Home » Misc » Straw as garden mulch

Straw as garden mulch


How to Use Straw Mulch in the Vegetable Garden

The right mulch can do wonders to improve your veggie garden.

Straw in particular offers a wide range of benefits that can make a drastic difference for the health and productivity of plants while saving you money and reducing labor.

We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission.

Continue reading to learn more about using straw mulch in your vegetable garden.

What You’ll Learn

What Exactly Is Straw?

Before going into the advantages of using straw to mulch your vegetable garden, it is useful to understand what exactly it is that you will be working with.

“Straw” refers to the dry stalks that are left behind after crops such as barley, rice, oats, or wheat have been harvested. After the heads are removed to make grain, the stalks are dried and bundled in bales.

These bundles can be broken up and applied to the garden as mulch, or used as a material that is layered on the soil surface in a garden to provide a number of benefits to growing plants.

Benefits to the Garden

Straw is an ideal mulch material for many reasons. It is light and easy to work with, fairly inexpensive, and readily available from local farms and garden centers.

It helps regulate moisture and temperature, reduces necessary weeding, and builds healthy soil. All of this equals less labor for you!

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits:

Lock in Moisture

Straw is particularly beneficial for helping to keep the soil evenly moist, which means better drainage and more protection for plants in times of drought or flood.

Because it helps to slow evaporation, you will find yourself watering much less often – think once a week, rather than every day or two.

At the same time, water will filter more slowly into the ground, lessening the impacts of flooding and preventing overly soggy soil.

Regulate Soil Temperatures

Mulching helps to maintain steady soil temperatures.

It acts as an insulating blanket for the soil, keeping plants cooler during hot summers and warmer during cold weather. This results in healthier plants and a longer growing season.

Less Time Weeding

While I have yet to see any organic mulch that is completely weed free, straw can come pretty close.

This is because it typically comes from crops that have previously had the seed heads harvested for grain. It is advantageous to the grower to remove as many of the seed heads as possible before the stalks are dried and baled.

When thickly applied, it can also cut down on weeding significantly by blocking the sun from reaching the soil, thus preventing weed seeds from germinating, and killing those seedlings that do manage to sprout.

Protect and Build Soil

Leaving the soil bare can harm those important microorganisms and beneficial insects that make it a healthy, nutrient-rich environment for plants to grow.

Think about it: When you go outside, you wear a hat and sunglasses to protect your skin and eyes from the sun. Just like us, worms and microbes also need protection from the sun.

Have you ever noticed how a forest floor is protected by a thick layer of fallen leaves? We can easily provide the same benefit to our gardens by mulching.

Bare earth also means more erosion and nutrient leaching. When soil is unprotected, rain runs off quickly, carrying important nutrients with it. Mulching prevents runoff and helps to keep soil in place.

Not only can straw provide protection to microbes and reduce erosion, it actually helps improve the soil over time.

It breaks down relatively quickly, and as the material decomposes, it builds soil mass and releases nutrients that can nourish your plants as they grow.

Healthier soil means healthier plants, with less need for amendments or synthetic fertilizers.

Other Common Mulches

There are a number of other materials commonly used for mulch, such as bark, shredded leaves, hay, grass clippings, and even plastic.

While any type of mulch is typically better than using nothing at all, there are several reasons why straw is my personal go-to for the vegetable garden.

Many people confuse straw with hay. While these two materials may seem similar upon first glance, they are actually different in a few key ways.

While straw is a byproduct of grain crops, hay is a grass grown primarily as feed for livestock. It is often made from a combination of plants, and it is rarely cut before at least some of it has gone to seed.

In simple terms, hay is much more likely to contain weeds and invasive plants. It is also more likely to attract snails and slugs to your garden, especially if you live in a wet climate.

Straw is also a much better option than plastic. Not only is plastic a non-renewable resource, but it doesn’t provide many benefits other than weed suppression.

In order to make sure water can penetrate through to plant roots, you would need to buy plastic that is porous, which is expensive, and in my experience can actually make weeding more difficult when tougher weeds do manage to penetrate it.

