I've used hay to mulch my garden for 5 years now. The first 3 years we used hay from a friend who was fastidious about weed control on his farm (non-chem methods) so the hay from him never caused a weed problem in my garden. The next year, we got hay from a neighbor (first cutting hay) and what a mess. I'll be pulling up weeds for a while!

BUT....I love the way the soil is after using hay and don't want to discontinue using it as a mulch. So I'm wondering if maybe 2nd or 3rd cutting hay would be less weedy? Anyone have any growing experience with hay....or used different cuttings and found one to be better than the other?

Thanks for any help you can offer - despite the weed problem I had last year I am still sold on hay as a mulch in my vegetable and cutting gardens!

I use hay also, really never have a problem with weeds. I would imagine it depends on when the hay is cut, whether the weeds in it have gone to seed before cutting or not. I would think later cuttings would have more weed seeds. The hay I use is also more than one year old, so any weeds that could regenerate just from cuttings are long dried up.

I don't use hay or straw as a mulch, but I do use it as an amendment UNDER the mulch. Mostly I use woodchips as a mulch, with a bit of manure under them. Works great and breaks down nice and slow, so it keeps the soil fluffy and light.

Hi Buffalogal!

I'm not experienced with growing hay myself, but the stables where I work do grow their own to feed the horses. Based on the difference I see there, in the bales of hay from different cuttings, I'm pretty sure it would be the first cutting that would give you the most trouble with weed seeds. Gosh, I SHOULD know this ... for my horse's sake too, since he eats the stuff every day, LOL ... but I'll find out for sure when I go to work at the barn today! Thanks for bringing this up, I'm inspired to get educated about it now!

BTW ... Isn't it a bit costly using hay to mulch your garden with? Around here, a bale of hay costs at least twice that of a bale of straw! Or is hay that much more beneficial to the garden to make it worth it?
Just curious?

I'll be back ... Patty J

I think it depends on where you live, but generally I think straw is more expensive. Straw grows in marshes but hay can grow anywhere since it is just really tall grass. I'm building a new raised bed right now. I put down a couple layers of brown craft. Then I put a 2-3 inch layer of used hay from the chicken coop which is mixed with a lot of high nitrogen chicken poop. Then I topped with an couple of wheel barrows of semi-finished compost (its been sitting a year, I still haven't mastered the hot pile). I plan to top it off with a mix of finished compost, vermiculite and peat moss ala square foot gardening's Mel Bartholomew. I did mulch my strawberry patch with hay this past fall, but I haven't pulled it back yet to see the results.

I think the best mulch-hay is the cheapest hay you can buy.

If weed seeds are a problem would-could solarizing the bales stacked up help? No, don't ask me I don't know if it would or not. The thought just occured to me while reading your post.

Here is SD, the price is the same for straw or hay-the small squares anyway are $3.00 a bale. The straw that I know of (and I have baled it myself along with hay) is not marsh grass or straw-I've never heard of straw that way before, but the straw that I bale is just the stems of wheat or oats after the seed has been combined, or in a very poor year when it is not worth combining, the whole plant. As for feed value, hay is better than straw. Straw is just a filler to extend your hay supply and most ranchers just use it for bedding during calving season. Or they grind it with hay to extend their hay, but there is relatively no feed value in it...kinda like bran flakes-filler/fiber. Hay works better as a mulch because it is more dense and here is SD the wind is always blowing and straw blows away if not covered with something else. Works real good for livestock bedding though. If the hay is put on thick enough, any weed seeds should not be able to germinate and be smothered by the hay. If you are planting seeds, just pull back the mulch and plant, and in 7-14 days when they start coming up, pull the mulch back aroound the seedlings, but not over them. When they are bigger and stronger, mulch heavily along side them. Jane

Hi, I'm back ... and OOPS, guess I was wrong.

