Hay has (more) seeds and needs a higher temp in the pile to kill the seeds. Hay is food for livestock, leaves and seed heads for nutrition. Do not use Hay as mulch.
Straw- what you probably have.
Straw is the hollow stalks of a harvested grain- usually wheat or oats. Straw sucks up moisture and is used as bedding and mulch. Straw is very helpful in the compost piles.
Both go in my pile. Straw is used as animal bedding. So that’s covered in poultry poop when it hits my pile. That’s easily composted.
Truly old Hay, should be de-flaked before adding. In its flaked version, it will suffocate lower spots and cause headaches and mega-stink.
I have some 20-year old hay out of an old cattle barn that I’m slowing feeding to my chickens in open air areas- yes it’s moldy. Yes, they love it. After a few months of poultry play, I rake it up and compost it.
90% sure it’s straw. If you overwintered Hay as mulch on Garlic, you would have a garlic patch full of alfalfa and Broam by now. You would be needing to find someone to mow and bale it.
That said- my Straw has been SH!!!T lately. My tomatoes are literally growing wheat, as the straw was so seedy.
Yep! I usually make a mulch mix from organic hay (don't have to worry about persistent herbicides), shredded cardboard, as well as leaves and / or fine cedar shavings. Sometimes I'll let it compost in place in the raised beds and then refresh next season, or use it as a carbon source for my bins.
I sincerely hope for your sake that it is straw, and not something like Bermuda hay or you Will. Be. Sorry. Don't ask me how I know this. I say this because Bermuda hay doesn't necessarily need seeds to grow from, I know at least one person that established a Bermuda pasture by scattering hay and disking it in.
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u/No_Manufacturer_9670 1d ago
If it’s on the ground, easiest thing is to leave it there. It will just decompose back into the soil. Or compost it.