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PureHarvest · October 25, 2018

Not sure how rural you are, or hauling ability, but look for cow hay or “junk” hay.
The large round bale kind. Bales are about 4’ wide. You can (with a helper) roll a bale out and you have an instant mat of organic material to buffer bare soil and keep weeds down.
Around here it’s free to 25 bucks per bale.
The are big and heavy but if you can get delivery it is effective. Of course you could just get small square bales, but the cost would add up, plus you lose the continuous mat effect that a large bale provides.
I plan in doing all 3 of my tunnels with large round bale junk hay (was sudex hay, nice and coarse and stemmy) and perhaps pinning down the sections occasionally with landscape pins.

October 25, 2018	#101
PureHarvest Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b Posts: 1,369	Not sure how rural you are, or hauling ability, but look for cow hay or “junk” hay. The large round bale kind. Bales are about 4’ wide. You can (with a helper) roll a bale out and you have an instant mat of organic material to buffer bare soil and keep weeds down. Around here it’s free to 25 bucks per bale. The are big and heavy but if you can get delivery it is effective. Of course you could just get small square bales, but the cost would add up, plus you lose the continuous mat effect that a large bale provides. I plan in doing all 3 of my tunnels with large round bale junk hay (was sudex hay, nice and coarse and stemmy) and perhaps pinning down the sections occasionally with landscape pins. Last edited by PureHarvest; October 25, 2018 at 06:15 AM.