Q: I added straw to my vegetable garden as a mulch and now there are hundreds of weeds coming up. Does the shade and watering help the weeds seeds grow? I thought the straw was supposed to prevent weeds and keep the soil damp.
A: I wonder if you added hay and not straw. Any farm store that has one may have the other. They look similar but are made from different plants and are used for different purposes.
Hay is harvested from alfalfa and grass fields. It is actually the third largest farm crop in the country after corn and soybeans. Hay is used to feed cattle, horses, and smaller animals from goats to guinea pigs. It includes the nutritious leaves and seed heads of the plants….