The idea is very simple. You use a thick layer of hay or other organic matter all around your garden. Weeds can not come up through the blanket of hay, thus eliminating one of the most time consuming jobs of weeding. This blanket of hay also keeps in moisture so less water is necessary than exposed dirt. Thus eliminating the need to irrigate.
Over time worms and bacteria break down the hay releasing the nutrients into the soil. This makes a fertile, soft, living soil. As it becomes more nutritious, more worms are able to live in the soil aerating it and allowing more nitrogen to enter the soil. They also leave their castings enhancing the soil even more. This cycle continues year after year as you put fresh hay on after each planting. Soon you have such rich, soft, fertile soil that tilling is just unnecessary. You simple pull back soft soil and hay as though it were potting soil and put your plants in and push back the dirt. Thus eliminating the need to plow or hoe.
The only jobs left are to plant and harvest!
Now lets us look at some questions that come up with this technique.
Am I planting weeds by using hay on my garden?
The answer is that no, the weed seeds cannot germinate. They either get trapped in the air spaces of the hay or if they do drop through to the soil, they do not germinate for lack of light. Now I will not say that a few weed do not poke through in spots where the hay may be to thin. But the solution is too simply through another hand full of hay on top and that is that.
How much hay is needed?
This will vary depending on the quality of the hay you use and if you use square or round bails. I live in a farming community so I have access to what they call mulch hay or spoiled hay. This usually comes in round bails that have set outside in the rain for a year and is already starting to decay. I can get these bails delivered at $6 per bail. I use about 2 of these for a 25X25 foot area. A single new round bail would probably cover this same area however a new round bail will cost $20.
Round bails also cover an area differently than square bails. If you are somewhat strong you can unroll them in the wider rows and just break some off to tuck into the narrow rows. I can also cover large open areas very quickly by just unrolling the bail. This saves me a lot of time with my approximately 1 acre truck patch where I do not plant the entire acre every year. If you unroll a round bail you will get a 1 or 2 inch think carpet. This is thick enough to keep the weeds out since it is so densely packed they cannot come through. I will warn you thou these round bails are heavy, and if you are not young like me, 48, you may want to use the square bails. I am sure when I hit middle age, 65 to 70 I will have to change over to the square bails. Besides, Round bails are work and I said this was going to be a no work garden!
Square bails are much lighter and break apart in small squares about 2 inch thick that can be put down as a square, or broken apart to fluff it up and put into the rows. If you break it apart and fluff it, be sure to put it on about 6 to 8 inches thick. I seldom use square bails but I would estimate that it will take about 10 to 12 square bails to cover our 25X25 foot example.
Can I use something other than hay?
Almost any organic material will work in place of hay other than something like wood chips that will take too long to break down. The material you choose should be affordable, plentiful, clean, and break down in 1 year.
Let’s look at some of the options.
Leaves
Leaves can be plentiful and affordable since most communities have them for free at the township leaf collection or recycling center. The two reasons I would rather use hay is that leaves tend to blow away whereas hay stays where you put it. But even more important leaves are usually collected from private lawns and I never know what chemicals were used on those lawns. I will only use the free stuff from the township on areas where I am not growing food. They are fine for flower beds.
Grass clippings
I would not use grass clippings from the township on food producing areas for the same reason that I would not use leaves from the township. If you are using your own grass clippings and you do not use chemicals on your lawn they are a good covering with one precaution. Hay is left in the field to dry before making bails. Your grass on the other hand is cut, collected and must be put on green and wet. If this is put up against plants thick, it will generate tremendous heat and kill your plants. Don’t put it up against your plants.
Kitchen scraps
This is good stuff, throw it on but I cannot imagine any home that will have enough to put a 6 inch covering as I suggest. It can also rot to quickly, look unsightly and smell. What I do is throw all my kitchen scraps on a pile and cover it with some horse manure every so often. Let it sit for a year then spread it in the spring in an area where I want a high nitrogen boost like the corn crop.
Saw dust and wood chips
Wood chips will take way to long for deterioration to add back its nutrients to the soil. Saw dust will rot quicker but to much could make your soil too acid.
Newspaper
I have heard some folks using news paper as a covering. I am not an expert on how news paper breaks down but I can not imagine that the processes they use to make wood into paper does not leave chemical residues. The other question I would have is: were does all that ink go? Into the soil is what my common sense tells me. I do not use it.
Plastic
There is a lot of experience out there using plastic as a ground covering. It appears to work great for keeping the weeds down and if you use black it can also heat up the ground to speed growth. Plastic is another one that I do not use for the following three reasons. It cost as much or more than hay but does not do anything to improve soil quality as it deteriorates. It does not let water through. Finally, it ends up on the land fill in a very short time and can take 2000 years to fully deteriorate. This is just short sighted and a sinful use of what god has given us to be shepard over.
Landscape ground cover
I have experimented with landscape ground cover more as an accident then by thoughtful will. I purchased a green house from a local business that was getting out of the plant business. About 800 square foot of landscape cloth came with it. This cloth had been used on top of the ground for many years prior to my purchase. Since I had it, I used it for several of my crops. I actually like it for several of my crops and continue to use it.
Here are my thoughts on landscape ground cover.
This is a type of woven plastic and designed not to deteriorate in the sun. This means it does not tear and need to be disposed of in one year of use. I have some that has been in use for 10 years and is just as good as brand new. I do not know how long it will last but probably for the rest of my life. This resolves the issue I have with filling our landscape with mountains of trash. It is rather expensive to buy initially but since it last for possibly a life time it is cheaper than hay in just a few years. It also is a woven plastic that allows water to seep through.
Because landscape cloth is black it adds heat to the ground, speeding up the growth of some plants. For this reason I will continue to use it for my peppers that like that extra heat in my zone 5 climate. Some plants that I have experimented with, however, hate it. Two years ago I looked at my experience with landscape ground cover and saw that my pepper and tomatoes did so good with it I decided to purchase more and save money over buying hay every year. I covered about a third of my garden with landscape ground cover. Things that did great were peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, but some things did not do well at all. My zucchini squash, and cucumbers did not do as well, especially the cucumbers. I always had more cucumbers than I knew what to do with. I tried them on ground cover for two years with barely got anything. I believe these vine plants just do not like the intense heat during the mid summer day. I went back to the hay mulch this year and again had more cuks then I could use or sell.
Other plants like onions, potatoes, corn, and carrots that are planted closely or in close rows do not work well with this type of ground cover.
Even with the positive experience with landscape ground cover I am backing away from it and going back to hay for most of my plants because it is truly renewable, and constantly builds the soils health which will be important for healthy plants. The only place I see myself using landscape ground cover will be for the peppers since they definitely benefit from the extra heat with my short growing season.