Hay Makes a Great Mulch

Blankets of permanent mulch keep the garden pretty and productive.

Launch Gallery

by Sandra HollowayAugust 1997from issue # 10

After my father passed away some twelvemonth ago , I decide to continue growing the vegetables , as he had done , on my female parent ’s acreage 20 mile outside the urban center where I live on Vancouver Island , British Columbia . So , the first spring , I got his rotary tiller started and wield somehow to wrestle it into the garden . Now , I am a very modest person : about 100 pound . and under 5 foot . magniloquent . In no time I realize that , since the rotary cultivator was bigger and heavier than I , there was no way I could well control it .

What I need was an alternative to regular tilling to keep the soil salubrious and put the damper on grass . Since my job kept me in the city all week , whatever method I choose needed to work with only weekend attending . A permanent mulch of hay was my solvent . It does everything wait of mulch , smells wonderful after one of our frequent rains , and was promptly available . It ’s also gentle to pull apart and mold to make dustup , squares , holes or other opening for planting , and it ’s clean and comfortable to sit or kneel on .

By the closing of that first season 15 years ago , I had the mulch in place , and the termination over the eld have been striking . I would practice hay solely , except it ’s get harder to come by and more expensive now that local farmers are turning their fields into caparison development .

Be patient with permanent mulch . The advantages of permanent mulch were n’t immediately patent . Had Ruth Stout not warned in her lasting mulch account book that starting the organization can be hard , I might have pass on up because of the tenacity of weeds . It takes time for the hay to establish its cycle of suppressing Mary Jane and tempt those good garden helpers , garter snakes and spider . snake adeptly see to it slugs and like to pass the winter in any hay bales I have stockpile .

I apply between 80 and 100 bales in the spring and about the same routine in the fall . The ground is always insure , but the depth varies from about 12 in . to about 4 in . as the hay decomposes , which it does rapidly . The hay I toss away on in the autumn keeps the garden await serious and staunch erosion from our gruelling winter rains .

Each bale cost $ 3 to $ 6 Canadian , about $ 2 to $ 4 in U.S. currency . Although I think that ’s costly , the rescue down the road in clock time and drive makes this expense and worry worthwhile . And before I buy , I examine the bales closely for seed pods or any other undesirable debris .

Hay now swaddles two of my vegetable plots . Each used to be about 50 ft . square ; however , my female parent ’s perennial flowers seem to have slowly encroached on the vegetable borders . But that ’s another tarradiddle . Permanent mulch ask little , gives much . This kind of mulching means there ’s no need for tilling . Weeds are held down , and expired works become part of the mulch , so there ’s nothing to call on under . This makes for easy horticulture , and does n’t raise up the top few inches of soil where all the good germ reside . In addition , mulch keeps the ground cool and gob wet , which allows you to abridge down on watering in the summertime . And it improves the grain of the land and adds nutrients .

regrettably , as mulch putrefaction , it robs the filth of nitrogen . So you must add some . Although any legume works bestow nitrogen to the soil as it grows , in my experience , this alone is n’t the solution .

I use a unbent nitrogen fertilizer ( 46 - 0 - 0 ) , since it ’s the easiest mode to provide the require boost . I spread about 1⁄2 oz . per square yard on top of the mulch . I use a granular type of atomic number 7 , which must be soaked into the land two or three months before planting . If leave on the surface , it can combust plant life verdure . Hay makes a fine nest for plants . When I ’m ready to institute , I press the mulch aside to get through the soil . I make minute rows or square about 4 ft . wide , bet on what I intend to found . I fill the place with compost to hold the hay back , the weeds down , and the moisture in . I usually traverse the sphere with a piece of chicken wire , which retain the neighborhood cat from digging into the soft ground .

I let plant like peas , cucumber , and tomatoes straggle . I see no need to stake them , since the fluffy hay allows upright drainage and melody circulation , and I can sit down to pick the garden truck .

Potatoes grow great in this mulch . In other outpouring , I sow whole or half potatoes on top of the hay remaining from the previous year and cover them with 2 in . to 3 in . of hay . As they grow , and green leaf poke through , I toss on even more hay until there is a covering of a foot or more . harvest home is loose , and the potatoes are clean .

The hay - flank vegetable plant produce fabulously . fruit that do n’t turn out well I leave to molder . If a spot looks mussy , I simply cover it with hay . At the end of the time of year , I leave everything to decay , and by the following leaping most things have disappear . If anything stick out integral , such as corn stalks , I just push them under the hay in an sphere that is to become a path .

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Photo/Illustration: John Bray

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