Hay and newspaper as mulch

I have seen layers of newspaper with hay on top used as a garden mulch. How does this work? What is adequate coverage of newspaper? A couple of pages? And how much hay or straw on top? Any thoughts would be helpful. I am planning to do this on my veggie garden between the rows. As newsprint uses vegetable dye, I can mulch it all in at the end of the year.

I used it a few years ago when I acquired some free bales of straw. Hay has seeds in it I'm told, not sure how well it will do as weed prevention. I have no first hand knowledge of hay use.

I used quite thick sections of newspaper. I open it out to the full page size and laid down the whole section at a time. That had to be 6-10 pages at least. I don't know what a minimum thickness would be for good light prevention.

The straw I put down was at least 4-6" thick.

It worked VERY well. Outside of some bermuda grass (which can't be stopped other than digging) I had no weeds at all.
Chris

I always mulched with newspaper when I did veggies. The paper should be 5 or 6 layers thick. I used leaves on top tho, rather than straw. It does help trmendously with weeds. The bad part is... the slugs love it too. If you have a lot of slugs you might not want to do it around leafy crops like lettuce and chard.

Studley, I think the number of layers of newspaper is going to depend on exactly what you're putting this over. We are "blessed" with Bermuda grass here, along with generous portions of clay in our soil, LOL.

When I was putting in my new daylily bed last fall, we tilled the area, covered it with a layer of newspaper 10-15 thickness thick, plus 8-12" of leaves on top. Plus a load of cow manure.

The whole thing rotted over the winter, we tilled it under and I planted my daylilies in planting holes amended deeply with more organic material and peat. Then I put down another layer of newspaper around the plants, again 10-15 pages thick. Covered the whole thing with pine straw, more for aesthetics than anything else. I figure this fall, I'll peel back the pine straw, add horse or cow manure, MORE newspaper and re-arrange the pinestraw.

Ruth Stout (No-Till Gardening) writes that she put down a loose 6" layer of hay, straw, leaves (or other un- or partially-composted material) over her entire garden. And that's about it - she just continued to mulch as needed. (If a weed pokes up, time to pile on more mulch.) Regarding slugs, she advised that slugs eventually don't like the soil created by the nonstop mulch, because it's pH isn't to their liking. I can't tell you first-hand that her method doesn't attract slugs, but she's pretty well regarded, and had a garden for 15 years or better that proved her methods. If you haven't yet, try to get hold of her book - I bought a used hardcover on eBay for $4, and it's worth several times that in pleasurable, interesting reading :)

As some of you may remember I'm doing a Ruth Stout garden for demonstration purposes, and cuz I really wanna see how well it works.
I started it in the weediest place I have in the garden. So far it is working fantastic! I'm even using old hay, not straw. I didn't put down newspaper either. Everything is doing well in there. There are no slugs what-so-ever (so far) but I am curious as to whether I'll have squash bugs/stink bugs...they love to hide at the base of squashes.
What few weeds have appeared are easily removed by pulling them (and I'm talking very VERY few weeds have been pulled)!
A bit of buckwheat is coming up thru the hay but I love to see it in the garden...it really brings in some beneficials and pollinators, and is also short lived.
As an aside, I have two smaller patches that are mulched with hay. Yep, it won't stop bermuda grass! And some thistle is coming up thru the hay in the other little patch where I had let that one alone one yr and thistle seeds apparently dropped everywhere!

Shoe,if you're really lucky,you just may have some of those Shoeflowers coming up and have seeds to share with everyone.

I just may have to try and do this idea for some beds this fall. Worth a shot anyway.

For the last 3 year I have been using hay. The only thing to be very careful about is not to but it around plants like tomatoes, peppers and others like warm soil to early. Last year I put the hay on when I put the plants in the ground and I had my worst year ever for tomatoes they started really really slow. I mulch everything with hay. I actually try to cover ever square foot of my garden with at least 6" of hay. It works great for paths thru the garden. In the fall I rototill the hay into the garden.

yep! You're on the ball Sari! Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc hate cold feet! Do not mulch them too early. Let the sun warm the ground before you mulch them.
Here in the south I don't let the ground get mulched till the nites are warm and temps consistent (for those family members). Sounds to me like you have a "no work garden" in progress already! Hope you share more info on how it is doing and progressing as the season goes on!