Seeding Into Straw

Question

Hi, I’m hoping you’ll have some ideas/advice about this…I live on thirty acres where the soil is poor (it is a former vineyard so you can imagine how, for decades, it was forced to be a monocrop). I’m only tackling the quarter acre or so around the house, though. The only way I could figure out to create walkable areas was, about a year ago, to cover three-ish foot wide walkways with cardboard, and then cover these with a thick layer of straw. I then placed heavy stones on top. My idea is to come back at that this year, pour some soil into the nooks and crannies of the straw, and then seed into that. Thyme looks like a great idea, but I’m open to other ideas, as long as the species can tolerate the poor soil and the rest of this setup. I’m getting the idea that with pretty much anything I plant, I need to wait until there is no frost danger. Thank you for help.

Answer 1

Thyme is a good one. You can mix some compost into the soil before you drop it in to increase fertility. Here are more ideas:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/groundcover/gcgen/groundcover-for-foot-traffic.htm