash Vine Borers are so good at taking out plants, it is smart to plant 2 plants together using your in-row spacing so that you'll end up with at least 1. When I do in-row spacing (which I did this year), I don't remove the second plant until I have blooms forming. As far as whether to plant on hills or not, in our climate it is mostly a matter of soil drainage that should drive your decision. --If you have well-drained soil, you should get equal production from plants on hills or in rows. --If you have heavy, slow-draining clay soil, you'll likely get better growth and production from plants on hills, assuming you loosened up the hilled-up soil and amended it with compost or other organic material. Even if the soil is not improved, though, you'll still get better drainage from a hill. In colder climates than ours where the soil stays very cold much later in the spring, the gardeners "need" to hill up the soil because it will warm up faster and that helps get their plants off to a good start. They also usually cover the garden beds with black plastic several weeks before their plant-out date in order to warm up soil, and also start seeds inside and transplant out, so they can start with 2 to 3 week transplants and get "ahead" that way too. In general, gardeners in colder parts of the country have temperature issues in the spring and fall that make it difficult to ripen squash and melons that have long days-to-maturity. For example, if you're in a zone where the last spring freeze falls around Memorial Day, and the first autumn freeze occurs in September, you have to push your melons and squash hard to get edible melons and squash from them. So, planting on a raised mound (hill) gives you slightly warmer soil and that gets you earlier sprouts. I've grown melons and squash both ways. I tended to use hills when my current garden was "young" and the soil (which started out as thick, dense Red River clay) was not as well-amended and, therefore, drained more slowly. Now that we're in our 11th year here, the top 8-10" of our formerly red clay soil is a brown loamy soil that does drain well, so I tend to go with in-row planting. And, I haven't even addressed what I'd do if I had very, very, very fast-draining sandy soil or sandy loam soil in a hot climate. If that were the case, I'd probably do waffle beds to help retain water and reduce wind and slow down moisture loss. I hope that answered your question. With any veggie I grow, I tend to experiment with growing it several different ways, and then "permanently" use whichever method worked best for me. What works best for one person is not always what works best for other people----so much depends on your soil type and climate. Some people on this forum routinely get 50-60" of rain per year, and others are lucky to get 15-20", so we all have to adapt and do what works in our specific locations. Dawn