I'm super confused about the straw now. I've seen it touted as the best thing ever for permanent deep mulching...but if it robs the soil of nitrogen, how can that be?
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
I'm super confused about the straw now. I've seen it touted as the best thing ever for permanent deep mulching...but if it robs the soil of nitrogen, how can that be?
Me too, and it is great for blocking weeds and getting some funky fungus in there too. But I was recently told that basically, too much of any one thing will upset the balance over time. The first 2 years, straw and some hay were used exclusively. Straw is on the garlic bed right now too, third year. I will still be using it, just not on the entire 3 gardens and I have a clover-mix seed cover crop to till in this year in some rows too. The fabric really stops the weed and warms the earth like crazy. My seasons aren't long enough either to fully decompose the straw as much as you'd like it to either. The areas I used the fabric last year, the soil needed no tilling, it was like butter and full of worms this spring, so I am using the fabric only in the tilled areas it wasn't down on last year! I will be mulching with hay this year instead of straw.