A Balefull Garden

Q: If April showers bring May flowers, what do May showers bring?

A: Strawbale gardens!!!

This year we are testing out a new method of gardening, strawbale gardens! Last week, my mom kindly picked up some strawbales and dropped them off at my house in a torrential downpour. I quickly set up the bales in the garden and headed inside. I snapped this shot once the rain let up.

You can see all the weeds in the middle of the bales. The darker area towards the bottom of the picture is the lasagna garden. There were several lovely days of heavy rain last week which greatly helped in soaking the bales.

On day four, last Friday, we weeded the central area, laid down cardboard and put grass clippings on top. Then we added nitrogen rich rabbit droppings to the straw bales and watered them. By this time the entire area was sopping wet and even the grass felt like a bog.

On Saturday, we made another big run to home depot, and bought even more bales! We put three in the middle and plan to use that area for herbs. To the left of those 3 bales are our thornless rasberries.

We planted a bunch of corn, some pumpkins, yellow squash, and cantelope in our lasagna garden. In another week, the straw should be ready and we will plant there soon! We are very excited to see test out the straw bale theory.Time will Tell!