People are usually surprised to hear that we use hay as mulch on our garden, and ask if we actually mean straw. You see, unlike straw, hay often contains a lot of weed seeds that can sprout up amongst your veggies. But in our experience, this has never actually been a problem, as long as the mulch layer is thick enough and we never till it in. Any seeds that do germinate, usually do so on the surface and die off long before actually taking root in the soil below. Now, we have had plenty of well documented struggles with quackgrass, but we’re pretty confident that those weeds came from seeds already present in our natural soil or crept in from outside the fence. But just to be sure, I’ve recently constructed 5 raised beds and throughout the season, we’ll be conducting a bit of an experiment to see if hay actually results in more weeds than straw.
VIDEO: I built 5 raised garden beds in hopes that NOTHING would grow
People are usually surprised to hear that we use hay as mulch on our garden, and ask if we actually mean straw. You see, unlike straw, hay often contains a lot of weed seeds that can sprout up amongst your veggies. But in our experience, this has never actually been a problem, as long as the mulch layer is thick enough and we never till it in. Any seeds that do germinate, usually do so on the surface and die off long before actually taking root in the soil below. Now, we have had plenty of well documented struggles with quackgrass, but we’re pretty confident that those weeds came from seeds already present in our natural soil or crept in from outside the fence. But just to be sure, I’ve recently constructed 5 raised beds and throughout the season, we’ll be conducting a bit of an experiment to see if hay actually results in more weeds than straw.
So did anything grow. Context.
Perfect
I’m here for when the results come out. Love you videos. 🙂
Your experimental approach to gardening is a total delight to this scientist/gardener! 🙂
A fantastic experiment… Can't wait for the outcome!
I can tell I’m getting older because this is the kind of content I now find thrilling.
I don't trust straw for two reasons, first the price. We don't have any wheat or other straw producing fields in the area. We live in Colorado, and there is no local straw as far as I know, therefore it has to be transported from somewhere far, so there is no free straw either. Hay, on the other hand is local and could be found free. One of my local friends just delivered 30 bales, that one of the horse owners bought and payed for, but never picked it up, so it went bad. Perfect for my garden! Another reason, and that is bigger than the first, is that straw usually means big grain production and I have no doubt that it gets sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. I can easily see if hay is clean just by looking at it and seeing mix of grasses or even asking a hay producer about it.
I vote hay with both hands! Weeds pull out so easily from hay layer that I wouldn't even worry about it.