Would this make a horrific mess?

[poiuytrewq]

As posted a while ago my usually life saving, lovely perfect well drained woodchip Turnout area, this year has for some reason turned into a quagmire. I really still need to use it but it is awful. Imagine deep black almost compost.... grim.
We plan this Spring to scrape the whole lot off and redo.
So I've become a bit lazy and although still poo pick it I've not bothered cleaning up hay left under nets. Occurred to me today where the hay is is easy to walk and push barrows on.
Sooooo, I wondered about a thick layer of hay over the whole lot? Bearing in mind it's going anyway. They won't eat it, obviously may pick a bit but really only bother with nets hence the reason hay has built up on the floor.
O/H is away so can't run it past him. Not sure if it's a totally stupid idea that will be a nightmare to get rid of and that he might divorce me (!!) or if it's worth a go.

 

[whiteflower]

I use left over hay in muddy field gateways and find it helps to firm them up a bit. It also reseeds them for the spring which is a bonus. If you are scrapping it up anyway you may as well give it a try. Not long till spring now, or so I keep telling myself !

 

[11bluewolf]

Im not sure how much hay you would need to put down but I would have thought it will just add to the volume making scraping it up more difficult? Also may not actually stop the horses from turning it up as their weight is not as well distributed as a wheel barrows/ and obviously also them being a lot heavier may mean that they sink through it anyway?

 

[Shay]

Its a very old practice among hill farmers - and in a very small way I do the same around high traffic areas on yard. Don't waste stuff which could be fed - but sweep anything that would be wasted into a traffic area.

You will destroy the grass mat so it isn't a solution for any area where you want to grow grass. But where the other solution is to pore in hard core it is kind and environmentally friendly.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Adding to the volume of waste we have to move is my worry!
I have a big Heston of hay that isn't as nice as my other hay so has been opened and started then left so could use that. It needs to be out of the way shortly and I'm not keen on feeding it. May try a patch in the worst effected area and see what happens!