I am preparing my garden at my new house. Going Lasagna style. I will put down newspaer/ cardboard. A mix of mushroom/ manure compost and some topsoil. I also wanted to use some straw or hay but do they use pesticides on it or can I find it organic?? Want to stay strictly OG. thanks everyone.

Here in my area, most hay is from pasture grass that may get fertilized in spring (sometimes by spreading manure, sometimes by chemicals) but usually not pesticides and definitely no herbicides. Straw from cereal grain may have had some pesticides added early on, but even those should have been of short term type and early in the season. While there might be a residue of pesticides, I would think you shouldn't have to worry about it since using organic practices will give you a much lower incidence of toxins than typical supermarket produce.
If you live in a warmer zone (6 or higher) you might want to look into late cover crops as well. Clover, vetch, winter peas, even winter greens can add a lot of OM and nutrients to your soil.

Hey Wiley,

Your in E.Tenn. I'm in WNC so probably very similar I assume... So not much to worry about?? Just out of curiosity does anyone know if this would exceptable under certification standards?? Just curious. Also I assume some people just grow OG Hay and straw? Think I may be to late for the cover crop??

If you're in the mountains, you're probably in zone 6 while I'm at the foot and in zone 7--if in the piedmont you could be zone 7--the conditions for zone 6 and 7 are very similar with your coldest a bit colder and our growing season only a couple of weeks longer. You can find your USDA Zone by putting your zip code at http://www.gardenweb.com/zones/zip.cgi .
I think clover and vetch would be ok even this late--I've planted greens later than this and had pretty good results. I have some I planted earlier that are almost ready to start picking and I expect to eat from them most of the winter--and again in spring. I planted some more greens today (almost 70--and higher predicted for the rest of the week) and I'll let you know how they grow. If you have or can find some collards, mustard or turnip seeds they're cheap enough and small enough to give it a try and only invest a couple of bucks--if you have a plot ready to plant.
As I understand it, non-organically certified products can not be used under certification standards for sale as certified Organic, so I suspect you'd need to find OGC hay or straw if you were going that way. You can sometimes find organically raised hay or straw, and like other certified products they will probably be a bit more expensive, tho prices seem to be easing as more people produce naturally grown products.

Thanks again Wiley,

Not really interested in the certification, was just curious. Thats what I figured. Think I'll get some cover crop seed tomorrow.