Straw over grass seed

[Oaktree]

Same here. But I guess it depends on the quality of the straw. I ended up with a yard full of "weeds". It took a while to eliminate the weeds.

I thought the whole advantage of using straw instead of hay is that the straw doesn't have weed seeds.
Personally, I always use hay. Spoiled hay can be gotten for cheap or free.

 

[groundcover]

Straw over hydro seed , when you really , really want it to green up !

 

[Hay Dude]

I thought the whole advantage of using straw instead of hay is that the straw doesn't have weed seeds.

It is. the seed heads are removed.

Personally, I always use hay. Spoiled hay can be gotten for cheap or free.

Now using hay will have LOTS of seeds. Spoiled hay is definitely cheaper, but man if you have allergies you’ll suffer.

 

[4570Man]

Straw blower? Have to admit, I'd never seen one. Around here, for lawn usage, everyone I've ever seen just separates and spreads the stuff by hand. Great for 1/4 acre, but hell for 3 or 4 acres. Many also use factory-assembled straw mats, often woven together with monofilament fishing line, which should be banned, IMO.

Agreed on the peat moss. Not only does it sound like work, but I don't think it's necessarily the best thing for a new lawn. It can improve soil structure and drainage, but there are better products for this.


Very cool. I actually looked at irrigating a few large areas of my lawn, which tend to brown out in our usual summer draught, and have even completely died two or three times in the last 30 years. But the water usage is just enormous when you start looking at providing sufficient water to multiple acres, living off a well. We settle for just irrigating our younger trees and shrubs, and keeping the swimming pool topped up. I think we use ~130 gal/day on tree irrigation + 600 gallons per week on the pool.

I rented one a while back. I used it to straw 2 yards and a small area at my house within a 4 hour rental period. In addition to being way faster it does a lot more uniform job.

 

[Tinhack]

I thought the whole advantage of using straw instead of hay is that the straw doesn't have weed seeds.
Personally, I always use hay. Spoiled hay can be gotten for cheap or free.

It's one and same down here. Hay when it's new, straw when it's dried out. Not many green "lawns" down here this year. No rain and record heat all summer. Just set another record high yesterday. 97 F-ing degrees (as opposed to C degrees)! I only mowed once this year. I think it was back in February.

 

[CH4Ohio]

It's one and same down here. Hay when it's new, straw when it's dried out. Not many green "lawns" down here this year. No rain and record heat all summer. Just set another record high yesterday. 97 F-ing degrees (as opposed to C degrees)! I only mowed once this year. I think it was back in February.

Really? Hay is wheat stalks (or similar grains) after the combine has cut the heads off and collected the seeds. A second optional process can then come through and cut the "literally straw" stalks that are remaining and bale them. There's virtually no seeds in straw. The seeds have already been harvested. Nice straw that's for sale is often described as "bright and clean". Road contractors and hydroseeders, landscapers, etc. always use straw -- never hay.

Hay is obviously the entire plant above the roots. Stalks/stems, leaves, SEEDS and all. All hay is FULL of SEEDS. And since any junky hay that can be bought cheap enough to use for mulch will probably be very weedy, it's going to have lots of weed seeds. Even if you use nice hay you're going to be planting lots of hay seed into your lawn area. Some of the grassy hays won't be easy to remove using selective herbicides.

Agree that you can use old junky hay as a mulch to cover grass seed and it will help retain moisture. But it's really not the same as straw.

 

[paulsharvey]

Also hay is much better as it sticks to ground better and has grass seed in it.

Depends on your goals. Yard grass, no, ton of weed seeds in hay, but for general grassing for erosion/coverage/stabilizing, yes, hay. Yard-straw.

 

[Jrasband]

Depends on your goals. Yard grass, no, ton of weed seeds in hay, but for general grassing for erosion/coverage/stabilizing, yes, hay. Yard-straw.

What does it matter if your out there mowing every one - two weeks? Weeds will certainly faze out and get entirely replaced by grasses. Also they will most certainly never go to seed. The only reason the weeds were in the hay field and produced seeds is because hay only gets get twice a year. How many times do you think the average lawn gets mowed a season?

 

[oosik]

About 4 or 5 years back - I "renovated" a one acre meadow. Bought natural grass seed. Specifically packaged for this particular area. My particular problem - the birds recognized these seed types and considered this one acre plot to be their special smorgasbord.

I reseeded and covered deep with my homemade drag. Took longer for the seed to germinate/sprout. But, at least, I did get sprouting seeds. Now, after 5 years, it's like a normal lawn.

 

[paulsharvey]

What does it matter if your out there mowing every one - two weeks? Weeds will certainly faze out and get entirely replaced by grasses. Also they will most certainly never go to seed. The only reason the weeds were in the hay field and produced seeds is because hay only gets get twice a year. How many times do you think the average lawn gets mowed a season?

Lots of weeds will do fine even mowed. Think sandspurs, it's just a grass, and it is lower to the ground than most people cut, with the spur heads sometimes being tall, other times right on the ground. If hay works for you, by all means use it, but if you can get straw cheap, it's the better choice. You control which seeds your introduce.

Edit: I'll add, the If you can get straw cheap is the issue around here. It's much more expensive and hard to find than hay, here. You can get it, but its normally in micro bails. Not a big demand, no local production, ect.