Hay: A Benefit With a Drawback

Since our school garden is in the middle of the Mojave Desert and the temperature in the Las Vegas Valley is a record breaking 122 degrees, we decided to use hay as a mulch for our newly planted pumpkin seeds, herbs, and trees.

Hay bales are ready to be used to cool down new plants and retain moisture.

In the beginning of the growing season, hay encourages faster growth, prevents evaporation, conserves moisture, adds organic material over time as it decomposes, and reduces weed growth.

Hay is composed of cut wheat or barley stalks.  Straw is used for animal bedding, not feed.  Be sure to use Certified Noxious Weed Free bales of hay.

A drawback to using hay is that weed seeds are trapped in the bales of hay. Once hay gets watered, the weed seeds can sprout. Unfortunately, new types of weeds can be introduced into the garden.

Besides hay, we also use sawdust, bark chips, wood chips, leaves, and pine needles as mulch.  It depends on the time of year and what is available to us.

So for hot weather relief, help your newly sown seeds, trees, and flower beds with some kind of mulch.

An herb garden bed without any mulch will stress plants.

Fran and granddaughter, Savannah, are laying straw on pumpkin seeds that were just put into the soil.

Hay is placed on newly sown seeds so that birds
 don't eat them before they get a chance to grow.

Savannah is happy to protect her
pumpkin seeds from extreme heat and birds.