Garden: 5 Good Reasons To Use Straw.

By-product of agriculture, straw is a cheap and easily available material in most of our regions. It is a valuable resource for gardeners who can use it in the vegetable garden to make a mulch or even to grow certain crops. We have listed 5 good reasons for you to use straw in your garden.

"She protects your crops from the cold."

Straw is a good insulator, as evidenced by its use in the construction industry. It can therefore be used in a vegetable garden to protect crops from the cold. This is the first of 5 good reasons to use straw in your garden.

If you live in an area with harsh winters, simply spread this material at the base of plants to provide them with good coverage against the cold. For this use as insulation, it is recommended to use hollow straw as it is the air contained in the stems that offers the most effective thermal insulation.

The right move is to spread a layer of 15 to 20 cm thick in the fall at the base of your crops but also on empty beds to prevent the appearance of an impermeable crust on bare soil. The following spring, you can push back this mulch to let the soil warm up.

2- It limits evaporation.

In the summer, using cereal straw as mulch in the vegetable garden is very useful. Spreading a nice layer of this material at the base of your plants helps protect the soil from heat, sun and drying due to wind. This is the second of the 5 good reasons to use straw in your garden.

Mulching helps limit the evaporation of rainwater and watering and maintains moisture at the base of your plants. To do this, you must spread on the ground a very thick layer of at least 20 cm thick.

When the vegetable garden suffers from summer heatwaves, mulching is an essential ecological reflex to save water in the garden and help your plants survive during periods of drought and watering restrictions.

3- It promotes biodiversity in the garden.

Another good reason to use straw in your garden is that this material provides shelter for many species, including beneficial insects that defend your crops against pests. By forming a protective layer on the soil, this material also protects living organisms that improve your soil, such as earthworms, contributing to maintaining a fertile and living soil. Thanks to this protection against weather hazards such as wind, frost or heat, biodiversity can thrive in your vegetable garden, which is beneficial for the planet as well as for your harvests! Like all forms of mulch, this layer of straw also helps limit the growth of weeds or at least smaller ones. Mulching the soil therefore reduces the chore of weeding.

4- It enriches the soil as it decomposes.

In addition to being a good mulch with multiple benefits, straw helps to enrich your soil as it decomposes. Unlike other materials used as mulch, it is a dry matter that is not likely to ferment.

As it decomposes, it releases nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen into the soil, which will help nourish your crops. Specifically, straw contains a lot of carbon and little nitrogen. That's why your crops may suffer from a deficiency called "nitrogen hunger."

To avoid this problem and help organisms decompose this material, you need to add nitrogen fertilizer or nitrogen-rich materials such as nettle manure or lawn clippings in the spring before mulching.

As this material decomposes, the layer of mulch will become thinner. So you'll need to add more as it decomposes.

5- It can serve as a culture medium support.

The last of the 5 good reasons to use straw in your garden is to protect your fruits and vegetables from direct contact with the ground.

Strawberries and cucurbits like melons are traditionally grown on straw to prevent them from rotting due to moisture.

However, plants in the allium family such as garlic, onions, and shallots should not be mulched because they do not appreciate the moisture retention.

In the United States, gardeners practice a technique that is still unknown here: straw bale gardening. This technique uses straw bales as a medium for growing crops off the ground and is well-suited for growing squash, tomatoes, or peppers.

Where can I get straw?

If you are getting straw from a cereal producer, remember to ask if they have used a sprout inhibitor in their fields as it could affect the growth of your vegetable plants.

If you have a large enough garden, you can also consider growing your own straw by cultivating rye or sorghum (to be harvested in the fall).