What the hay?

– Posted in: Miscellaneous, Recommended Links
2 comments

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 the Author

Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy.

When dealing with frost it is always best to be paranoid. In the spring never think it is too late for one more frost to come. And in the fall never think it too early.

~Rundy in Frost

Comments on this entry are closed.

Kathy Purdy October 1, 2006, 3:41 pm

We didn’t get frost, either. This is the second false alarm we’ve had, and both times, fog was our salvation. It got down to 35F, though, a close call.

Carol September 30, 2006, 4:29 am

Kathy,

Hay, Alan R. makes my little tiny Hoe obsession look like nothing! His site is very interesting as well. Hay Life List? Hmmmm,,, I wonder what people would say if I had a Hoe Life List? I might give that a try.

Hope your frost wasn’t too bad. No frost here, and no forecasted frost for awhile.

As always, enjoying your blog, even if I don’t comment on every post…