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

It is a good idea to cover them with straw in the winter, unless you have planted them on plastic. If your ground undergoes freeze thaw cycles, particularly on clay soils, they are subject to "frost heave" which in effects tends to pull the plants out of the ground.

Hi! Just a quick note on planting times for daylilies..I have had a lot of luck with planting in the Fall also; it's a great time to get good deals at the garden centers, and also works out well when I need to divide and transplant, as I'm not so busy as in the Spring! Just do the usual cutting-back of the foliage, and be sure they get enough moisture before the ground freezes. The plants should be well-established by Spring, and you should get flowers, depending on the size of the scape. I have ordered online with success, but my favorite place to visit locally (I live between Rochester and Buffalo)is a place in Shelby called Cottage Gardens. They have a website also; just Google them..Happy gardening!

I agree with "Hello" or "Good morning". You might choose to add the "Father" ... but doubt that you'd choose to familiarize it to "Dad". As for some brands of Protestant clergy, some speak to them using the term, "reverend, as in in, "hello, reverend", or may be referred to in such a way as, in, say, a radio interview, " ... what's your opinion about that, reverend ..." The term "reverend" is considered an adjective, as a descriptor, and one would not use it in introducing someone as "Reverend Smith" any more than one would introduce you as "good Smith", if Smith happened to be your name. When introducing such a person, in a circumstance where one wished to convey that information, one would introduce such a person as "Reverend Mr./Ms. Smith". In a radio interview, where one wished to indicate the person's title, "Rev. Mr./Ms. Smith" in the beginning, after that just "Mr./Ms. Smith", or "Jane/John", as is common in that informal atmosphere. ole joyful