With the recognition of straw bale gardening, composting, and mulching, it may appear that ornamental Halloween bales may very well be an incredible backyard useful resource. However chances are you’ll marvel if this autumn decor is contaminated with weed seeds, plant illnesses, or herbicides.
Earlier than you begin spreading straw throughout your backyard, let’s dig into the potential dangers and advantages of utilizing Halloween bales within the backyard and the way to make sure you should utilize them safely with out damaging your soil or vegetation.
The Brief Reply
You possibly can safely use Halloween straw bales within the backyard as hen bedding plant safety, pathway mulch, and a carbon-rich compost enter. The least dangerous option to reuse them is to unfold the straw between pathways for mud management and weed suppression. In case you have yard laying hens, this could be a excellent addition to their coop for heat and cleanliness by way of winter.
However earlier than you throw it into your backyard, verify that you’ve got licensed noxious weed seed-free straw somewhat than hay. Including hay or straw that hasn’t been licensed to be freed from noxious weed seeds to your backyard may lead to a disastrous mess of weed development. If not sure, solely unfold your ornamental bales as mulch in your backyard’s borders or use it in your hen coop.
I might not advocate including these bales to your edible backyard beds in the event you want to make use of natural practices. Until you recognize the farmer who grew it or it was licensed natural while you purchased it, there’s a very good probability it was sprayed with herbicides, which may leach into your soil and hurt your crops. For the most secure mulch choice in natural edible beds, buy premium straw grown with out long-lasting herbicides.
The Lengthy Reply
Because of the unknown sourcing of most ornamental bales, I hesitate to advocate them for edible backyard beds. Have you learnt the supply of your straw? Are you pretty sure that it’s weed-free and herbicide-free? Then go forward and mulch away! However in the event you bought the bales strictly for adornment and do not know what’s in them, keep away from making use of them to your edible beds.
You possibly can nonetheless repurpose straw within the backyard through the use of it as a pathway or border mulch, which considerably cuts down on mud through the winter. Scrap bales are additionally nice so as to add to your hen coop for bedding. The carbon-rich materials buffers the high-nitrogen manure to create wealthy natural matter over time.
Straw additionally makes an incredible compost enter as a result of the excessive warmth of a wholesome compost pile will seemingly kill off any weed seeds or pathogens and cut back the danger of herbicide contamination in your backyard.
However earlier than you do something together with your Halloween bales, determine if they’re hay or straw.
Hay vs. Straw
By no means unfold a bale with out figuring out what’s in it! Whereas each are available rectangular or round bales, straw is manufactured from grain stalks, whereas hay is manufactured from dried legumes or grasses with seed heads. Straw makes use of embody animal bedding, mulch, and autumn decor. Hay is animal feed.
| Hay | Straw |
| Accommodates grass leaves and may have seen seedheads | Dry hole stalks and stems (little to no seeds) |
| Grass, alfalfa, timothy, rye, or forage legumes | Byproduct of wheat, oat, or different cereal crop harvest |
| Grown for livestock feed | Grown for animal bedding |
| Mild inexperienced coloration | Golden-brown coloration |
| Barely candy scent | Little to no scent |
| May develop a grass garden in your backyard | Typically secure for backyard use as mulch or a compost enter |
Complicated hay and straw in your backyard may have detrimental results! Hay is a legume or grass with its seedheads intact or partially intact. Spreading hay in your backyard may inadvertently trigger grassy development as a substitute of a vegetable mattress. Straw, then again, is the stalk of a grain crop.
When a farmer harvests a subject, most hay varieties may have inexperienced leaves and nutrient-rich seedheads for animal feed. That is baled up into hay and used for livestock feed when pasture entry is proscribed. Hay typically contains blends of legumes like clover, alfalfa, or timothy and will embody some weeds from the identical subject (though some farmers present hay that has been licensed freed from noxious weeds).
Straw comes from primarily dried cereal crop stems and stalks, with only a few or little seeds. Because it’s often from a cereal grain like wheat, oat, or barley, straw could include a number of remaining grain seeds, though most seedheads might be harvested throughout a primary move of the sector for flour or feed. The remaining stalks are what turn into the straw we use for mulching.
Potential Dangers
Whereas they might seem to be an harmless backyard enter, these ornamental bales include a number of notable dangers, significantly for vegetable growers.
Your bales could have…
Straw is often seed-free and higher for gardening functions, however that doesn’t imply the occasional wheat or barley stalk received’t pop up in your beds. All the time verify that you’ve got straw, not hay. If it has a golden-brown coloration and the stalks seem hole, it’s most likely straw. Whether it is gentle inexperienced with leaves and seeds, it’s most likely hay. Keep away from spreading hay bales in your backyard in the event you’re unsure what seeds it’d include!
