Nearly ALL of the available straw and hay is sprayed with persistent herbicides which will kill and stunt your plants for quite a while. It’s a real problem that most people are not aware of.

Thank you Donna in Ohio. What a great idea, I love it! I’m spreading the word and my taxes!!

Leaf mulch, or if composted it’s called leaf mold, makes excellent mulch. It helps to chop it up.

Thanks David – goes pretty fast here in the Northeast!

Many organic gardeners opt for shredding their fall leaves for use in compost piles. While this is certainly a more environmentally friendly practice than bagging leaves and sending them to the landfill – shredded leaves will not provide the same cover as leaving them whole, and you may be destroying eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis along with the leaves. We suggest that leaves in garden beds and lawn edges be left whole. Where space allows, consider creating a leaf pile and allowing it to break down naturally, or add the leaves gradually to your compost pile over time. Such efforts will keep critters safe and allow you to benefit from the rich garden gift that falls from the trees above

Cardboard is good. Just take off any plastic labels and adhesives, etc. It may take a while to decompose, depending on the thickness.

Hi Mary, The huge rolls are probably hay, which you wouldn’t want to put on your garden anyway because it contains seeds (and weed seeds). If you have a local farm supply or feed store, they’d probably have straw bales. I have a Southern States near me and they ususally have it.