A kind friend who heard I wanted straw in the garden for my compost and also for mulching and has delivered me 2 bales of hay.

I had heard that hay is not as good as straw but why?

Helen are you talking about pea straw?

seeds in the hay weeds clover??????
Jean

Jean

I agree with Jean - seeds may eventually germinate. Hay can be good quality or it can contain a heap of rubbish i.e. thistles, couch, kikuyu etc.(not meaning that you have not been given good quality hay). Maintaining certain temperatures within the composting heap may make a difference as to whether seeds geriminate.

From the i/net (2nd sentence relevant):
"If you are concerned about adding weeds to your compost, ‘cook’ them first in a black bag left in the sunfor 2-3 weeks. You can then safely add the materials to your compost. It’s probably wise to avoidcooking or composting really nasty weeds like oxalis, wandering jew, convolvulus and couch and kikuyu".
Just my thoughts!
Regards,
Dawn.

I wanted regular straw as it is great for composts and mulching and much less expensive than pea straw. My compost tends to be too green so I wanted some brown matter to even the balance and to stop it getting too smelly.

Yes I guess it is the seeds in the hay which are a potential problem.
I will have to check out "cooking" it as otherwise I have 2 bales of hay that I don't need.

Isn't it a shame pine needles are no good as brown matter for composting as there's plenty available free in the Woodhill or Riverhead forests. I guess you are already using non-treated sawdust Helen as that's another good option for composting.

Pine needles are good for mulching purposes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2008 09:59PM by Dawn.

You would probably have no problem selling the hay bales...perhaps to a pet shop that sells it in bag-lots for rabbit.guineapigs. Perhaps a kindy or school who have such animals might be glad of it. Hay is like gold at the moment!
jen

Pine needles are recommended as a compost combined with wood chips and potting mix for growing Strawberries. It imitates the original growing conditions of the Strawberry.
Cheers

Beverley

Justin from Landscape Safari emailed to say that he uses hay in his compost. As long as it is mixed with grass clippings and thus gets really hot to kill the seeds then it is fine.
I am just loathe to spread unwanted seeds through my garden...

Wally Richards just phoned and he said that if i put the hay on some ground cover, wet it through and leave it in a sunny spot then all the seeds will germinate. I can pull them out or cut them off and then have seed free hay to use in the garden!
How sensible that is.

Wally to the rescue, as usual !!!

Hello Helen,
I think Wally's theory is great; putting it into practice could be interesting. If the hay is good quality - you will have grass seed coming up (like hair on a dog's back). If you cut the grass growth off, it will encourage more growth. If it's weeds that grow you will probably keep them pulled - but kikuyu seed could be a problem if the bale contains that.

The better half here suggests the bales be well watered, covered with something (like black polythene - shouldn't have written that I know) and left to rot. Won't provide mulch as such, but in time a wonderful grass free compost.

Will be an interesting topic which will no doubt come up on Radio Live!
Regards,
Dawn.

Dawn I had thought about the number of seeds that would grow and had thought that it would be a huge number. I thought I wouldn't want to be the one pulling them out!

It will definitely be an interesting experiment.
I have watered it and it is sitting on concrete away from any garden that seeds could waft into - I will report back!

At the risk of sounding ignorant what is straw made from?
I know how hay is made but what is straw?

The stems of wheat?

Yes - wheat straw - pea straw - the seed has been threshed out, just leaving the fibrous stalks which when dried become straw. No nutritional value for animals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/29/2008 06:32AM by Dawn.