Plastic also doesn’t build soil mass or provide any nutritive benefits to growing plants.

Bark is another common material that is very useful for mulching perennials and trees, but not the best option for annual veggies.

Bark breaks down slowly and it ties up some of the nitrogen in the soil, making it less available to plants until it has a chance to decompose, which can take a couple of years.

While this is no problem for slow-growing trees and perennials with deep roots, it isn’t ideal for your tomatoes.

Potential Downsides of Mulching with Straw

While straw is a great option overall for veggie gardens, there are a couple of potential drawbacks to be aware of. Fortunately, most of these have easy fixes.

This warm, fluffy, and soft material can be an attractive home for rodents, which is something to keep in mind especially if you tend to have issues with these pests. Regular watering can help keep rodents at bay.

Not a major issue, but because it is light it is more likely than some other materials to blow away when you first lay it down.

This can easily be avoided by applying it on a calm day and watering soon afterwards to help weigh it down a bit.

Another thing to keep in mind is that straw is mostly carbon based. While it certainly adds some nutrients to the soil as it breaks down, it isn’t actually an amazing source of nitrogen for the garden.

This just means it is important to have sufficient nitrogen in your soil to avoid a nutrient imbalance.

One easy way to do this is to spread a layer of nitrogen-rich material around the bed prior to laying down straw. Compost, aged manure, or fresh grass clippings are all great sources of nitrogen.

Find a Source You Can Trust

Straw is readily available from local farmers and garden supply stores.

It comes in bales of various sizes, often somewhere around a few feet long by a foot or two wide and high. When purchasing bales, the most important thing is to know and trust your source.

Look for something that is advertised as weed-free, and find out whether it has been treated with any pesticides or herbicides, especially if you are an organic gardener.

Keep in mind that any chemicals it has been sprayed with will wind up in your garden. If possible, source from a certified organic grower.

It is also a good idea to examine the bales before you take them home to make sure they are clean and not moldy or damp.

How to Mulch with Straw

Mulching a veggie garden with straw is easy. 

You are ready to mulch a bed once your seedlings have been growing for at least a few weeks and are a few inches in height.

Do not apply mulch on top of seeds or tiny seedlings, so as not to smother them.

One exception to this is that just after seedlings sprout, you may sprinkle a very thin layer of straw on top of the bare soil to help protect it, but wait a few more weeks before mulching fully.

Before you begin, it is a good idea to add an inch or so of organic material such as compost, aged manure, worm castings, or grass clippings first, to ensure the soil is well balanced.

This is especially important if you know your soil to be deficient in nitrogen to begin with. Conducting a soil test can help to reveal any deficiencies.

Next, set the bale at the edge of a garden bed and cut the rope to open it up. Bales are made up of tightly packed layers of straw. Remove layers one at a time, and use your hands to fluff them up a bit.

Lay the material several inches thick between plants and in the walkways between rows, always leaving a couple of inches bare around the stems of each plant to allow for airflow and reduce the risk of disease.

In addition to using it around growing vegetables, you can also use straw to cover up fallow beds or to protect your garden during the winter.

You can choose to either remove it before planting and throw it in the compost, or you can simply push it to the side until you are ready to mulch again and then reuse it, adding a bit of fresh material on top.

As long as it isn’t visibly moldy, it is fine to let it decompose directly in the garden bed.

A World of Difference

If you can get your hands on some straw bales this season, you absolutely should try using it to mulch your vegetable garden.

You will likely find it makes a world of difference for the health of your crops, and it will drastically reduce your workload at the same time.

Have you tried mulching your veggie garden with straw? Share your experience in the comments below!

Want to dig deeper into using mulch to improve soil and reduce labor? Check out these articles for more ideas:

Using Straw for Mulch and Growing

Using straw as mulch in the garden saves me money, crops, and my sanity. (Note: Straw is not hay.) See the many benefits of using straw as mulch—plus, see how to start a weed-free straw-bale garden!

