Gardening With Straw Saves Time, Money, and Sanity!
Using straw as mulch in the garden saves money, crops, and sanity. (Note: Straw is not hay.) See the many benefits of mulching with straw bales in the vegetable garden.
No, I鈥檓 not Rumpelstiltskin, the cranky gnome in a Grimm fairy tale; I can鈥檛 spin straw into gold. But straw bales are inexpensive gold for gardens. I only pay $4 a bale, and the straw saves me hours of weeding, watering, and worrying. I get it from a farmer nearby. Numerous garden centers stock straw, too. Bales are huge; one will usually cover the garden. Just be sure that you are buying straw, not hay.
Everything in the vegetable garden is mulched with a 6-inch layer, including blueberries, Alpine strawberries, and cranberries. I use a foot or two of straw atop the potato bed to grow clean potatoes that can be easily harvested. Tubers form in the straw, and crops are always bigger when I use the straw mulch.
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Straw is Not Hay
First, let me explain that straw is not hay. You don鈥檛 want to use hay, as it will cause nightmares and plenty of weed pulling. Hay is a grass that is primarily grown and cut for livestock. It is difficult to cut hay without at least some of the grass going to seed.
Straws are the dry hollow hay stalks remaining after cereal crops such as wheat or barley have been harvested. They contain few or no seed heads, especially when compared to hay鈥 (University of Maryland Extension Service). Straw stalks don鈥檛 compact or mat. They鈥檙e also slow to decompose and don鈥檛 tie up nitrogen or other nutrients in the soil, making the perfect mulch.
Straw Lets You Water Less Often
A thick blanket of straw keeps the moisture in the soil, radically slowing evaporation. Watering the garden once a week will be the norm rather than every day or two. They dry out a lot slower in hot, sunny weather.
If you live in an area of the country experiencing a rainfall shortage this summer or drought, straw mulch is gold! I do. We鈥檝e received only a tenth of normal rainfall and had a huge snow shortage last winter. The ground is so dry that it鈥檚 cracking in spots. But despite high temperatures and a lack of rain, I water the vegetable garden only once a week.
Straw Mulch Reduces Weeds
Straw blocks out the sun, preventing most weeds from germinating and growing. First, remove the weeds from your garden bed. Then, lay down the straw immediately.
If you鈥檝e already seeded your vegetables, don鈥檛 lay straw on top of the seeds or seedlings. But everywhere else, there is exposed ground; lay down a nice thick layer of straw
It will not only keep weeds from growing but also keep the soil moist, soft, and workable.
Straw Mulch Reduces Pests and Diseases
Straw also saves crops like tomatoes, peppers, and squash from developing blossom-end rot and cat-facing, blueberries from shriveling, and sweet peppers from turning hot.
Soil moisture stays even, and calcium can be transferred from the soil to tomatoes easily, preventing diseases.
Straw mulch at the base of tomato and pepper plants also prevents the transfer of soil-borne diseases such as early blight to plant leaves. No water splashes up from the soil to the leaves because the straw absorbs it.
A thick straw mulch also fosters the growth of large pumpkins, winter squash, and watermelons. The mulch provides a clean blanket upon which melons and pumpkins can grow unblemished.
Straw Mulch Increases Nutrients in the Soil
Straw decomposes like any other organic material, but it鈥檚 much slower. As straw rots, it releases nutrients, feeding the plants growing in it. Straw actually makes your garden better. Genius, right?
Have you used straw for mulch? What other materials do you use to hold moisture in and prevent diseases?
Doreen G. Howard
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Neither will kill nut grass. Best way to kill it and all the rhizomes that make it spread is to douse plants with 20 percent agricultural-grade white vinegar in early spring before planting.
Check organic gardening sites for nutgrass management strategies. I used compost tea sweetened with unsulfured molasses and had a good result. Apparently, the sugars from the molasses feed the microorganisms in the compost tea, and then those lil' critters start feeding on the sugars in the nutgrass rhizomes. The only other organic way I know is to dig them out, and that is quite a chore!
What about for a wet year? Does the straw hold in too much moisture? Want to keep the squash and etc off the wet ground but need the soil to dry some too.
Straw does hold moisture in the ground longer, but if your rain-soaked beds are 18-inches-high or taller, that's not a problem. Moisture trickles down to lower levels, plus the straw slow evaporation. It's a great squash and melon mulch because of these traits.
Just to be correct, hay is from different plants, usually clover, timothy, or mixed grasses and they do contain seed heads. Straw is the leftover stems from plants such as wheat after the seed heads have been harvested, so the weed seed load is usually much less.
If you leave the straw outside in the elements to "season" it will kill all of the seeds, then you can use it in your garden without any problems! The straw keeps moisture in the dirt but you need good dirt or else you'll end up with clay soup underneath. Straw can attract mice, pill bugs and slugs so heads up. In the end, it works great and there is nothing better for your garden. Bury your soaker hoses under it and you're all set. Grass clippings cook the dirt and add a nitrogen blast and leaves break down and mess with the PH as well.
I've used wheat straw in my garden for a long time but for the past two years (including this year) there are weeds that are actually growing FROM the wheat straw. I put black mesh down before the wheat straw so I know it's not coming from the ground. Any ideas as to why it's growing from the wheat straw? Any ideas on how I can get rid of these weeds?
Pulling the weeds is the best way to get rid of them. I've been sold bales of straw, too, that were weedy. Some farmers are very sloppy about the way the harvest and include seed heads. It comes down to: know your source! And avoid proven weedy straw.
How would I use straw as mulch for tomatoes, beans and peppers? I also don't have a clue where to find straw for organic gardening, I live in downtown Toronto.
Try pet supply stores for straw if you can't find it at a garden centre.
