you can use hay, which provides more nutrients as it breaks down, though it does break down faster than straw, in lots of places hay in some form is easier and cheaper to obtain. we use sugar cane mulch for that very reason. but have used spoilt lucern or pasture grass hay.

anything that is lucky enough to pop up gets pulled and tucked under for extra nutrient.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden

Where do you get straw mulch?

A farmer near our house advertised it on Craig's List. His hay is actually a bit more expensive. But if it breaks down faster, as len says, I may opt for that next time. It's only 25 cents more. I wonder if weed seeds are a factor in hay.

Love the straw bale garden!

Weed seeds are definitely a factor with hay.

I've used hay and straw and the Stout method for about 5 years now. I have never had a problem with weed seeds in the hay. The mulch is so thick (4-8") weeds don't get a chance to germinate in the soil.

I was a pretty devote stout follower up until this season, when I decided to add some manure (since I found a free source). The manure really did make a big difference - I think some N is depleted from the soil while the mulch decomposes. In previous years, I added cottonseed or bloodmeal to replace this - but the manure does it so much better as well as adding more organic matter.

For the slugs, I use beer, and it's really only an issue in the spring when the plants are getting started. Once the plants get going they tend to be stronger then the slugs.

One problem I am having with the mulch is that some rodents have moved in and are eating my peas. I've been using rat traps set with peanut butter and sunflower seeds and so far seem to be winning the battle for the peas.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Hell, with enough mulch you might be able to smother a Socialist but hay has seeds where straw does not. I think that was the point.

I will NOT share my beer with the slugs! LOL.

Manure is a great source of N but the stuff I get is Horse manure with sawdust bedding and I think the N is pretty much awash because of the wood products. It's all good because when the composting is done we get the good stuff back but with this mix I like it better as a mulch. When it breaks down I get the gooodies as plant food.

Nice garden, zach. I should get DH to help me post a pic of mine.

Did you remove the straw to put on the manure, or get rid of the straw altogether? I'd like to plant a cover crop this fall if possible, and would just "push the hay aside". (Fertility has been an issue in my garden, due to putting on the aforementioned horse manure and sawdust without properly composting it. Doing pretty well this year.) DH said buy the cheap beer to trap the slugs.I still have cuke and bean seedlings that need protection.

One concern I have with using straw as mulch is the fire hazard. It would take only one stray bottle rock or other type firework to get a decent fire going. I'm using some straw this year but much thinner and less widespread than years past.

If you want to use cover crops it might be best to stick with straw instead of hay. Straw usually has some seeds but compared to hay it might as well have no seeds.

I've started using Sluggo this year and it has really seemed to keep the slugs in control. But like I said I haven't been using as much straw so that is a factor.

That's a good point about the sawdust canceling out the N gained by the manure. I don't really know the science of what is happening, but I am having a much better garden year then ever before (knock on wood), so will repeat the steps next year and hope for a similar result plus manure is cheaper then blood or cotton meal.

The stout method does encourage us to lay it on thick enough to cover anything (except whichgrass), so seeds really have never been an issue for me. I even let dandolines go to seed without worry. Stout also encourages you not to worry about weed seeds - and just get the cheapest, most easily available mulch you can find.

Some of the manure I put right on top of the hay and then added more hay. In the areas where I put my heat loving crops I remove the mulch in early spring - and then dumped the aged manure directly on the soil. When I put in my starts or seeds, I re-mulch.

I'm in upstate NY - so it would take a tank of gasoline to light my rotting mulch on fire. I would guess that dry places would benifit from the mulch even more then I do - nothing looks more harsh then crusty baked naked garden soil to me these days.

Agreed about the naked soil. I didn't mean to imply that I hardly mulch nothing could be further from the truth. This year most of the garden got a spread of commercial compost followed by about 2 inches of near finished homemade compost, 1-2 inches of grass clippings, 2-3 inches of tree company wood chips and then a decent layer of alfalfa pellets and then some of the straw. Now I'm looking to get some spent brewery grains to top it off. I think that should cover me for the season.

Indeed!

I've been mulching heavily with organic sugar cane, it appears to be excellent stuff. I mulched my front yard so hard it looks like a combine harvester just ran over it. It was barren, rock-hard clay when I moved in four months ago - baking in the hot Australian sun. Now it's yielding vegetables.

I also cannot abide the sight of bare, cracked dirt. I've half a mind to steal around the neighbourhood at night and guerilla mulch people's yards while they sleep. No naked soil will be spared.

got to disagree with weed seeds being any more a factor in hay than straw, the straw comes from wheat, barley whatever and there is no way known to man that they can harvest 100% of the head so when i have used straw it has contained those unharvested heads of grain, when we had chooks we let them scratch around in it and remove the grain and value add their manure.

if a gardener mulches heavily enough then almost nothing will sprout even much saught after volunteers, and for me i have never had anything sprout out of spoilt lucerne hay mulch, can't even imagine what may sprout out of unspoilt luceren hay?? lucerne maybe? wish it would i would use it as a cover crop. have used lots of pasture grass hay unspoilt and even there any growths have been minimal and nothing has ever perpetuated. my gardens are not over run with weeds, mulching makes sure of that.

use whatever you can get cheaply enough, and don't lose any sleep over it, your gardens will thrive. a weed is only a weed if you don't make use of it.

thanks for the appreciation of our bale garden presentation.

len

Will pine straw hurt a garden? In the fall of the year when I clean up the yard I put the pine straw onto the garden to rot into the soil for my garden in the spring. The last two years my garden has not produce like it use to? Could I have poison my soil?

Perhaps if you used too much of it you might have lowered the PH. A test might be in order. On the bright side, once it has broken down the PH should return to balance.

I am using straw for the first time in my garden and after a good rain I now have oats growing. I didn't notice the seeds at first but sadly see plenty of them now. So what to do?

My mulch is only a couple inches thick. If I increase the depth will the seeds die off? I'm worried that would just add more seeds to my soil for growth at the end of the season when the hay has composted into the soil.

I also have plenty of extra straw. Instead of using it in the garden should I compost it in my bins? I never feel like my compost gets hot enough but if it results in soil can I just assume the seeds were killed?

Please help a newbie....
Alexis

I got ahold of several large bales (800 lbs ) of alfalfa that was getting moldy for free, I am using that this year . I am also getting several pickup loads of sheep manure for the same price

Alexis:

Could you rake the straw around with a steel rake to dislodge the seedlings?

berry Bob: Wow, what a score.

I got the bales from a supermarket Halloween display for $1 a bale and stored it over the winter. It's not as lovely and fresh as what I bought last year, but it will do for adding to the paths to kill the dandelions and other weeks.

I found alpaca/llama manure (very cheap) on Craigslist in my neighborhood a few weeks ago, so will add that to the vegetable garden.