Should You Use Hay as Mulch in Your Garden?

There is a lot of controversy over that question! I have been using hay in parts of my garden for about six years now, and love the results! It saves so much work weeding, adds nutrients to the soil, holds in moisture so you don’t have to water as often, and provides a wonderful home for earthworms. And where I live, I can always get old hay for free. I’ve also figured out why it sometimes does not work so well! Keep reading for some do’s and don’ts about using hay in your garden!

A Few Important Don’ts

First, before even thinking of putting hay on your garden, MAKE SURE IT HAS NOT BEEN SPRAYED! Herbicides will not only kill your plants, but can remain in your soil for years, ruining that garden spot. Ask if the hay you are getting has been sprayed. If you aren’t able to find out, do a test. Beans are a great plant to use as they will immediately become deformed when exposed to herbicides. Plant a few bean seeds and put a thick layer of the hay around them. Wait till the beans start to grow and they will confirm for you that the hay is safe to use.
Second, NEVER TILL THE HAY INTO THE SOIL. Hay does contain grass seeds. A thick layer of hay on top of the soil keeps grass and weeds from growing, but if you till the hay into the soil, you are essentially planting those grass seeds. A thick layer of hay will keep the soil soft so you should not have to till again.

Some Do’s

Do use a lot of hay. Hay that is old and rotten will be heavy and 2-3″ is usually enough to keep down weeds. With loose, fluffy hay you may need to use as much as 12″.
Do add a fertilizer or compost that is high in nitrogen right around your plants each year. Hay is full of nutrients, leading to happier plants that are more nutritious to eat, too, but it is short on nitrogen.
Do add a little more hay on top of the old each year, and any time you start to see weeds growing.

Why not use straw?

Straw makes a great mulch too, but I personally prefer hay for several reasons. Where I live, old hay is easy to come by and usually free, where I would have to pay $3-$5 a bale for straw. Hay is easier to work with and adds more nutrients to your soil than straw. I also have a severe gluten allergy, so don’t like to handle straw or have it right by my food!

This year, I started with a new garden spot that was covered in a thick layer of grass. Every time the area was tilled, the grass would pop back up in a few days. Hay was a great solution to smother the grass. We tilled the soil, then covered most of it in a thick layer of old, rotting hay. We tucked in plants and pulled back a little of the hay to expose the dirt where we were planting seeds. We won’t till again, but will add a fresh layer of hay each fall.

This picture shows a row of black oil sunflower seeds (yes, the plants are supposed to be that close together!) that has not been weeded at all this year. It was tilled, covered in hay, and planted. There are a few blades of grass where the hay was not put on very thick, but not a single weed.

The second picture is a block of corn, peas and beans that has a light layer of hay and has been weeded once this season. It took me about 10 minutes to weed the 22’x3′ bed. I just got a new load of hay and will be adding some more to this bed so I don’t have to weed it at all.

This picture is another bed in the same garden that was tilled at the same as the others, but has not had any hay added yet. I wanted something to compare my hay-mulched garden beds to. I’ve already weeded it twice and still you can hardly find the mangel beets in the jungle of grass and weeds.

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If you want to learn more about mulching with hay, I recommend The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book: Secrets of the Famous Year-Round Mulch Method.

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Should You Use Hay as Mulch in Your Garden?