Many hay and straw producers now provide the choice of an authorized noxious weed seed-free mix. These licensed blends don’t imply that they totally lack seeds, nonetheless. It implies that the sector has had noxious weeds eliminated, stopping their seeds from ending up within the closing product. This may be finished with typical means or natural ones, however in each circumstances it implies that the weeds themselves are prevented from maturing within the subject. There should still be seeds in there, however they’ll be seeds from the vegetation that make up the hay itself, so as an example, a timothy hay could have timothy hay seed in it.
Fashionable-day cereal grains could also be closely sprayed with herbicides, a few of which can pose main dangers. I’ve identified farmers who unintentionally introduced in native compost constructed from contaminated straw, and their whole summer time greenhouse was devastated by herbicide injury. Signs embody twisted stems, distorted leaves, yellowing, plant demise, and full yield loss. To make issues worse, many herbicides are persistent, that means they will keep within the soil for months or years.
Whereas there are natural choices on the market in the event you want, one of the best wager for typical straw is to supply straw from a dependable and secure producer who’s prepared to reveal what they use on their grain stalks. Sometimes, free straw meant for hen coop bedding or different small livestock use is much less more likely to have heavy herbicide use. If you recognize the grower who produces your straw, you may as well make sure you’re utilizing supplies which might be garden-safe.
You by no means know what fungal pathogens or rots reside inside a tightly sure bale. Rotten straw bales can harbor many disease-causing organisms you don’t need to unfold to your backyard. Make sure you break open the bale and study it for any indicators of mildew, black mildew, rot, or foul smells, all of which might occur within the considerably anaerobic inside of a straw bale. If the straw seems rotten, compost it; it’s already previous the purpose of being usable as a clear mulch however can nonetheless present precious natural matter as soon as it breaks down totally.
Advantages
Ornamental straw bales could have some modern-day dangers, however that ought to not low cost the unbelievable performance of straw usually. It is a traditionally phenomenal gardening enter. Straw is a carbon-rich, biodegradable natural materials that may serve many capabilities within the backyard.
Strawberries have “straw” of their identify for a cause; they naturally develop in layers of decomposed grass and tree particles. Equally, straw bales create a pleasant pillow for a lot of crops. You possibly can unfold them into an incredible, soil-warming mulch for perennial and annual vegetation. A thick layer of straw mulch is unbelievable at lowering the evaporation of moisture from the soil throughout sizzling climate, serving to to save lots of water and cut back the frequency of watering. As well as, straw can considerably enhance backyard cleanliness through the wet winter months by stopping weeds and lowering erosion.
The potential backyard advantages of Halloween bales embody:
In case you preserve yard laying hens, hen bedding is probably going one of the best use on your leftover biodegradable Halloween decor. Unfold straw round your hen coop to maintain the women heat and dry throughout winter. The straw may also buffer the moisture and nitrogen content material of manure so the coop doesn’t turn into a muddy mess. In case you don’t really feel like spreading the straw, merely loosen the bale, and the hens will scratch it out for you whereas eradicating any remaining seeds they discover.
Layers of straw defend fragile plant root zones from the frost heaves of frigid winters. When mulch is thickly unfold over the basis zone of overwintering vegetation, it acts like a comfortable blanket, moderating the soil temperature and bettering the frost resilience of tender vegetation. I significantly love shredded straw for overwintering brassicas and herbaceous perennials, and I’ll use leftover vacation straw bales for mulching decorative timber and shrubs.
So long as your straw bales are weed-free, a 1-2” thick layer of mulch can dramatically cut back your weed strain. The thick interwoven nature of straw items creates a weed-smothering mat that forestalls weed seeds from accessing daylight.
Natural matter is the flamboyant phrase for useless stuff. Any plant that was as soon as residing (like wheat or oat straw!) will add natural matter to your soil, making a richer soil atmosphere over time. Understand that thicker straw stalks take longer to decompose, whereas finer straw will degrade extra shortly to nurture soil texture.
Straw is a superb compost enter for sustaining the right ratio of carbon-rich to nitrogen-rich supplies. In case you have plenty of kitchen scraps, backyard particles, or animal manure, giant quantities of straw or different carbon-rich materials are wanted to stability out the nitrogen-rich wastes to create wholesome compost. With out sufficient carbonaceous materials, your compost pile can shortly flip to pungent inexperienced mush. Add shredded straw liberally to dwelling compost bins to gasoline useful microbial development and preserve your compost smelling good.
Last Ideas
In case you are assured within the high quality of your straw, use it as mulch on your perennial and decorative beds or incorporate it into your dwelling compost pile! However in the event you’re cautious in regards to the state of your Halloween straw bales, give them to the chickens or unfold them in your pathways. It simply isn’t definitely worth the danger of contaminating your backyard with grass seeds or herbicides. On your edible backyard beds, go for a premium straw mulch like GardenStraw, which is what Kevin makes use of on the Epic Homestead!
