Straw Bale Gardening Continues

SHOP ALL

I know, I know. I told you last week that I'd give you an update on our outdoor Cockeyed Critters this week. All I can say is things change. My foot isn't healing as anticipated. In fact, I have two more fractures starting to form. So no updated photos of our bunnies and chickies.

But today, I'm going to give you an update on our straw bale gardening endeavors. As you may have read here, we've expanded our garden spot. As you can imagine with 10 rabbits and a dozen or so chickens, they produce a lot of waste. Their poop does not go to waste. Get it, waste and waste? Two meanings for one word. Oh, never mind.

We placed our straw bales on the new areas of the garden rather than trying to dig through the compacted red clay soil. We have huge granite rocks and thick tree roots under the surface. It was just a labor saving device to build the fertile soil up rather than spend big bucks and years of labor to get the new areas up to speed with the rest of the garden area that we spent years amending to make fertile. It will take two years to completely rejuvenate the new areas rather than the four it took for the rest of the garden and we can grow produce while we do it. Makes sense right?

We started with a layer of wood chips over the entire area. Thanks to Hurricane Irma. But we wanted to hedge our bet for a better gardening season.  We decided to do two growing seasons (2 years) in straw bales as well. One row of straw bales around to new perimeter of the garden. It will serve dual purpose for now. A garden outline and build up the soil.

We've waited all winter long for the rains to fall. We wanted Mother Nature to do the work for us to decompose the straw bales. I added bone and blood meal to the bales last month when we had a couple of rainy days. Now was time for the serious nitrogen boosters, the manure. Chicken manure is very high in nitrogen as well as several pathogens that can be passed on to humans, such as botulism. That's the reason it should be composted for a year. But for our purposes, the three month deep bedding method used for our coop,and then sat undisturbed for three months, and plus being on he straw bales for three months works.

We loaded a couple wheel barrows full of the stuff. Yeah, chickens are messy critters. We also took a couple of wheel barrows of the deep bedding method manure and straw from the rabbit barn too. It does not have to be composted. We mixed it all together. We spread this about six to eight inches thick on top of the bales and growing areas. It will have three months to perform it's magic on the bales and regular garden areas. Meanwhile, Mother Nature complies with heavy rain falls soaking all that nitrogen run off into the bales and ground. Working with nature is the backbone of self sufficiency. It's like that very old television commercial, "It's not nice to fool [with] Mother Nature."

As this one farmer found out.

The warmer temperatures, we've been having will speed the composting process up.  This morning, two weeks ago manure was added, the temperature of the bales was 105 degrees. I added some more rain water to the bales that were this hot. So it's cooking rather nicely since it rained. We will be expecting another drenching down pour next week. But between now and then, we'll be having sporadic showers to cool the bales down some. The danger in straw bale gardening is that they can catch fire without matches. Yes, the decomposing pile can get that hot. So we are watchful. We take the bales' temperature every other day. We'll add more rabbit manure and straw if the temperature falls below 50 degrees to keep it bales cooking. Until we are ready to plant the end of April and the beginning of May. The interiors of the bales should be fertile, compost and more than ready to receive plants.

The plan is that next year, we'll plant directly into whatever is left of this year's straw bales.  We've got two 4 cu ft of peat moss and about two bags of mushroom compost to add to the existing garden too to replenish the soil. They were left over from our raised bed gardening endeavor two seasons ago. Although we have plenty of earth worm working for us in the existing garden as well.

Public Domain

Nothing is fast when dealing with organic gardening on the cheap side. But that's the way nature intended it. We prefer to work with nature here at the Cockeyed Homestead rather than the chemical ladened alternatives. So we have an off season or two as we attempt to become more self-sufficient. In the long run, we'll get there.

In the mean time, the farmers' markets and grocery stores are full of options. We've got time to experiment on what works best for us and our area. To get the best, it takes a lot of practice. We are constantly searching for alternatives to getting back to nature and self sufficiency. Some things work, but others can work better/worse too. You never know until you try. That's why we are the Cockeyed Homestead. We do things a little twisted and corny rather than the normal way to do things. We make you tilt your head to one side and go, "Huh?" followed by an, "Oh, now I get it. How neato!" Interject whatever word you want here, I'm just showing my age. "I never thought about doing it that way!" AND, everything was originally done cockeyed when building this place originally. There isn't a day that I don't cock my head to one side and go, "Huh? Why'd they do that like that?"

