Straw Bale Garden

The straw bale garden is in! First, I laid a big piece of chicken wire on the ground to go underneath the straw bales. This is to prevent any burrowing vermin from digging up from under the garden and wreaking havoc! Next, I arranged 6 straw bales into a rectangle shape. I bought 6 bags of organic soil designed specifically for "bed" gardening. (They didn't have any labeld for "bale" gardening.) I carefully spread the 6 bags of soil on top of the 6 bales. Then I planted the seedlings from my kitchen window in the soil. I got me a 50 foot soaker hose and a timer to attach to the hose bib. I let the soaker hose coil naturally around the little plants and set the timer for twice a day watering. So far all the plants are still alive. Keep your fingers crossed--all three of my "followers" will be the first to receive the bountiful harvest to come!

Edible Garden

Edible Garden--sounds kinda funny, doesn't it? It just means growing stuff you can eat, as opposed to flowers and such. So this has happened before-I get an itch to do a garden, but this is the closest I've come to actually following through. I'm kinda like that--lots of big plans, very little follow-through! That's not something I'm proud of; just being honest. Wow, did you see that? I used the semi-colon! I think that makes me kinda official or something! Anyway, several weeks ago I got this urge to grow something. I did a bunch of "research" on the internet. (that's what I call the time I waste online) I decided to try something called "straw-bale gardening". It seems kinda red-neck, which is perfect for me! I think red-neck and farmer's tan go hand in hand. Oh, and I already had 6 bales of straw lying around doing nothing. Fortunately, I was smart enough to realize that early February wasn't the right time to start planting stuff. (It actually snowed at my house last weekend!)  So rather than just wait a few weeks, I wandered around the garden center at Home Depot and found these cute little seed-starter thingamajigs. Also, grabbed seeds for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, cilantro, and basil. I LOVE fresh basil! So these cute little plants are living in my kitchen window waiting to move outside. Another bit of honesty about me--it would not be un-like me to have lost interest in this little project and eventually just let those little guys die and abandon the whole project! That's where this Blog comes in! See if I think someone is actually reading this, I feel a need to be accountable. I know there are thousands out there waiting to see the results of my red-neck, straw-bale garden! I won't let you down!