What is "cooked hay"?

Lloyd

Cooked Hay: A common product here in CT where hay is chopped to 2" - 3" pieces then heated to kill off any seed.

Spreads almost as easy, and blocks sunlight almost as well, as grass clippings as opposed to what I call "Whole Wheat" hay which can be up to 18" long that practically has to be spread piece by piece and both straw and hay have active seeds.

It is much more expensive though.
$10 - $15 / bail (2.4 cu ft, 68 liters)

Interesting. l learn something new every day around here. Thx.

I don't see any reason why you can't add more layers.

I'm trying to convince the local garden club to let me run a trial with a paper barrier for some select flower gardens using used paper leaf bags (I get hundreds of them) and chopped wheat straw. Chopping the straw with the silage cutter will hopefully shake out almost all the residual seeds. Hopefully the paper barrier will work on retarding the weeds and the combination of paper and straw will conserve moisture. These flower beds are on the edge of town with no watering system nearby so tankering the water is required. It's a PITA for the elderly couple that does it.

Lloyd

Newspaper is essentially cellulose, carbon, that the soil bacteria will digest and work into your soil adding some to the amount of organic matter in that soil. Since what you put down last year will be mostly digested by this year you can add more newspaper every year.
Hay, and straw, often have some seeds left after harvesting that sometimes germinate and grow into what ever that hay or straw was (wheat, oats, rye, etc) that some people get concerned about that they may be "weeds". That growth is not a problem and since it is above the newspaper those plants will die off fairly soon. Paying more for "cooked" hay (or straw) is not necessary.

kimmsr: I wonder, are you speaking from direct experience or by supposition.

Although it is true that straw, and more so hay, have seeds, cooked hay I have been using has not had a single seed that sprouted and I have used it over a year now. I am not saying that there may not be any that skip through the process, I just have not found any. I spread four bales just this year.

Raw straw and hay seeds will sprout on newspaper to grow as full sized plants and although they are much easier to pull out than if they grew in soil, they also pull up the newspaper.

Hay and straw are long strands while the cooked hay is 2" - 3" in length and it spreads far more easily than the stuff that is 12" - 15" long which almost has to be distributed strand by strand.

Cooked hay settles down and compacts far better than straw and hay when it is placed around perennials and looks far more civilized than straw and hay. In appearance, it easily replaces shredded wood mulch. Granted, you do not have a choice of colors.

One method I am using to set down the newspaper is to use assembly station to roll it up. Four sheets at a time get two staples to the next four and rolls up ready for use. It is a great winter project and does not take a long to do as one might think. Then I simply unroll it onto the garden where large areas need it. The paper does not dance in the breezes before I can place the hay.

I imagine that I appear to be financially vested in cooked hay sales but I am not. I am willing to spend 30% - 50% more for this due to its improvement over raw hay and straw for its ease of use and appearance. If you factor in the expense of time it takes to spread, I feel that it costs less than most other purchased mulches.

Now if I could stop the birds from stealing it to line their nests... (:

I have used both hay and straw for mulches, but not "cooked" hay because I have no problem with either the hay or straw seeds germinating.

This is the way Mother Nature returns organic matter to the soil, by layering followed by decomposition. There is a pretty good argument (along with a lot of experience among gardeners) that active decomposition provides extra benefits to plants compared to pre-composting and spreading compost. Sheet composting or using decomposable mulch basically skips some handling steps too.

As long as your layers disappear and don't build up thicker and thicker, you should be fine!