putting straw or hay on garden rows

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Hi I was wondering if you put straw or hay on your garden rows after planting seeds will the seeds come up or should i wait til the plants sprout thanks for your help

Lisa

-- Lisa Miller (ljmill35@aol.com), June 14, 2001

Answers

Waiting for sprouts is a good idea. If you mulch too early, the soil will not warm up properly.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 14, 2001.

Lisa ,...while you are waiting for your sprouts to pop...leave your straw out in the rain ,open the bales to expose them if possible.Last year I mulched with beautiful fresh oat straw and had a gorgeous crop of oats!!!!!Leaving them out ,they will germinate anything left in the bales and it will die before it takes residence next to your lettuce!!I saw someone using bales to insulate the bottom of their house ,so I used those this year.Happy growing!!!

-- teri (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), June 14, 2001.

Dear Lisa,

You might want to read 'The Contrary Farmer's Invitation To Gardening' by Gene Logsdon. He talks about his experience with mulch gardeniong and the techniques that have been successful for him.

He recommends leaving the mulch at the edge of the beds until seedlings have come up. Then he pulls the mulch in around them as they grow.

I haven't tried mulch gardens yet, but will with my next garden. There seem to be so many benefits.

Good luck!!

Randle

-- Randle Gay (rangay@hotmail.com), June 14, 2001.


We put the hay that the goats waste on top of our potatoes instead of covering them with soil. It makes it very easy to harvest them in the fall and the added manure that is in the hay helps too !! We tried to cover with hay and straw but found we did get a lot of weeds in the garden too. My husband loves to rototil the garden. (likes to see nice little rows ??!!) When we covered our strawberries one year with straw we got a lot of weeds also. Made me give up on having strawberries even though we always had a wonderful harvest. Just how many hours can a busy homesteader put into weeding strawberries each year !! Good Luck !!

-- Helena Di Maio (windyacs@ptdprolog.net), June 15, 2001.

I must admit, I've mulched with yechy old hay for the first time this year. It's been a dismal failure. For some reason only 2 out of 50 strawberry plants that I planted in the mulch died. It does not seem to be stopping the weeds as I had hoped it would either, and I put it on real thick. It's hard to walk on.

I've always dreamt of a nicely mulched weed free garden. Anybody got any ideas? Am I doing something wrong? I've read "The Lasagna Garden" and "The No Work Garden Book" by Ruth Stout. These have been so inspirational to me. I don't want to give up too quick. Still seems like it should work. What am I doing wrong?

All advice appreciated. Thanks.

www.geocities.com/shilohschild

-- Shiloh's Child (shilohschild@christianemail.com), June 17, 2001.



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