I thought that since the first cutting hay always seems more coarse, with lots of stems, that it was an indication that weeds were also being cut along with the grasses? But when I asked the owner of the barn of her experience, she felt the second or third cuttings were where the weeds became a problem. (especially thistle weeds, which we have a lot of here!) Makes sense too that there would be a lot more mature weed seeds later in the season. So, I stand corrected. :\

We rent out our hayloft to a local farmer, who stores hay & straw up there. He's kind enough to leave me any broken bales of straw for my garden too! (usually a couple of truck beds full!) The first year I used the straw as mulch, my garden almost turned into a wheat field, LOL. It sprouted everywhere, but was easily pulled out. Now I let the straw 'spoil' (or weather outside) for a season before I put it on my garden ... and that works great for me.

Anyway, wish I could have been more helpful.

First cutting is terrible. Second is better, and third is the best. First cutting is cheaper. I use hay to mulch. I get whatever I can I give it to my chickens first. They have a ball going threw the stuff. The get the weed seeds and I get extra Manure in it. I hope this helped.

Patty, you were more help than you know! Your comments about your hay rotting before you put it on your garden made the lightbulb above my head turn on! The first 3 years we used hay on the garden it was spoiled to the point of being a health hazard. It was blue and green with mold! But I put it on the garden anyway and lived to tell about it. The next time we used hay, it came directly out of the field - right from the baler to the garden. Maybe THAT'S why I had such a weed problem. The weed seeds probably never had a chance to fall out or shake loose or anything....gave them a free ride right into my garden. What I'm having trouble with from that episode is quack grass (or some kind of grass anyway). It's deep rooted and since I didn't have a problem with it before, I'm assuming it must have rode in on that load of hay.

Jane, your prices for hay and straw in SD are the same as ours in Michigan. I use hay instead of straw for the same reason you stated - straw here just blows away! Hay is heavy and the worms seem to love it. I guess in the future when I use hay I'll try to get first cutting hay. Now that I think about it, I think the weedy stuff was baled late July which would have been 2nd or 3rd cutting in this neck of the woods. Another 30 years or so and I'll have this all figured out!

Thanks to all for your ideas and tips!

Some French farmers have been known to set a few hay bales in the middle of their greenhouse, covered them with goat & sheep poop and urine and let them stand for 3-4 weeks. Then they add on a hefty pile of compost and set their seedlings into the mess. But that's off-topic.

Straw is the left-over stalk of a cereal grain after the seed heads have been removed. Less of a problem with weeds to be sure. I like straw far better than hay for this reason plus the fact that it is much more open and rigid. IMHO it provides good aeration in the soil when tilled in.

To keep it down I've criss-crossed the seed bed with baling twine like you'd lace a shoe. I've used stakes and plan on drilling holes in my raised bed 2x10s so I can secure the twine on either side. Another trick is to simply lay some broken branches or other semi-heavy sticks ontop of the straw. All of this simply to keep it from blowing away.

I've used hay but don't like it as much. I've never experimented with the different cuts. Up here we usually get 2 cuts. 3rd cut is a blessing if you get one but we don't count on it.

I've also gone over to a neighbor's field and mowed it with my scythe and was rewarded with the freshest, lightest cut grass which I promptly put on my garlic beds. Lovely.

I get all of my straw free every year - sometime in November when everyone is throwing out bales of the straw they had in their yards for Halloween decoration! I get as much as I need, and could get ten times as much! I can't believe people waste it like that!

From strictly a nutrient standpoint the first cutting is best. Whether there are more weeds or not depends on the management of the hay field.

Kimm Sr, thanks for the info. This weed problem has been a mystery to me, not knowing if our good luck the first few years really WAS due to the fact that our friend used better weed control practices or if it was the cutting of hay that had more bearing on it. I appreciate your comments.

The feed value of 2nd or 3rd cutting hay is better because the first cutting grows too fast and the nutrients aren't allowed to build up in the plant. Protein and relative feed values are always better in the 2nd or 3rd cutting here. The first cutting is too "watered down". Cattle get milk fever or grass tetnus in the spring because of the lack of nutrients in the first grass that grows in the spring-magnesium to be exact. You need to supplement your cattle with mineral blocks or tubs to prevent this. It only happens in the spring when the grass feed value is poorer and the cow is milking her calf