Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Crafty

I must be into my 3rd trimester of pregnancy ..  my fingers are itching to do some knitting. The problem is I have all kinds of other things to accomplish that are a bit more important, like getting ready for chicks and planting the garden. Below is a picture of my patching our "new" grinder mixer.  The exit auger is rusted out but that's just one thing to be done out of many..

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Straaaawwww...

I don't know about other regions, but where I am in SE KS mulch of some kind is extremely helpful! Though many view straw as problematic due to grain left behind, it is one of my favorite mulches. Though I much prefer red clover as a way of amending the soil. Mulch is important here because of how hot and dry it gets in the summer! The last two summers have been plain atrocious with the drought and mulch helped but it didn't seem to matter through the worst of it. 

I'm actually looking at investing in shade cloth due to the intensity of the sun combine with shear day length. It was best described in the book "Gardening in the Heartland" as here we get too much sun. Who'd have thought! All the gardening recommendations say put your garden in full sun! Not necessarily wise here and I'm certainly finding that out first hand. Makes a person wish their garden was portable ... Whatever the case, I find myself trying to get a load of straw in. I don't bother with small square bales, they are WAY overpriced. You can get around 15 small square bales from one big round. I can get a big round for $30. Otherwise I'm looking at $3/small square bale. That's $45/big round. Granted $3 is a good price, more common is $4 each ($60).

Big protest people tend to have: I don't have a tractor. You don't need a tractor. I've been handling big rounds of straw without a tractor for years.  The most you really need is a pickup and some muscle or ingenuity on getting it out of the pickup box. In is no problem, the farmer will load it for you. But if you really like the convenience of small squares then you'll be willing to pay for them.

As a quick note, it is excellent to layer a legume (i.e. alfalfa or red clover)  and then straw. The legume hay breaks down faster and is an excellent nitrogen source then the straw does it's usual thing and adds carbon into the soil. Just make sure you ask about any sprays applied to the crops!! Herbicides can wreck your garden! Fungicides aren't so good either.  Your best bet is to find certified organic otherwise question the farmer extensively.