

Straw is lightweight, so it doesn’t compact your garden beds – unfortunately, straw is so lightweight that it may blow away during heavy winds. Mulch your vegetables with pea hay and give them a boost of essential nutrients! Peas are legumes, meaning that these plants absorb and store atmospheric nitrogen in their roots and release it into the soil when the plants decompose. Because of its many intertangled strands, pea hay is more likely than straw to remain in place and has significantly more nutrition. Pea hay is made from garden pea plants that have been harvested and dried to resemble straw. Hay may contain those seeds, so avoid it for your garden! Use straw for mulch (since it has no seeds from weeds). Mulching your garden with hay will only reseed the whole bed in weed seeds, so be careful! Though the two materials are similar – both are dried grass – hay is much more likely than straw to contain seeds. If you choose to mulch your vegetable garden with straw, make sure that you purchase or collect straw and not hay. Straw also retains moisture, keeping your garden beds from drying out too quickly. Pieces of straw create air pockets that insulate plants from cold weather. Straw is another great option for mulching vegetable gardens, especially leading up to winter, because straw traps heat immaculately well. Spread the compost at least two inches deep for it to be an effective mulch. Organic compost is relatively quick to break down–it needs to be applied to garden beds once a year, at minimum.
Grass clippings as mulch how to#
However, it also makes a good mulch.Ĭheck out this article for some tips on what to compost, where to store your compost, how to turn a compost pile, and so much more! Compost adds nutrients and improves drainage for clay soil.
