What I'm willing to do for straw
The floodplain isn't
precisely dry, but after quite a bit of hot weather, the groundwater has
sunk about six or eight inches below the surface. Which means that Mark
is now able to get the ATV to the edge of our new footbridge,
about 370 feet from the trailer. And roughly two-thirds of the distance
from motorized transport to garden is easily traversable by
wheelbarrow. Yep, the combination of factors finally makes it worthwhile
to haul in ten bales of straw!
This isn't the time of year to buy straw.
Since no one has cut their overwintering grains yet, any straw
available hails from last year and is expensive --- $8 a bale, and only
available a 45-minute drive away. But I couldn't stock up on our usual
supply of straw last year because the offerings turned out to be full of
grain seeds, so the extra time and money is worth it now to keep the
spring garden in good shape. It's even worthwhile to haul the straw one
bale at a time up the hill pictured above.
Back in the garden, I
made short work of my delicious new organic matter. I've been hoarding
newspapers since 2012 (according to the dates on the pages), and I put
most of my stash to good use acting as a weed barrier beneath the straw.
That meant I didn't have to hand-weed each bed before mulching, and I
could also use the straw more lightly than I would have needed to
otherwise. Between Mark's hard work with the weedeater and the
newspaper-straw combination, our garden is finally starting to look
presentable! (Mom and Kayla, any chance you'll start saving me newspaper
once again?)
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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