"George.com" wrote in message
...
When you say compost it, are you meaning in with the rest of the mix or do
you have in mind some special process that will 1/2 rot the hay down but
keep it intact as a substance in its own right?

rob

You'll find many erroneously use 'straw' and 'hay' as interchangeable words
when talking about mulch.......not true, they are VERY different. If you
mulch with the hay you have you'll be weeding for years to come with what
will be growing in your garden from that field. If you leave it baled and
it's already wet and starting to mold and you put it in your garage or tarp
it you better check your home owner's insurance policy on how they pay out
fire damage. There's a good reason why farmers don't store hay unless it's
bone dry. The other poster mentioned spontaneous combustion.......I suggest
you look that up and read carefully. More than one barn has gone up in
flames because of a wet bale.

If you turn it over, as you mentioned, the grass will just grow out of the
"new top". You could break open the bales and spread them out and then
cover the large thin layer with a clear heavy plastic and weigh it down and
let the heat of the sun cook it to kill all the weeds.......that's if you
have room and since you're going into winter it will most likely be a
greenhouse instead of an oven so probably not really feasible, unless you
can leave it like that on into the coming summer to cook the bejeezuz out of
it.

If you insist on using this stuff in compost you'll want to break up the
bales, spread it out and then mix it well with your compost pile and let it
rot down.....(wear a mask since you have no idea what kind of mold spores
you're dealing with).........and check the temp in your pile to make sure it
heats up to kill all the seeds you have in there, then keep turning and
heating until you get it down to the black loamy stuff compost is supposed
to be. You'll probably still get weeds you've never had before when you use
the compost but it won't be so bad........just weed, weed, weed and weed
some more before all that stuff you've imported goes to seed in your garden.

Val

Val