Carol
From what I know Straw doesn't have any seeds. Hay does.
Alberta

I refuse to use either after a fiasco three years ago. I used straw to mulch a garden and to cover a compost pile. The next year I started pulling out millions - yes MILLIONS - of weeds in the gardens. I was assured this was straw and not hay, and it seemed as such when I had a look at it. I'm still fighting the stuff.

Now I pick-up old bales after Halloween, but I leave them to rot for at least a year before I apply them to anything related to the gardens.

I did the lasagna garden last year with very good success. I laid down 2 layers of cardboard. Then I put down about 12" of leaves. The leaves were bagged up from the fall. I then placed a couple inch layer of wood chips on top of that. I watered it and let it sit till my jugs were ready. When I planted a jug i dug a hole making sure to dig through the cardboard. I oversized the hole and filled it with fresh compost. Planted and recovered with mulch. It was very slick and worked perfect.

I haven't dug into the bed this year but I'm assuming that under the thin layer of woodchips is some pretty dirt. I haven't seen any leaves since last summer either.

good luck, josh

I have a question about instant and lasagna gardening. Can i use sawdust in the layers? I see that you can use wood chips. As long as it is not pressure treated, is it alright?
Thanks
Kathy

A friend of ours is a Master Carpenter,i asked him this very question last week as i was thinkng he might be able to get me some saw dust.

This is what hw told me:

It would depend on the kind of saw dust you used,he said black walnut would be good to put inbetween cracks to keep weeds out,as nothing likes to grow in black walnut.
If you can get ahold of saw dust,make sure it is in it's purest form,no partical board or other bad wood.The more we talked,the more i thought it was a bad idea--for me.

Let's hope someone else has an idea on this.

Carol

Aleopathic effects of black walnut come from juglone. It is , I think, highest in roots but also present in bark.

I doubt that most carpenters use that much black walnut wood. When picking up the chips or sawdust, you could ask. I'm sure he'd know what kind of wood he'd been using lately.

Karen

I used hay to mulch the pretty large vegetable garden at my previous house one year, and had a nightmare of grass sprouts. After that I made sure to use straw, and would maybe get occasional sprouts.

I've also used sawdust in the compost pile before, just make sure there is no paint, finish, pressboard, etc. mixed in. It decomposed slowly though and tended to clump when it was wet, so mix in with some "greens" or keep the layer relatively shallow.

I am planning to do a significant amount of lasagna/sheet mulching. I am going to use some straw as a top mulch, but also plan to try leaf mould as a top dressing.

Most folks I have spoken with here in Maine who have had great success, suggest something like the following layering

1/2-1" manure
1/2-1" coffee grounds or table compost
2-4" seasoned compost
newspaper, appx 10 sheets thick over top the compost
2-3" layer straw or leaf mold to hid the newspaper

This is generally what I plan to do for my llayers, with minor mods depending on available materials...a layer of leaf mold can replace coffee grounds, I guess.

I'm not sure it's the proper brown/green/brown layering recommended for lasagna gardening.

Hay=Green, Cattle food, Made from cut alfalfa or a lower quality plant such as brome grass. Harvested often before the plant has a chance to create mature seeds. Weed content would depend largely on the weediness of the field it came from and how far along the weeds are at the time of cutting. If you have quality hay there shouldn't be a weed problem because the seeds haven't developed, at least in the case of alfalfa. Ask if it is alfalfa (much better, but costs more).

Straw=Golden, Bedding product from the byproduct of the wheat, oats, etc. harvest. Mainly the stalks of these harvested crops. May have a higher chance of weeds due to the fact that it is harvested after the wheat has ripened along with all the ripened weeds, as well. The combine doesn't remove all seeds, usually.

At least this is what I learned growing up on a farm.

Lyle

I wanted to buy some cotton seed hulls for a lasagna garden since it would not contain vegetables. I called around and no one had any. I used to buy them at Atwood's. when I called the guy to day and asked if they had any yet, he said they would prob. not be getting any since the oil companies were buying them up all around the US. I don't have a source for straw. I don't really know what I will do. I had 5 bags of cotton seed hulls which I put down, but I needed at least that many more.
All the peanut farmers around here have quit growing peanuts, so peanut shells are not an option either.

I own a wood shop and compost most of my saw dust. In the spring i do a lot of cedar work and I been using the sawdust from my planer for the base layer on this years mulch. Before you use anything I would check to make sure it isn't toxic.

Josh

According to the experts on the soil forum, hay is high in weed seeds, straw is not.

Many folks on the soil forum get free "brown" compost materials in the form of wood chips from tree trimming services. I've never done this because I have no place to store an extra mountain of wood.

For information on lasagna beds and how to build them, search the SCM forum. There are many, many threads and lots of good information there.

Karen

To outsmart the weeds you need to either find someone with old hay or plan ahead. If all you can find is fresh, buy it this summer as soon as it's baled. Haul it home and place it in a single layer where you plan to build a new bed. Let it set, uncovered, until spring.

Ignore anything that decides to grow out of the bales. It'll either die off or something will eat it. In the spring, pull the bales aside and turn the soil - you'll probably be able to sink your fork in by a good foot. Do whatever else you plan and then flake the hay and use for mulch or, if the binding's still intact and the bales are still fairly solid, repeat the process.

In any case, this'll kill off every single weed seed in the hay, and it's an insanely-easy way to loosen up a large patch of ground.

Turning over soil isn't really necessary, and can bring up incredible amounts of weed seeds. Been there, done that.

See the link to Monte's entry in the soil forum FAQs

Here is a link that might be useful: lasagna

I've never had a problem with excessive weeds doing this, and "fluffing up" the soil (usually while turning in compost) makes for beautifully-formed root vegetables and deep-rooted tomatoes, peppers, etc.