I would use straw rather than hay, less likely to have as many seeds and should be cheaper.

Ah good point, I wasn't thinking locality. Hay is like 2-3 times the cost of straw where I am, that's what I get for thinking! ;)

Here in PNW we have pine bark mulch at reasonable price ( $4 for 2 cu-ft). Now this is BARK not sap wood chips, I am talking about.

I liked Pine Straw (needles) when I was down in GA. I used wheat straw few times and I got lots of volunteer wheat growing. I have never used hay.

Sey

I used some mystery straw/hay that I picked up from a farm stand last year for mulch. Probably not the recommended method, but it worked well for my small-ish garden. I had some wheat/oat/mystery grain sprout, but it was easy to pull out. Much easier to manage than the more aggressive weeds I would have had otherwise.

Don't just look for hay but try to know your local farmers and keep watch on those that have less weed problems. Even those better farmers can have a valuable "Cutting" lost due to rain just when the crop is ready to harvest. That is an opportunity to purchase the highest quality mulch hay. A higher quality alfalfa hay can be 26% protein whoicjh is a whopping 4.2% Nitrogen. It just might be the cheapest fertilizer you ever purchased.

Those are good ideas Barrie, but right now it does not seem to be a buyer's market locally. One large hay operation nearby was sold out until May. I emailed several hay sellers to see if there was spoiled or old hay to be bought, they didn't even answer.

I think one large round bale will be enough, I was lucky enough to find a local person willing to deliver 1 bale, it will be here tomorrow morning. I'm not too picky at this point since I have not found anyone else nearby willing to deliver.

I'm planning on using that as mulch for my mini garden this year (straw), they sell a small bale at lowes for about 8$, i live in california

Best hay for mulch imo is alfalfa. Very few generally seeds and composts easily to improve your soil. Great stuff.

Just to clarify, since we are getting some straw comments, but straw and hay are very different things and not comparable. When applied properly, both can work well as a garden mulch for weed control and soil moisture retention but since hay is high nitrogen and straw is almost pure carbon the benefits for the soil and plants is quite different.

Lucille - for best results buy your hay bales a year in advance so they can over-winter, So as they become available this year be sure to get one for use next.

Dave

Dave, later in the season I'll see if I can get some square bales. I don't have room for storing a round bale like I'm getting tomorrow.

I underestimated the size of this bale, I must have around 500 lbs of hay. It was delivered to my driveway, and I've been moving it by bits and pieces into the garden area for the last 2 hours. I have hay in the vegetable beds, hay in the paths, it smells wonderful and I'm sure it will be a great mulch.

Yeah my baler makes 300-350 lb. round bales but bigger balers are available. So you will likely have enough left over for next year too , huh? ;-)

Dave

No, I'm going to spread the rest of it tomorrow. I talked to the guy and was telling hime the hay way for mulch so he picked out an older bale, parts of the hay are decomposing so I don't think storing the leftovers for another year is feasible. I think I'll just have a nice thick mulch layer. He was very nice so rather than trying to store hay on my tiny lot I will just ask him for another older bale again next time I mulch.

Dave, you are probably right, they were probably standard bales. Seemed like 500 lbs. But this morning with assorted aches and pains from hauling most of it into the garden, it seemed like 1,000. And after pushing myself this morning to spend an hour getting the last of it off the driveway, it seemed like at least a ton:)

But just think all the weeding you won't have to do. :-) And how much soil improvement you'll have next year. And how your crops will love you for the good stable soil moisture levels.

Post us a pic of the wonderfully mulched garden.

Dave

Maybe once it is filled with tomatoes:)