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Old May 12, 2016   #1
tarheelchick
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: May 2015
Location: NC
Posts: 97
Default mulching with hay and straw?

I've been reading online and I have just about gotten myself so confused that I don't know if I'm coming or going .

I have several (about 10 months old), bales of something that someone gave me. I'm guessing it is straw and that it came from Home Depot, but I'm not sure. It has been sitting in the back of my lot all this time, and it has been rained on etc for all this time. It has some long grass growing out of the top of it, and it has some mushrooms trying to grow on the inside of it. It's wet and smooshie.

I also have some dry, straw bales (I am sure this is straw) that is dry and newly purchased from a local nursery.

I need to cover some areas of my garden (primarily the paths) with something as I ran out of my leaf mulch/compost which I placed directly around my plants. I was thinking about laying down some old yard waste bags that I have (brown paper bags), then layering on the old wet bales, then putting the dry straw on top of that.

I keep reading about how straw can drain the nitrogen from my soil as it decomposes and how weed seeds can be present in the bales. So confusing!

Am I overthinking? Good idea? Bad idea?

Thoughts anyone?
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