This afternoon I dragged myself outside to the garden and harvested all of our cauliflower. I figured if I didn’t harvest it now, the near freezing temps tonight would likely kill the cauliflower, and then we’d have none. So although it’s small, I’m sure the Handsome Husband will be happy to have it tomorrow night for dinner.
I also harvested a wee bit of kale. I feed the delicious kale to the chickens {of course}. Since I’ve never grown anything outside in the winter before, I’m thinking I should probably head to the feed store this weekend and pick up a bale of straw. Or do I want hay? Do you know? I plan on using it to cover the beets, and carrots, because as far as I’m concerned, the Swiss chard and kale are on their own.
Have you covered your vegetables in the winter before? Should I pick up straw or hay, and why?
~ Mavis
P.S. Thanks for your help.
alliegator says
You want straw. Hay has seeds and stuff in it.
Elisabeth says
Hi Mavis,
I use straw when I can get it b/c it is less expensive. If you use hay, you can toss it to ur chickens first. They will eat any grain/seeds that are in it first. It will cut down a bit on ur feed bill and keep you from pulling a bunch of seed weeds too.
Tal says
Yes, definitely straw. If you do hay you’ll have a hayfield come spring.
Cara Shuldberg says
the straw will have seeds in it, too. it will be cheaper from a farmer. Just stick the bale directly on top of the row, strings intact.
Lucky L says
Second the straw choice. I use floating row cover over hoops for early cold season things. It’s good to about 22 degrees.
BTW, Mavis the large leaves on the brussells sprout plants are edible too. Kinda cabbage-y. But since you are leafy green-ed out, you could still count the weight and feed those to the chickens.
Becca says
Get whatever does had seeds in it. Trust me. I used hay/straw as a cover in my garden and have been fighting growing wheat/alfalfa since…
Elizabeth says
You want straw. Not hay. My first choice is chopped up leaves, truth be told. I had a maple in my front yard that was perfect for this but it was planted too close to the house when it was originally build, and had to come down. I miss my tree.
Saralie says
We had -10C this week (twice) and my leeks, kale, beets, parsley, and swiss chard are all quite alive, I pulled my root celery up today, the leaves seemed to not enjoy the cold. All this to say, no rush on the straw. HAHA you have not seen the last of the chard or kale.
Charles Skinner says
I would go with leaf mulch. You don’t know what kind of synthetic fertilizer or pesticides have been applied to the hay and straw. Three years ago I used wheat straw and I’am still pulling wheat everywhere. Just watch your ph.
Kathy says
You want to go straw. Besides being a bit cheaper, here’s the difference:
Hay: Hay is grown for animal feed and contains protein-rich seed heads that, when spread over gardens, sprout. They quickly grow plants that are difficult to control by either pulling or spraying.
Straw: Straw is the bottom half of hay stalks and contains few or no seed heads. Straw stalks are hollow and don’t compact or mat. They’re also slow to decompose and don’t tie up nitrogen or other nutrients in soil, making the perfect mulch.
This is what a friend of mine, who grew up on a working farm and still lives there now.My folks always used straw as well.
Wendy Phelps says
I’m lucky here in Oz, we have sugar cane mulch. The sugar cane farmers used to burn all the stubble but of course that is now frowned upon so they cut it and bale or bag it to sell to us home gardeners. It is grate because it is light, gives good cover and as it breaks down it feeds the soil as well. Whatever you do get deffinately let the chooks over it first.
Robbie says
We use alfalfa mostly on the gulf coast because it doesn’t seed. Costs about $20 a bale and covers 5 x 20 . When we use leaves, we only use it from the ‘winter’ leaves because there’s less chance of weeds germinating in them. Don’t recommend leaves that you don’t know where they came from because of the whole dog poop thing, yuck.