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Gardening With Straw Saves Time, Money, and Sanity!
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I use straw off and on. It makes my gardens and flowerbeds look amazing.....at first. Then it grows and the whole area is covered with green sprouts. So I have to either just let it grow or spend time pulling the sprouts. And yes it IS straw not hay.
Same here. Ruined my garden. I’ll be spending more time removing cereal weeds than any other activity in my garden. I made sure to ask for straw, not hay. There is no way the hay would contain anymore weed seeds than what I got here. I basically just sodded my nearly weed free garden.
Maybe you need a new source for straw. I use straw and usually only a small amount sprouts. And the sprouts are easy to pull. Much better than weeding.
This looks like the perfect solution to my wanting more raised beds in my garden. I have 6, but it's never enough! I use my raised beds to grow "sensible" plants, such as paste tomatoes for canning, and peas for freezing. This will allow me to grow more, such as peppers, heirloom tomatoes, and other plants that I'd only harvest in the late summer. So I'll give this a try, and I can tell you my husband already thanks you for distracting me from begging for more beds that he'd have to build!
I used straw this year that I purchased from a local supply store and unfortunately it contained a good deal of seed heads. I now have wheat sprouting all over my garden. The only solution I can think of is to rake off all the straw, avoiding the vegetable plants, pull all the wheat sprouts and mulch with something else. Ugh.
I'd harvest the young wheat shoots and juice them. The wheat sprouts are easy to juice and benefit from same with barley straw
I have used straw for years in my garden, however I put down a thin layer of newspaper first and straw on top. I don’t use as much straw that way, and weeds and water are controlled. We did have a slug problem this past year so instead of tilling under what was left of the straw and newspaper from last year, we raked it into a pile and burned it. Then tilled the ashes into the garden. I’ll let you know if we have less slugs this year. The straw makes for a neat and clean garden and makes walking in it easier then walking in mud.
I was really happy to see this article!
Crushed eggshells are great for keeping slugs at bay.
This is my 5th year straw bale gardening. I love it.
I have used straw as a mulch for a few years to keep down the weeds, maintain soil moisture and temperature, but also for the beneficial insects that like to hide in the straw. The one down side that I have experienced is it also provides a welcome home for slugs and snails. I didn't see this mentioned in the article or in any comments. Is this not a problem for others? Could I be doing something wrong? Appreciate any thoughts/input as I want to continue using straw. Thank you in advance!