No, I’m not Rumpelstiltskin, the cranky gnome in a Grimm fairy tale; I can’t spin straw into gold.  But straw bales are inexpensive gold for gardens. I only pay $4 a bale, and the straw saves me hours of weeding, watering, and worrying. I get it from a farmer nearby.  Numerous garden centers stock straw, too.  Bales are huge; one will usually cover the garden.  Just be sure that you are buying straw, not hay.  Organic hay bales are harder to find; just avoid any that have been treated with consistent herbicides.

Everything in the vegetable garden is mulched with a 6-inch layer, including blueberries, Alpine strawberries and cranberries.  I use a foot or two of straw atop the potato bed to grow clean potatoes that can be easily harvested.  Tubers form in the straw and crops are always bigger when I use the straw mulch.

Straw is Not Hay

First, let me explain that straw is not hay.  You don’t want to use hay, as it will cause nightmares and plenty of weed pulling. Hay is a grass that is primarily grown and cut for livestock. It is difficult to cut hay without at least some of the grass going to seed.

Straw are the dry hollow hay stalks remaining after cereal crops such as wheat or barley have been harvested they contains few or no seed heads, especially when compared to hay.” (University of Maryland Extension Service). Straw stalks don’t compact or mat. They’re also slow to decompose and don’t tie up nitrogen or other nutrients in soil, making the perfect mulch.

Potato crops are huge when grown in a foot or two of straw on top of the soil. The blueberries in the background benefit from straw mulch because their roots are shallow and the plants are moisture lovers.

Water Less Often

A thick blanket of straw keeps the moisture in soil, slowing evaporation radically. Watering the garden once a week will be the norm, rather than every day or two. They dry out a lot slower in hot sunny weather.

If you live in an area of the country that is experiencing rainfall shortage this summer or drought, straw mulch is gold! I do. We’ve received only a tenth of normal rainfall and had a huge snow deficient last winter. The ground is so dry, it’s cracking in spots.  But, I water the vegetable garden only once a week, despite high temperatures and lack of rain.

Reduce Weeds

Straw blocks out the sun, preventing most weeds from germinating and growing. First, make sure your weeds are gone from your garden bed. Then lay down the straw immediately. 

If you’ve already seeded your vegetables, don’t lay straw on top of the seeds or seedlings. But everywhere else there is exposed ground, lay down a nice thick layer of straw

It will not only keep weeds from growing, but also keep the soil moist, soft and workable.

Reduce Pests and Diseases

Straw also saves crops like tomatoes, peppers and squash from developing blossom-end rot and cat-facing; blueberries from shriveling; and sweet peppers from turning hot.  

Soil moisture stays even and calcium can be transferred from the soil to tomatoes easily, preventing the diseases.

Straw mulch at the base of tomato and pepper plants also prevents that transfer of soil-borne diseases such as early blight to plant leaves. No water splashes up from the soil to leaves, because the straw absorbs it.

A thick straw mulch also fosters the growth of large pumpkins, winter squash and watermelons. The mulch provides a clean blanket upon which melons and pumpkins can grow unblemished.

Increase Nutrients

Straw will decompose like any other organic material but they’ll decompose a lot slower. As straw rots, it releases nutrients, feeding the plants growing in it. Straw actually makes your garden better. Genius, right?

Straw-Bale Garden

Of course, you can also make instant planters with straw! Do you struggle with poor quality soil? Wage a never-ending war with weeds? Or do you simply want an instant, fuss-free vegetable bed? In this video, see how to grow vegetables successfully in straw bales.  

Have you used straw for mulch?  What other materials do you use to hold moisture in and prevent diseases?

Soil mulching with straw

I grow vegetables on my plot, which I often experiment with. I would like to share my experience with straw. It should be noted that in the beds I use only organic matter and biological products. And the year before last, there was an opportunity to bring a lot of straw for mulch.

