Print

[Dalua]

I've been delaying posting an intro for far too long, and I apologize. I live on a small homestead with my family and our cats, ducks and chickens, which are really part of the family as well. This year has been terrible from a seed saving point of view for us, and not much better in terms of growing. We experienced pretty significant flooding last autumn, and a very rainy and moderate flooding spring. As a result I essentially have nothing to trade. Normally, I would have a few heirloom tomato varieties, as well as some winter and summer squash, borage, mint, at least two basils as well as datura and morning glory.

To compensate, we are planning to grow using hay bales to raise our crops off the ground. Hopefully this will do the trick. I'm hoping I will be able to gather up my wish list of medicinal, food, and entheogenic seeds for next season.

[PermieGing]

Hello dalua and welcome to share the seeds

You can fairly easily get promoted to a member by adding some useful information to the site, such as tips, pics to the plant gallery, etc
Just about anything that fellow gardeners could find useful.

Could you elaborate on the hay bales to help with flooding you briefly mentioned? Ive heard of using hay for some crops, however ive never heard of using bales to help with flooding

Once again, welcome!

[onion]

Welcome to the forum!  I'm new here too.  I think you'll like it here.  Some knowledgeable and friendly folks.   

[nobody]

Hi,
Welcome to STS.

Growing in hay bales is fantastic, especially for root / tuber crops. I do russets and carrots the same way and always have a much better yield / quality than I ever got from the ground. What usda zone are you in?

[New Wisdom]

Welcome to STS Dalua. Nice to meet you!

[olyd88]

Hola hola! Welcome to STS bro

Dont hesitate to ask/request if you dont have anything to trade, we will  be able to help you get started. But then make sure to share your growing experience, images from plants or anything that will be helpful mainly to the STS community.

See you soon

olyd88

[MadPlanter]

Welcome man! Better luck next year with your plantings.

[Dalua]

Hi again,

I live in zone 8a. Very hot humid summers followed by mild but humid winters.

From what I understand using straw bales is fairly simple, and a less expensive alternative to raised beds. We're hoping that the foot or so higher, will prevent the plants from becoming submerged in the event of a flood (and hoping the bales don't float away), and perhaps help prevent any contaminations from salt water, fuel, or septic. The basic idea, is you let the straw bales (whole and still bound) sit outside to begin seasoning. Then you dig a small hole where you will be planting. Into this you put the fertilizer of your choice, we will most likely be using poultry manure  . I believe this needs to season for two weeks or so prior to transferring your seedlings. The seasoning process is really just leaving the straw bales out in the weather, and iirc watering the bales.

I've heard they make harvest of root vegetables extremely easy. I've read that you can typically get multiple years from the bales.

Thank you all for the welcomes, glad to be here