Last year Joel covered part of his upper field with hay. He told me to do likewise in my home garden and I had brilliant results. He uses it to cut down on weed growth, add nutrients, keep nutrients in and keep the soil moist. Today after weeks of rain we went up and started pulling back the hay to see what the soil looked like underneath and MAN what a difference the hay made. The soil was moist, showed good structure and was ready for planting. Also barely and weeds compared to the other half of his field without hay which is now fully covered over in weeds. Also the soil is soft; and doesn't need to be tilled. The parts of the upper dryer field without hay are either soup or hard as rock. His other fields that are lower in elevation have no hay, and are not even fit to walk in due to the heavy rains we have had. They are muck and wont be ready for a bit. For some reason the hay was able to control the moisture content and helped prevent the soil from becoming a soupy nightmare.
