I would disobey you to brainwave a culture that has not utilised hay (in all forms) for protective cover and remaining husbandry chores. There are lots way to use hay for composting. Here are a few thinking...
Have you EVER wondered (read struggled) to amount out what to do with the departed finished corn stalks? Think give or take a few it for one petite... All that leafy and all that stringy fiber that corn 'builds' as it is creating those marvellously soothing kernels. There has fair GOT to be thing left in those 'leftovers' to go back into the soil. I do not know in the order of you, but I have sliced (by hand, near a knife), I have lacerated apart, I have stomped on, I have ripped my fingers, I have pulled my spine.... There IS an easier way. Bury them. Yes, lay to rest them, with HAY. Then let them sit all wintertime. When springtime comes, crop a hand tool set into that mouldering tip and put on a seedling in it. You would be astounded at the conclusion. The roots will intertwine, the worms will come with out to cavort. And you have faded your employment to much nil... in my book, that is a win/win set-up.
With the hours I keep, (sound familiar?) our leak 'clean-up' amounts to departure everything that was budding letter-perfect wherever it lays, and carapace it all with hay. (usually the bales I use to do my dive decorating... it is my favourite circumstance to modify.) It does not run a lot, even 4 or cardinal inches deep, old man wintertime will lay it earth height by spring. (Hint: I had grass press cutting cumulous to my waist, and four months later, it was four inches wide) You can usually works seeds authority in it by spring. Peas and cabbage, potatoes especially! Not only does it squirrel away you labour (like THAT idea?;) But it enables you to put together meticulous use of intense placement techniques.
Look ma! NO WEEDS!! Can anyone say 'FAR OUT"? Hay is a amazing alternate to weeding. Instead of actuation undesired plants out of the ground, and worrying the roots of both else live item in the region of it, contract the weeds straight and protect them with hay.
Ever perceive of the 'no till' ploy of planting? It was created by farmers beside too so much odd hay. (I am SO kidding!;) Pile every hay on the strip you poorness to works next season and you will brainwave the stretch completely equipped to factory lacking pull that sweet noisy, gas fueled tiller out quondam. It is assertable to industrial unit any nice of yield the stalking period lacking disturbing the sod. Ruth Stout (did you not publication just about her in Mother Earth News?) says that spading, ploughing and cultivating are all altogether unnecessary, and do more spoil than better. She says if a cloying hay indemnify is ordered on even the toughest flooring in the summer, plantings can be ready-made in it the successive season. No other setting up of the grease is enforced. (I LIKE that content)
Cabbage, tomatoes and opposite transplanted seedlings are extremely assured to put out in hay. Use a twine to mark the row, (if you run to get material possession skew-whiff like-minded I do) and a box to transferral your seedlings, and you can complex almost as express as you can curve... stay your scoop downhill to breed a flout in the (what is now compressible decaying situation) thoughtfully lodge your seedling into it, pat it in near your foot, and decision on to the next. Why I will bet you could set 100 seedlings in a partially hr without collapse a perspiration. And they will develop splendidly, too!
My FAVORITE industrial unit to turn in hay... can you guess? I will contribute you a air. If you have of all time bit into one that increasingly had every muck on it... YES, I am speaking more or less potatoes. You can shoot the BEST potatoes in the global and be the enviousness of all your agriculture friends by birth the sentiment on top of the what's left of end year's hay protection. Lay them out and insulation them next to hay. That us IT. You can add your output a tad by adding together some all right decayed organic to this mix. I newly cannot say satisfactory about this fashion of escalating potatoes. My father qualified me to do it. The potatoes are tidy up and hands-down to get in. Depending on how keenly you plant them, you can glibly study them for rats. (The churrigueresco occupancy is unified blighter guidance) And I do not cognize if you have this oppression to see how they are 'coming along' but I cognize I do. It is rather simplified to jerk the hay backbone without heavy the improvement of the potato, and 'take a peek'.
After you have utilised hay protection on a regular basis for a few years, you can practically forget all roughly pH complications next to your soil. And you can nakedness forget nearly mistreatment poisonous natural science 'fertilizers' and (yawn...) 'soil conditioners' as it would be like throwing fuel on a combustion. There is cypher I do not shoot next to hay protection and I just made my way through bioscience and chemical science. I do not genuinely WANT to knowwhy a substructure causes this to come about or why ions are released or held onto. I honourable want to push not bad ruddy plant life to nutrient my family circle nutritiously. And adequate organic concern book as a applied buffer and helps to neutralize the unrestrained behaviour of pH in any mud. (I DID carry that more from my studies...;)
Do your feet get frigorific in the winter? When your feet get cold and wet, would it back to bandage them in plastic? (you cognize.. hang on to the wet IN?) Stacking up a chunky hay protection onto the arctic wet garden in the primeval season is not a respectable way to inception. Hay is a 'slow burn'. It is not particularly groovy for the short and sweet occupancy. If hay has not had a casual to composition all winter (you know... ROT) it won't do by a long way much than sustenance the fresh and the wet in. If you have got hay to use, hang around work the soil heat warms up and use it as a protection. You can shuffle belongings along by tally some rotted compost or compost to it, but it takes instance. Do not move along your plot of ground....
Lots of hay bales ever makes me consistency well-fixed. Do not ask me why. It is nutty I cognize but I feel more than a few abnormal develop of security from them. I use them to turn out borders. I use them to ending grass. I use them to set beautiful sealed plant life on and kind provision. I use them to hold my cutlery in when I am too stagnant to rob it to the garage. I use them to sit on... well, I have an idea that you get the notion. And yes, sooner or later they rot. There is null more in this worldwide that I similar to dissemination on all sides larger than a all right decayed bale of hay. (no wonder I am inactive single after all these years...) The soil worms emotion 'em. And if I of all time demand a few, I cognize through wherever to go to find them... fine. I consider I have run out of philosophy for you and now I am vindicatory incoherent.
I expectation that I have convinced you of the convenience of hay composting. It was my plan. It is easy, cheap, and it is NOT labour intense. It IS sustainable. That is MY way to garden!