14-09-2003, 03:42 PM
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Cirtique this plan, please.
(William Orth) wrote in message . com...
My smaller secondary garden (maybe 30' x 50')has abysmal soil. I've
been planting winter rye in it for the past three years, but the
improvement has been minimal.
I recently received about 75 bales of rotten grass hay from a local
farmer. A portion of this has already been spread on the garden and
will be disced in this week. However, this farmer has other rotten hay
to get rid of, and he proposed an idea to me.
He suggested we line up 5-6 round bales (the BIG ones) of grass hay
and basically unroll them onto the garden. The idea would be to plant
veggies in between these strips, using the hay as a kind of 2-3 year
mulch layer.
I've thought this through and can't identify any obvious drawbacks,
outside of the fact that I won't be able to plow or disc this area for
a couple of years--at least until the heavy strips really begin to
rot.
Am I overlooking any obvious drawbacks? The hay is relatively free of
weeds.
This plan is a lot better than winter rye and rototill. If the soil
has, say, very low P or K winter rye does nothing for it. I even
suggest that you cover all the ground with the hay, and plant through
the hay. You won't be able to direct seed for a couple of years (you
will have to plant seedlings), but then the soil will be fixed. I am
guessing that one ton of spoiled hay has 6 pounds of P and twice as
much in K. The worms will do your rototilling, with that kind of cover
your dirt will be turned over completely about once a year.
If you have success with it (and you probably will) you should have
some long term fertility in there. I continue to add some organic
matter every year, but I stagger it around the garden so I can direct
seed where I want. I still plant the tomatoes, zucchini, chard,
cabbage, garlic etc., right through the mulch.
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