Hay For Mulch?

[sunflower13]

I am a part of a community garden that is organic. I want to do mulch so I can cut down on weeds. So far, no one has put down mulch in the community garden yet. Has anyone taken hay for free like on craigslist etc? Is it dangerous because they may have sprayed the leaves etc. or had diseases? I read one article that said the hay may have seeds and to avoid it. What about moldy hay? Is it best to just put down plastic or fabric? I've thought about wood chips but it looks expensive. I've never done mulch and know very little. Thanks!

[jal_ut]

To me Hay = high protein feed for animals. Usually expensive to buy. Yes at times one may get spoiled hay that is no good for feed and likely cost little if anything at all. I would not be opposed to using that for mulch.

Straw = the stubble of grain that has been harvested for the seed. It is yellow in color and low in protein. It makes good mulch. Usually much less expensive than hay.

Lawn clippings = whatever the lawnmower cuts off as your grass is trimmed. It may be caught and used as green or scattered and dried then raked and used as dry.

Yes, any of these things may have weed seeds in them It is one of the risks we run when we mulch with them.

Besides making mulch these items break down and enrich the soil.

Wood mulches, that is wood chips and sawdust also protect the soil and hold moisture, however they are much slower to break down and enrich the soil and in the process of decomposing they actually can tie up some of the nitrogen in your soil. Not as likely to get weed seeds with these mulches.

I tend to want to use whatever is free or low cost. Just my nature. If I can get free manure or free spoiled hay, I would rather do that then pay for whatever else may be available.

Have fun!

[rainbowgardener]

everything jal_ut says is right, but I do think hay is a lot more likely to have a lot more weed seeds than straw. Straw is good mulch, you can buy a bale of it cheap and a bale goes a long way. It is low in nitrogen, so doesn't feed the soil when it breaks down as much as grass clippings do and it breaks down much slower (which is a plus for not having to renew your mulch as often, but a minus if you thin of mulch as a way of feeding your soil). Straw also doesn't pack down and mat the way grass clippings can.

[imafan26]

You could use leaves, just chop them up with a lawn mower, grass clippings are good. I mulch with compost. It works and eventually it gets pulled into the soil. Some community gardens have their own compost pile and can get tree trimmings free from local landscapers. However, unless you know the landscaper, you might still get stuff that has been sprayed or weeds.

I like pine needles so I go out where the pine trees are and rake them up. They are great for weed suppression, they don't pack down. They are acidic but they take two years to breakdown. I did find they did not get along with onions and garlic, but they did fine with everything else. Two of the gardens I have are alkaline so an acidic mulch is perfect.

At home, I don't have enough leaves, and I vermicompost only, so I don't have a large pile, so I mulch with newspaper. So far it has been working alright for weed suppression. The newspaper breaks down eventually and the weeds come through, but by then the plants are bigger and can compete. My friends give me newspaper. the only drawback are that the slugs and snails like to hide under it, but they hide in the mulch too.

At my community garden landscapers dump their loads illegally. The good stuff gets hauled away quickly, but the junk just sits there. Stables are a good place to get free manure, but you probably need to let it stand for awhile to make sure it is old enough. You can still get weed seeds in it, depending on what the horses are fed. The horses may also have been given wormers. Some people have used it and really like it.

If you have a local green waste facility you can get compost very cheap by the truckload. It is a lot cheaper than by the bag.

I also have used Big R for mulch, but it dries fast and I don't like having to water the mulch before I water my garden.

[sunflower13]

I love this site! You all have fantastic tips. I am glad that I didn't run out and buy plastic. I wish I had access to grass but I don't own the place where I live and they hire a crew to mow every week and they do spray. I am going to look at the tips mentioned and figure something out. Learn so much here and am more confident finding mulch. Thanks!

[feldon30]

Every year I buy a bale of wheat straw. It covers my 250 sq foot of garden space with some to spare.

[Ohio Tiller]

I use grass clippings for my small beds it works real good and tills in a lot better than straw does in the fall. I find straw rots a lot slower than grass clippings.

[ElizabethB]

My favorite mulch is pine straw. No more expensive than wood mulch - less actually. Apply a thick layer and let it pack. No weeds, excellent water retention. I have access to hay but don't use it for fear of seed spouting. HATE landscape cloth.

Good luck

[brandon558]

I did some of both this year....wood chipped mulch and straw. I used the mulch around the tomatoes and straw in the walk ways and other veges. When I used to bag all my grass I used the clipping and it worked about the best of anything....need to get back on that!

[Gary350]

Hay is full of weed seeds. You will have 1000s of weeds if you use it in the garden. When cows and horses eat hay in the barn a lot of it gets walked on then it becomes soaked with manure and urine. I got a truck load of that one year and it worked me to death trying to get rid of weeds. I had weeds I had never had before came up all summer. It took me 3 years to finally get the garden back to normal weed control.

[applestar]

Only time I had a really bad time of it using hay was when I ended up with Japanese hops and I didn't eradicate it right away because it looked interesting.... We had a discussion about weeds in hay back then -- not sure if I initiated it -- and the answer was to let the hay "spoil" first.

Leave it out of the way in the yard/garden in rain and it will start to grow on top, so flip it over and let the bottom of the Haybale grow. Then do each of the long sides. Some people also stand the bale up on ends to complete the process but I never do. The bale is too unwieldy, compost hot, and moldy by then and I don't want to wrestle with it. If you are sensitive to mold, wear a mask.

Now that the weed seeds had chance to germinate/sprout, the hay is even more nutrient dense -- it's Ezekiel hay.

I do like straw for keeping clean -- strawberries, squash, etc., and for neat appearance will put a thin layer on top

[sunflower13]

I think I will try straw. I haven't seen just one or two bales for sale but I am going to call around. I wouldn't mind pine needles. I thought about driving to a nearby forest and raking them up.