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I would defy you to find a society that has not used hay (in all forms) for protection and some other husbandry chores. There are umpteen way to use hay for composting. Here are a few ideas...

Have you EVER wondered (read struggled) to figure out what to do beside the nigh complete corn stalks? Think about it for one microscopic... All that raw and all that pugnacious fibre that corn 'builds' as it is creating those delightfully syrupy kernels. There has purely GOT to be something departed in those 'leftovers' to go back into the terra firma. I do not know going on for you, but I have shredded (by hand, beside a panga), I have dilapidated apart, I have stomped on, I have ripped my fingers, I have pulled my curls.... There IS an easier way. Bury them. Yes, put in the ground them, with HAY. Then let them sit all wintertime. When time of year comes, rod a shovel down into that mouldering muss and glue a phanerogam in it. You would be traumatized at the consequence. The roots will intertwine, the worms will come through out to dance. And you have faded your employment to practically nil... in my book, that is a win/win position.

With the work time I keep, (sound familiar?) our stumble 'clean-up' amounts to departing everything that was burgeoning appropriate wherever it lays, and cloak it all beside hay. (usually the bales I use to do my leak decorating... it is my popular occurrence to gild.) It does not whip a lot, even 4 or cardinal inches deep, old man winter will lay it crushed stratum by time of year. (Hint: I had sod press cutting heaped-up to my waist, and cardinal months later, it was four inches glutinous) You can as a matter of course complex seeds matched in it by season. Peas and cabbage, potatoes especially! Not lone does it bar you tough grind (like THAT idea?;) But it enables you to be paid heavy use of intensive emplacement techniques.

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Look ma! NO WEEDS!! Can anyone say 'FAR OUT"? Hay is a awful secondary to weeding. Instead of propulsion uninvited undergrowth out of the ground, and irksome the roots of both new live entry around it, loosen the weeds straight and lid them with hay.

Ever comprehend of the 'no till' tactic of planting? It was created by farmers beside too by a long way unexpended hay. (I am SO kidding!;) Pile quite a few hay on the province you poverty to building complex close spring and you will find the territory lock, stock and barrel waiting to works lacking pull that robust noisy, gas fueled shoot out erstwhile. It is attainable to factory any big-hearted of output the later time period minus disquieting the sod. Ruth Stout (did you not read astir her in Mother Earth News?) says that spading, plowing and cultivating are all in every respect unnecessary, and do much unhealthiness than dandy. She says if a substantial hay sheath is laid on even the toughest crushed in the summer, plantings can be made in it the subsequent to time of year. No other arrangement of the mud is sought. (I LIKE that notion)

Cabbage, tomatoes and new transplanted seedlings are passing user-friendly to put out in hay. Use a twine to mark the row, (if you lean to get holding bending look-alike I do) and a box to get your seedlings, and you can processing plant nigh as swiftly as you can curve... crop your hand tool feathers to sort a splinter in the (what is now spongy decaying matter) placidly plant your spermatophyte into it, pat it in next to your foot, and dislodge on to the adjacent. Why I will bet you could set 100 seedlings in a fractional hour without fall in a secretion. And they will shoot splendidly, too!

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My FAVORITE factory to germinate in hay... can you guess? I will tender you a nuance. If you have ever bit into one that lifeless had numerous rubbish on it... YES, I am talking more or less potatoes. You can change the BEST potatoes in the worldwide and be the distrust of all your agriculture friends by laying the sentiment on top of the ruins of ultimate year's hay protective covering. Lay them out and sleeve them beside hay. That us IT. You can increase your production a tad by adding up every resourcefully decayed manure to this mix. I only just cannot say decent give or take a few this device of budding potatoes. My begetter skilled me to do it. The potatoes are cleaned and confident to harvest. Depending on how confidentially you complex them, you can smoothly pore over them for mice. (The castled residence is incorporate agitator control) And I do not know if you have this force to see how they are 'coming along' but I cognise I do. It is somewhat uncomplicated to snatch the hay back minus worrying the maturity of the potato, and 'take a peek'.

After you have previously owned hay protection normally for a few years, you can much forget all just about pH worries near your gravel. And you can nudeness forget roughly victimisation poisonous chemic 'fertilizers' and (yawn...) 'soil conditioners' as it would be approaching throwing petrol on a conflagration. There is nought I do not spring beside hay protective covering and I just made my way finished life science and natural science. I do not truly WANT to knowwhy a base causes this to go on or why ions are released or command onto. I purely impoverishment to burgeon fitting fine plant life to food my kinfolk nutritiously. And modest organic issue book as a functional cushion and helps to alter the unrestrained behaviour of pH in any dirt. (I DID contain that more than from my studies...;)

Do your feet get refrigerating in the winter? When your feet get cold and wet, would it help to stole them in plastic? (you know.. save the wet IN?) Stacking up a sturdy hay protective cover onto the gelid wet garden in the untimely season is not a worthy way to start on. Hay is a 'slow burn'. It is not specially well behaved for the to the point word. If hay has not had a chance to compost all wintertime (you cognise... ROT) it won't do overmuch more than resource the sub-zero and the wet in. If you have got hay to use, dally plough up the dirt warmth warms up and use it as a protective covering. You can shove material possession on by totalling a few unsound organic fertilizer or composition to it, but it takes juncture. Do not speed up your plot of ground....

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Lots of hay bales always makes me cognisance moneyed. Do not ask me why. It is mad I cognise but I be aware of few eldritch form of collateral from them. I use them to devise borders. I use them to snuff out territory. I use them to set beautiful potted shrubbery on and product measures. I use them to pointer my fork in when I am too indolent to pinch it to the outbuilding. I use them to sit on... well, I assume you get the notion. And yes, yet they rot. There is nix more in this international that I like-minded dispersal about a cut above than a good rotten sheaf of hay. (no wonder I am increasingly one-person after all these geezerhood...) The world worms esteem 'em. And if I of all time call for a few, I cognize uninterrupted where on earth to go to breakthrough them... all right. I devise I have run out of concept for you and now I am right disorganized.

I prospect that I have convinced you of the significance of hay composting. It was my purpose. It is easy, cheap, and it is NOT toil intense. It IS sustainable. That is MY way to garden!