My biggest gripe!!

[ceresone]

and listen to the answers!!
its "organic" gardeners saying, dont put hay on your gardens, you'll be bringing in weed seeds!! so--if you have weeds come up--listen to Ruth Stout--you DONT HAVE THICK ENOUGH HAY!! throw a little more hay on anything that comes up--its rots down into more dark, black composted soil.
So, if you have weeds--its your fault--the hay isnt thick enough. this idea is the best idea for gardeners since lemonaid--or iced tea--or a pocket in a shirt!

[kabuti]

We dont have an unlimited supply of hay, nor do I care to create a nicer environment for rodents to live next to their food source, my vegetables. Not to mention the mold that grows on the hay next to the vegetables. It is good mulch though.

[lovetogarden]

I agree, ceresone. In my corner of the world, thick mulch cuts down on weeding and helps me renew organic matter in my garden. And the mulch keeps my shoes clean. I live in the country, but really have not had any major
trouble with rodents. They have better places to live-out of the path of my dog
who lives to hunt.

[Laughingpanther]

If you have a rodent problem, get some cats and let them run around outside a lot.

[Pharmerphil]

We use straw, and although I use lots,( aprox. 12 inches after compacted) I still get...you guessed it...OATS!
but no weeds, I have resorted to a underlayment of newspaper first.
as far as rodents,haven't seen any or any visible damage, guess it IS the cats, or the garden snakes!

[flowerpower]

I haven't seen too much rodent damage. I have seen many snakes in the hay, so that helps. I also saw evidence that an owl was hunting there.

[kabuti]

we have a cat & she brings me lots of rodents, into my bed, but there are still more. I may try poison. another cat visits the garden at night & I was glad except last week when I sowed those seeds it dug them up like a dog so now I'm wondering. I always had the same thing with mulch- oats growing instead of weeds.

[Gimme3Steps]

wanna try an respond....simply from experience. 44 square bales of wheat straw were used to mulch a 2100 sq.ft garden (40' X 70'). at a cost of 3.67 per bale. The season was overly wet, until Autumn. I experienced the best crop of Dixie white butterpeas, i have ever seen in my 45 year old life. These plants went into bloom an reproduction cycle...THREE times.

Mulches, not only repel an supress weeds, they naturally turn into humus, wherin they give back to soil, all, that they ever took from it, minus their atmospheric an fruit loss.
If you ever read..."the Ploughman's Folly", by Edward Faulkner ...it'll make Sense. Ruth Stout wasnt lyin.

The beauties of mulching, lie not only, in their natural ability to repel competitors, nor in their inherrent soil-building/plant-feeding traits......heres another one to consider....

how much Time does it take...to weed ? Is that Time valuable to one ? if it IS, then mulching heavily, is the Way, to spend one's available Time doing things that are far more Beneficial towards the over-all yields produced in a Garden, than fighting weeds.
Also, keep in mind....some weeds.....are jus like some snakes, they dont deserve to be called or regarded as such...)))

Nature abhors bare ground, and it is God's Way, to implement rapid re-vegetation upon the Earth.....something that plants, thru eons of Time, evolved to do. Mulches, diminish the need, for re-vegetation by natural weed sprout. Mulches care an protect the soil, and allow rain to gently percolate thru it, never hardening it...)))

[Pharmerphil]

Reckon the only bad experience I ever had was one early spring when I turned over a Pitchfork full of lil hopping bunnies!

[FourDeuce]

Another benefit to thick mulch is it helps keep in the moisture. That's good, when we're having droughts like we've been having lately.