troyc wrote:

On Feb 19, 11:42*am, brooklyn1 wrote:
... the straw will act as a
short term mulch that will significantly inhibit weed growth until the
ground cover gets a good start. *Straw is cheap, needs no tools to
apply other than your hands and becomes composted quickly which amends
the soil, much better than costly, dangerous, and pervasive chemicals.
Even if your ground cover is a newly seeded lawn covering the seed
with straw will encourage faster germination by retaining moisture and
will deter the birds from eating your seed.

Make sure you get clean straw (straw can be full of weeds & seeds),

There are seeds in the ground naturally, with new seeds added to the
mix constantly, naturally, from many sources, by many means, by wind,
bird excrement, etc. What one needs to grasp is that the straw will
deter germination/propagation of most seeds, even its own seeds, while
giving the ground cover plants time to take hold. Once ground cover
begins to propogate it takes care of whatever few weeds escape...
certain plants are called ground cover for a reason, thier growth
habit surpasses competition. A secondary purpose of ground cover
could be to deter erosion but primarily to ensure that no other plants
compete, which is why it's important to choose the correct ground
cover for the locale... often folks indescriminately choose a ground
cover because they think it's handsome but if it can't compete with
native plants it would not become a sucessful ground cover.

and don't work it in to the soil - lay it on top. Straw worked in to
the soil will rob nitrogen for a time as it decays.

That's what I said, why would someone work straw into the soil when
it's purpose is a mulch? The concept of using straw as a mulch as
averse to a more sturdy mulching material, is that it will decompose
at about the same rate a ground cover grows.
Didn't you read and undertand what I wrote?