What the hay?

Often gardeners are encouraged to mulch with straw, especially for food crops like, um, strawberries. Too often, the gardener, severed from his or her agricultural roots, mulches with hay instead. In Missed stacks and mistakes: distinguishing between hay and straw and other heaps, Alan Ritch explains the difference:

Hay, of course, is fodder for the animals; and straw is the inedible waste-product remaining after the grains have been beaten from it.

These days, hay comes from tractor-mown fields which may have originally been sown to timothy or alfalfa, but may have degenerated to something closer to a mown meadow; there are usually oodles of weed seeds in hay. Straw is the stems remaining after grain has been harvested. While no grain field is completely weed-free, it is in the grower’s interest to keep the weeds out as much as possible, and what weed seeds there are presumably would be included with the grain and not the stems. Hence, straw is what you want for your garden.

Hay in Art documents Ritch’s obsession with the agricultural commodity, and is worth a visit even if your interest is purely theoretical. History, art, literature, religion–it’s all here, and it’s all about hay.

About Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children