Y'all have a blessed day!"

Compost the Easy Hard Way

Everyone who researches organic gardening knows the importance of compost.  Compost is simply the broken down  organic waste products (vegetable peelings, paper, manure, leaves, etc). Ask any gardener and they will call it "black gold." It's more than a fertilizer for plants. It enriches your soil, and even in the heaviest clay soil, like we have here, will help the soil hold moisture. It all makes the soil lighter and easier for roots to grow through. The root system of plants have been known to widen cracks in concrete in their search for food. That in itself is pretty impressive, but we are talking about food product here. A healthy root system will feed the plants we want to grow big and strong. Why have wimpy vegetables that have had to fight their way through hard packed soil when you can have robust plants?

Chicken waste and straw make excellent compost after time. It has to compost for at least a year because chickens eat meat. But, rabbit waste can be used immediately because they only eat plant material. This is a key to how soon you can use your composting efforts.  It's an important point. That's why we have both rabbits and chickens. Plants such as vegetables need a booster when they start to flower and set fruit. We will use either composted chicken manure from the previous year, rabbit manure straight from the cages, or purchased composted vegetable/animal waste to side dress the plants. We will continue side dressing every couple of weeks until the harvest is finished.

Now, Mel will toss the contents of the kitchen compost bin out into our composting area. We  grow our compost close to the garden bed. I've seen several articles and videos on using chickens to help your composting efforts. Our chickens are totally free ranging birds. They have no penned in area and are free to roam on our acreage. Here's the rub. They eat all the green manure (scraps-nitrogen source) except for the paper towels so we are left with only the carbon source in the pile. Yes, they do leave their droppings in the pile as they scratch it and turn the pile, but I noticed a marked reduction in the amount of nitrogen in the pile. The combination of the nitrogen and carbon decomposes (heats) the pile to promote decomposition into the rich, dark fertilizer we want.

Compost needs several things to work effectively. Namely air, water, heat, and balanced nitrogen and carbon. When an inbalance occurs like a skewed ratio of carbon and nitrogen the compost pile will stagnate instead of decompose. You get the nonbeneficial type of molds that just stink up the place. Granted it will decompose over time, but it will take longer. Compost is a living breathing entity.

So what's the answer in our case? We have two options as I see it. We can add the rabbit waste or we can fence off the pile from the chickens. Each one of these options have cons. Using the rabbit waste in the compost pile reduces the amount of nitrogen rich fertilizer we can use as a side dressing to boost plant growth and vegetables. Fencing the pile off means we will have to manually turn the pile periodically. Right now, we have a great abundance in rabbit manure so we may do both.

We keep a 5-gallon bucket half filled with rabbit manure and rain water to use as a liquid fertilizer. If a plant requires an instant booster to keep producing, like strawberries, we'll grab a half pint full of the rain water- rabbit poo mix for each plant. It's similar to compost tea or worm tea in properties. Within 24 hours, we see a difference in the plant we are growing. The plant will green up, and stand a little bit taller. With our strawberries, we water them in with this rain-rabbit poo mix every two weeks. It between we notice a boom of flowers for our bumble bees to pollinate, and set fruit.

We don't expect much from our garden this year. Growing an organic garden takes a few years. Our goal for this year is fresh eating. Although we may dry a few ears of corn for the chickens to enjoy this winter. Seems strange to most people that I'm talking about next winter when it's only Spring, but this is the road towards self-sufficiency. Next year's production is geared for six months of sustainability. The following year is a full year to meet our needs until the next growing season. The year after that, two years worth. Yes, I've got a 1-year, 2-year and up to 5-year plan for this homestead already. Planning is key. I'll probably post it here one day for you to see when there is not so much going on.

While Mel has been attempting this for the last two years, her lack of knowledge was holding her back. As for me, I grew 100-300 lbs of each of vegetables each year in my 30x40 organic plot. It did take years to produce that much on such small amount of garden, but it is doable.I should mention here that I started with a 10x10 plot and expanded it each year. It meant looking at what I had, what I wanted, patience, and planning. 

But in the beginning of all of it, there was compost. Compost can make the sandiest or hard clay packed soil into a rich growing medium for tasty veges and fruit. It can also make rich soil much more richer and a powerhouse for plants. Manufactured, chemical fertilizers...who needs them? Not us!