this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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You had me excited to find a better method. Then it was "find a cheap source of hay". Then you need a method to spread hay- which ain't easy. I'll stick with my cultivar which makes mulch in place.
Many hay farmers will sell spoiled hay (unfit for animal consumption) for 50-25% of what you would pay for clean hay. Get evangelical about permaculture and the Ruth Stout method and some will just let you have spoiled hay for free.
Stables will frequently give spoiled hay away for free, except here you need to fork it up and pack it off by yourself, it won’t be baled for your convenience. Plus, a lot of bedding wasn’t meant to be eaten by the animals in the first place, and comes with embedded manure.
Remember, spoiled hay is spoiled. it’s not fit for feeding animals, and it’s not gonna be displayed in the Smithsonian as an example of premium hay. Many places that produce or consume hay just want to get rid of it, as it’s wholly undesirable for their main operations and just gets in the way.
Gesundheit? If you are complaining about spreading hay - and I can cover my existing 185m² in a single afternoon with ease - then gardening in general is not going to be up your alley. Spreading hay is not supposed to be difficult or laborious. If it’s baled, unbale it and use your hands to break off chunks and crush it to floof it up and simply drop it in place. If it isn’t baled, get a fork, spear the hay, walk over to the garden with the fork full, then just shake the fork to loosen the clumps and let them fall.
Like, you are doing this while standing upright, some time between October and March, long before the first plant gets planted. If your plants are already in the ground, you’re doing it the hard and needlessly difficult way.
I have 12000 m^2. It's not the 1920's where mechanical equipment is prohibitively expensive. The entire reason she developed the method was because she didn't have access to equipment. A cultivar isn't that expensive and far more eco friendly to till local than burn gas transporting hay ( not to mention the fertilizer needed and diesel that was burned farming the hay). I rent a big one in the spring and have a small battery electric for maintenance.