Another question about filling raised beds

[cookiesdaddy]

I'm a new gardener planning to build 3 raised beds. I have a chicken run with 4 chicken and 3 rabbits for a couple years. Sometime ago I read from a post by Nifty that dirt in the chicken run was like "black gold" so I plan to mix that in with dirt at the raised beds. I can borrow tiller from a friend. Also have a couple of compost pile ready to go, plus some horse manure collected couple years ago.

My question is this: I'm thinking of buying a bale of straw ($9) from a local feed store to use as mulch. Should I mix some of this straw in with the soil as I till them up? Will the straw help improve the texture of soil if mixing in deep in the soil?

Also ... I do not see any mole or any hole in my yard indicating that moles are present. Can I skip the part about laying out chicken wire at the botton? Would save me a lot of work and some money!

 

[Reinbeau]

I've never put chicken wire beneath my beds and haven't had a problem, and I do have moles around here. I would not put any hay in the beds, it won't have time to decompose and you'll be messing with it all season. It sounds as though you've got enough manure for organic matter, anyways.

 

[Catalina]

I wouldn't use the straw either. Two years ago I used straw as a mulch between my beds. I fought with weeds sprouting up from the straw all year long.

 

[patandchickens]

My question is this: I'm thinking of buying a bale of straw ($9) from a local feed store to use as mulch. Should I mix some of this straw in with the soil as I till them up? Will the straw help improve the texture of soil if mixing in deep in the soil?

First make sure it is STRAW not hay -- (normal) straw will have essentially zero weed seeds in it but hay is likely to have a considerable number.

I would not till it in though. Firstly because it will be tough to do, but mostly because its decomposition will tie up N from the soil for some while and so from this springs' plants' perspective you will be depleting soil N til the straw has decomposed. You will get better results, just delayed a year, by using it as mulch and then digging it roughly in in the fall (assuming this is a veg garden, obviously you can't do that in a perennial bed but there you can just let the straw rot into the soil gradually on its own, which it WILL do, and WILL improve soil texture that way).

Can I skip the part about laying out chicken wire at the botton? Would save me a lot of work and some money!

I sure wouldn't do it without a known serious problem

Have fun,

Pat

 

[Catalina]

The "weeds" were wheat. Some seed heads were still in the straw.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Thanks everyone for helping our a new gardener.

So if straw is to be avoided, what would be a cheap mulch material? I want to cover the walkway in between the beds to keep weeds from growing. Was thinking of just go get some old discarded carpet and lay it out there, but it won't look nice.

 

[Reinbeau]

Cheap mulch material? I always use grass clippings, they're plentiful for me and they add all kinds of organic matter and nutrients back into the soil. These are my clippings, with no chemicals in them, I would only use those that I knew were from lawns that hadn't been treated.

 

[patandchickens]

You don't need to avoid straw IMO. Most straw does not have any meaningful number of seeds in it IME, despite Catalina's experience -- and you can look and SEE whether you see seedheads, and in any case wheat (the usual source of straw) is not a perennial nor especially obnoxious in its root system so you should be able to easily pull out anything that sprouts.

But if you don't *want* to use straw, other good options include Reinbeau's suggestion of lawn clippings (tho really it is better to leave them on your lawn, improves soil structure and greatly reduces fertilizer requirements); well-dried or partially-composted tree chippings if you can find a company looking for somewhere to dump a load; partially- or completely-finished compost; or dead leaves. Other things to consider for 'pathway' type mulches, where you are not trying to grow plants in that soil, are wood shavings and pine needles. (Pine needles make fine garden mulch too, for all but acid-hating plants, but it *hurts* to weed or dig through them )

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[setter4]

Cheap mulch material? I always use grass clippings, they're plentiful for me and they add all kinds of organic matter and nutrients back into the soil. These are my clippings, with no chemicals in them, I would only use those that I knew were from lawns that hadn't been treated.

Yep, grass clippings, fall leaves and if there is a tree service around you might contact them and see what they doo with their wood chips when they remove trees. The guy we use to do our trimming in the cemetery is THRILLED that we let him dump the wood chips there and I am thrilled to have an endless supply of "shredded tree". lol

 

[muddler6]

What I did and it worked pretty well, was let my bails of straw sit for a while before using as mulch (the center will start to get dark brown and all the seeds will sprout and most likely die off). I read a book a while back that gave that idea. The woman only used old bales of straw (got "moldy" straw from cow and horse farmers that they couldn't use for the animals, may have actually been Hay bails) and did this only. I typically dump lots of grass clippings in the garden paths and around plants (not too close, give the plants a little space). You could also put newspaper down first, then add your mulching material on top of that too.