Lucerne revisited
Jun 12th, 2008 by Julie Kirkwood
Here’s a comment I’m pulling up so we don’t miss it:
Sheila K said:
I read that fellow’s article as well and am trying to understand what Lucerne Hay is and where I might get some. I found a timothy mix from Agway in Hampton Falls, but don’t know enough about the product to decide if what I was thinking of buying was the right item. It was from Lucern Farms. This will be my first year for a raised bed and I won’t be digging that hay up if it is the wrong thing, so….if you can, please advise…should I be purchasing alfalfa?
The best I can figure, and I’m no expert, is that these British Web sites are telling us to use a bale of regular old alfalfa hay, preferably a little rotted. I think they assume we can find this just hanging around somewhere or get it cheap from a local farm. I don’t think they intend for us to spend any significant amount of money on the stuff.
As far as timothy hay, that’s what I feed to my rabbits, which is why I know that it’s got different levels of nutrients from alfalfa hay. Plus, the stuff the rabbits eat is really expensive.
Long story short, if you can find a bale of alfalfa hay really cheap, definitely use it. If not, use something else — maybe dried grass clippings –or just skip that layer. I just skipped it and used topsoil to fill the raised beds. The plants haven’t complained. Good luck!