I began to lay it out for all crops: raspberries, berry bushes, strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, and paid special attention to potatoes. When the planted potatoes came out of the ground, I covered the bushes with soil only once, and then three times during the summer I only covered them with straw. Bushes grow up - I wrap them around tightly with straw. All the gardeners vying with each other told me that the potatoes under the straw would swell and rot. Nothing like this!

My potatoes grew beautifully. So that the bushes do not fall apart, I put straw sides higher, with scallops from the right and left sides. In August I dug up potatoes - the harvest is excellent! I plant imported varieties: Red Scarlett, Latona, Timo, Santana.

Particularly pleased with Red Scarlett. It easily tolerates drought, is resistant to scab and, with good care, produces a full-bodied crop. From each bush I collect 12-17 potatoes. 8-10 of them are large and very large, the rest are medium. There are no small ones. Straw perfectly retains moisture; over the summer, potatoes never need to be loosened using a heavy chopper - you know, put straw on it, and that's all. In addition, a thick layer of straw does not allow weeds to germinate, and all summer I weeded potatoes only once - before the first hilling with earth. All! Then straw worked instead of me.

The soil under the straw becomes loose. And for dry areas and sandy soils, this is just the perfect mulch. I had 300-400 grams of potatoes! In addition, it is easy to harvest potatoes: I raked the straw onto the path and dug out the bushes (under the straw, the potatoes do not go deep into the ground).

Berry paradise

Strawberries also responded positively to straw mulching. Berries on straw do not come into contact with the ground, they do not rot even in rainy summers. A real berry paradise! Also with zucchini.

But with raspberries I had a problem. I overlaid the bushes with straw bedding tightly, thickly. The straw did not allow the weeds to germinate, but at the same time did not allow the young raspberry shoots to germinate! So the next year I took this into account and left room around the parent raspberry bushes for the germination of young shoots. But all summer it was not necessary to weed and loosen the raspberries. Only infusion of manure twice fed.

Currants and gooseberries responded very well to straw mulching. The moisture under the straw was preserved, the earth was loose, the bushes gave a good harvest and were lushly overgrown with leaves.

Greenhouse error

I made a big mistake with cucumbers - I mulched them right in the greenhouse! For the experiment, one side of the greenhouse was mulched with straw, the other side was left without mulch. After a certain time, the result became visible - the cucumbers in the greenhouse did not like the straw.

It is hot and humid in the greenhouse, the straw began to rot, some toadstools sprouted. And the cucumbers got sick with powdery mildew. So I concluded: mulching with straw in a greenhouse is useless. It's only good outdoors. By the way, street cucumbers mulched with straw grew perfectly.

The only negative Conclusion: straw is a great mulch. Retains moisture, improves soil structure, suppresses weed growth. Where I used straw as mulch, I did not have to weed the weeds, and watering costs were significantly reduced. In addition, mulched straw is an excellent material for compost.

The only drawback of straw is that mice lived in it under the raspberries, but for those gardeners who have cats, this is absolutely not scary. And even if the mice run among the straw, they do not cause much harm to the crop. From the preserved spikelets of rye straw, spikelets of rye spontaneously sprouted, which is an excellent green manure. I them in the fall: I cut them and loosened them into the ground.

So for those who have the opportunity to get straw, I advise you to use its excellent properties.

Don't touch the moles!

I especially want to say about moles. Many in their garden plots are struggling with them. They put bait, poison, rags with gasoline. I have a lot of moles on my site, but I don’t fight with them, as they are very useful. Our gardens are affected by the larvae of the May beetle, which are very difficult to fight. After all, you have to dig up everything on a spade bayonet in order to select these pests. And in my garden I work only with a flat cutter and a chopper, I don’t dig anything. May beetle larvae are eaten by moles. Since they burrow deep, the moles go deep behind them.

Well, yes, when watering, bushes of cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions often fall into the mole passages. So what? Don't worry, I'm not greedy. I spill it, sprinkle it, and the bushes are restored. And to poison your land with chemistry for the sake of the dubious extermination of moles - no, everything in nature must be balanced. For every pest there is a predator.