More on Straw Bale Gardening

Notice how we planted marigolds too

I've mentioned in previous posts that we are straw bale gardening this year. The first row along the barn side, I planted English peas and bush green beans. It wasn't long that these peas needed something to climb on. It was a simple fix of adding 4' garden rods with string.

The next row was all the tomatoes. Again I used the posts and string to try to keep the extending growth contained. I knew that this would only be a short lived fix. Tomato plants can grow to 8' tall or more. One year on my old homestead, I planted some tomatoes in those topsy-turvy planters. I had eye-bolts anchored into the eaves of my house and they still lay on the ground. So my fix is cattle panels. They are placed in a hoop fashion on the rods over the pea/bean row of straw bales and the tomato row of straw bales. It gives me shade for harvesting these vegetables. We simply zip tied the panels in place on the rods. Now both can grow as long as they like. If the tomatoes grow to the other pea/bean bale, they'll root to form new plants for a continually rotating crop of tomatoes until the frost kills them. By the time that happens, the peas will be done and the green bean harvest will almost be done.

I let the wheat seed in the bales grow to feed to the rabbits and chickens. It's a quick, easy feed since the straw wasn't seed free. Triple duty in a small space. The straw bales will enrich the soil over time as they compost. The wheat straw provides food for or bunnies and chickens, and we get vegetables to eat. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

I've got to plant the zucchini for my pickle relish too. Since I've added preparing the refreshments for my stroke support group to my litany of to-dos, I'll need twice as much as I put up last year. I just love my zucchini relish. Mel, who hates squash of any kind, loves it too. The zucchini holds its texture so much better than cucumbers do. Thank you Great-Aunt Nancy! She gave me her recipe 43 years ago and I haven't used cucumbers for relish since. It's just so yummy.

Well, that's it for this week.

Y'all have a blessed day!

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!"

Cockeyed Laziness Stops Now

I've always said that I was fortunate that I didn't have a spouse that could do for me after my stroke for my recovery's sake. My husband was terminal ill and actually 18 months from dying when I had my first and second stroke. I had no choice, I had to recover as much as I could and fast. I relearned how to speak legibly, move, fetch, carry, cook, shop, clean, drive and be a full-time caregiver within six months. I had no choice. Amazing, but that in itself was a blessing. Everything was have to relearn it NOW!

Confession time and fast forward five years. I'm living in an environment with an able bodied roommate. I find myself "lazy." I'm no longer struggling to lift 30-50 lbs of animal feed. If I don't want to, Mel can do it. In fact Mel is doing a lot of things I used to do if I find it's too much of a struggle for me. This is a luxury I never knew when my husband was live.

Am I wrong to take advantage of this luxury? When I think of other stroke survivors out there living post stroke who've had this kind of support all along, I rationalize that I was due. But in truth, I'm just being lazy and not being my proactive self. To me, yes! It's the laziness of two syndrome setting in.

Not really, but this morning...

Take this morning for example. It was cold in the house. It was only 31 degrees for the night's low.The night's fire in the wood stove had burned out. There was nothing but ash in the hearth part. I left it, donned my sweatshirt and turned on my personal electric heater.  Mel has gotten me spoiled by always making sure there was enough wood inside to start a roaring fire until last night. I didn't run out to the front porch for firewood. My fingers were too cold to even sort through my morning medicines. In my rationalizing, self centered mind, it was Mel's fault for not bringing in enough wood to start a fire. It didn't matter that I had overslept. In fact, Mel woke up 30 minutes after I did. That almost never happens. Usually, by the time she wakes up, I'd started a fire, cooked breakfast, made her tea, had the bread or whatever started, and assorted other things.

In reality, I was lazy and full of self pity. I actually can see myself in the role of other stroke survivors out there now with others able to do for them. I did eventually set up Mel's breakfast tray after she started the fire and she was outside feeding the animals. A short year ago, I would have done all these things. The sad thing is that this behavior is becoming the norm for me now. Sure, I'll still sort out and help with the garden, care for the homestead critters, and cook. But now it's with lackluster enthusiasm. It's the laziness of two because there is someone else to do it for me.

I realized my laziness of two is causing more work for us this morning when I thought about how we set up the straw bales in the garden. In part, honestly it was a brain fart moment. When I brought in the last ten bales of wheat straw, I suggested putting cardboard down first under the bales. Mel decided to use weed cloth because it was easier. I didn't argue with her because I was tired and couldn't voice my reason for using the cardboard instead. This morning, it came to me crystal clear why I wanted cardboard under the bales and use the weed cloth in the walkways. It was a "Doh!" moment. Worms can't get through the weed cloth, the plant roots can't grow through it, and it won't decompose for decades. Now, we'll have to redo a whole 40' row. Made worse because the rain we had this week has soaked the bales so now they are twice as heavy. The composted straw bales were to enhance the decomposing wood  chips to build the soil. With the weed cloth down we would have had to remove the good composted bales in two years to add it to the wood chips after removing the barrier. So much for working smarter. But at least I caught my mistake before 40 bales of straw was down.

Another example of sheer laziness of two on my part has to do with the little shopping I do. I don't put the reusable shopping bags back in my car. As a result we get a those plastic bags. But there is a happy result with this laziness, I can spin Plarn (plastic yarn). With the plarn, I can knit or crochet market bags which I can use or sell. But it's more work on me and Mel. I still don't play well with scissors. Then, I have to spin it on my spinning wheel. Yes, I know you don't have to spin it to use it, but I have a stronger more consistent product to work with by spinning it. Part of me is still in the marketing mode that dictates a better product commands a better price point. So now, I'll have tan (grocery bags), blue (walmart bags) and white (pharmacy, Lowes, and Dollar Store bags) to work into plarn this winter as if I didn't have enough angora and sheep's wool to spin already. Oh, and all those little plastic bags filled with product, I only carry half of them inside...Mel gets the rest. It's the laziness of two.

In a way the luxury of the laziness of two has been a blessing. It's less wear and tear on me having someone else share the load. But when I start taking advantage of it, that's just not right. That's one thing I've got to change starting today. I'll be making A HUGE pot of beef, vegetable and barley soup tonight. I'll be canning the excess. Why? Because I can and it's less work later. Mel has to pick up a truckload of wood and cardboard today, so I'll keep her company and help as much as I can. Tomorrow morning I'll be out in the garden and orchard with her, sans two hours for a doctor's appointment. I'll be side by side working with her until weather stops us. The laziness of two stops right now. Together we can accomplish more as it should be.

We had snow this week! So it stopped most of the outdoor work. But the new loom I ordered came in so I'm knitting again.

Y'all have a blessed day.