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I didn't do anything fancy with the layout; just placed them in a line along a portion of fence where they'll get full sun and I will have easy watering access.
Hopefully I'll be planting my veggies next weekend as long as the weather forecast is nice!
I'll update this thread periodically with pics.
I definitely will!
They don't look it in the photos but the inside of the bales are getting sort of mushy, I'm generating some mushrooms already and two are enthusiastically sprouting grass seeds so hopefully vegetable babies will take off.
The house in the photo is my next door neighbors'; other than a neighbor across the street there are no other close neighbors. I've already been asked WTH I am doing watering a row of bales every morning, LOL.
Hahahaha!! I know the feeling of being laughed at for that! And hey, I like that fence. That's a nice treatment for chainlink. Is it yours or the neighbor's?
Fence is mine, and what happened was we started to build it as a 6' privacy fence BEFORE I checked with the local building dept. (I know, dumb of me.) So all the posts and rails were in. My house is off to the right of those photos.
Apparently fence that is in front of the plane of the house front, if that makes sense, must be chain link or see-through, plus only 5' tall. So we lopped the posts lower, dug a trench all around and attached the 6' chain link fencing I had to the posts and buried about a foot underground. It's very sturdy!
I bought a small house on four city lots. So the fenced part is most of one entire lot, plus behind my house, which gives the dogs a pretty sizeable yard to run in. But I don't trust them not to tromp all over a veg garden, which is why there's a fence between them and it....
Ohhhhh, how we want a small house on a big big lot!!! There is just no such thing here. We'd have to buy a big lot and build a house, and that ain't going to happen!
I definitely will!
They don't look it in the photos but the inside of the bales are getting sort of mushy, I'm generating some mushrooms already and two are enthusiastically sprouting grass seeds so hopefully vegetable babies will take off.
The house in the photo is my next door neighbors'; other than a neighbor across the street there are no other close neighbors. I've already been asked WTH I am doing watering a row of bales every morning, LOL.
I see the dog next door is eyeing them too. Hope his aim is bad.
I think this is a good idea but may contribute to mold if not watered properly. Still I like it,good luck.
I see the dog next door is eyeing them too. Hope his aim is bad.
I think this is a good idea but may contribute to mold if not watered properly. Still I like it,good luck.
Actually those are two of my dogs, and I encourage them to pee on the bales!
They have to be conditioned for 10 days to a month with nitrogen (I'm using blood and bone meal fertilizer) and urine is high in nitrogen. I've found some blogs and articles where people who are organic gardeners use only urine.
Mold won't be an issue.
I was going to plant tomorrow but we have a late frost expected Sunday into Monday, low in the 20s. So I'm holding off until after then.
The interiors of the bales are composting nicely and still quite warm if I can get my hand way down inside. It's a cool, rainy day but the bales are still a bit warm. Hopefully the photo sort of shows how they're breaking down.
The second photo is another of my dogs, who is intensely interested in the whole sprinkling of blood and bone meal process LOL. He's convinced I am doing something edible and he really wants to get to those bales!
No, mold is absolutely not an issue. I grew in straw bales for four of the last five years. It is an amazing medium for growing things. Chiro, that is exactly what the bales should be looking like now. Make sure to stuff compost in the planting holes when you plant.
No, mold is absolutely not an issue. I grew in straw bales for four of the last five years. It is an amazing medium for growing things. Chiro, that is exactly what the bales should be looking like now. Make sure to stuff compost in the planting holes when you plant.
I love that pooch!
So that picture of the decomposing bale looks about right? Yay!
I'm overthinking and doing paralysis by analysis wondering if I shouldn't have been monitoring temperature and such, so thank you for that reassurance. I have a couple of bags of organic compost left over from last year, so will do.
Pooch loves ya back. Because of his size and breed he tends to terrify people but he really is a sappy lad.
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But I don't trust them not to tromp all over a veg garden, which is why there's a fence between them and it....
