Thursday, February 25, 2016

Making Hay While The Rain Falls

Yep....it's hay bales.
Yes, Ma'am, they're in my back yard.
  And, I'm letting Mother Nature get them good and wet!!!
  For the last 10 years, I have tried and tried to have a small garden here on the Ridge without much success.  Between the moles, the raccoons, the bunnies and the occasional 'possum, it has not been much of a yield.  (Just ask me about my marigolds and the chipmunks!!!!) 

  I had heard about hay bale gardening before, but I found a new (to me) website, and I'm ready to try it.
Hay Bale gardening: no weeds, no fertilizers and less watering!! What a simple but amazing concept!!
Hay Bale Gardening

  I went out today and got four more bales - this time I got straw.  I'm going to do my own comparison between the two.

   The "no fertilizer" might be a little misleading....you have to get the bales ready by adding nitrogen every other day for 12 days.  And, thanks to all the rain we've been getting, I don't have to worry about hosing it down!

  The potting soil is for sowing seeds.  It keeps the seeds from falling down into the bale. 
  I'll keep you updated with the results.

 
I'll leave you with this....Carol's husband, Don, took this picture for us.  It's kind of a "Where's Waldo" kind of picture.  We all started acting a little goofy by this point, as you can tell.  I'm hoping to take one of the better ones to use for our mast.  I hope it gets posted by this evening.....we'll see.
  I need to go haul those bales up to the backyard so they can get some of this free water.
Happy Weaving (and planting!)
LouAnn

1 comment:

Maggie said...

Did you ask Pat about the hay bale gardening? Good luck with it! I'm inspired to get my starting trays out, though I can't help but feel it's a little early!