Category Archives: Mulch

Time to Make Hay

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One of the jobs on the farm that is my responsibility is raking hay.  Raking is the second step in the hay making process.  The farmer does the mowing of the grass, I rake, then we hire someone with a baler to come in and bale.  My tractor for raking is the John Deere 3020.  Raking hay flips the grass rows over to aid in the drying of the grass and makes two or more rows of mowed grass into one and easier for the baler to pick it up and bale it.  The process of making hay takes several days and in those several days you hope for no rain.  If your grass is not dry when you bale, there can be trouble.  Like a compost pile, water aids in the decomposition of the compost material.  In a hay bale, water will help the decomposition process and start to heat up the bale.  Many farmers have lost hay bales to a hay fire.  It’s very important there is no moisture in your grass.

Grass rows ready to be baled.

This year we sold all of our hay to a local dairy.  We had so much hay last year that we still have almost a shed full.  I use our hay not only for my animals but also for my garden see my post Garden Install and Mulch.  This hay is the basis for my gardening efforts.  It will add organic matter to my soil over the years as it decomposes,  it will save me many many hours of weeding as a garden mulch, also in the event of a dry year it will hold moisture in my soil for my veggies.

This is the baling equipment coming to bale.  The rows of dry grass go into the front of the machine and come out the back wrapped into a large bale.

Then the bales are taken where they will be out of the elements until they are used.

That is a basics of making hay.  There is a lot of weather watching before and during the whole process.  With a little bit of luck, and a lot of work, you are rewarded with a great hay crop.

The Farm Wife

Garden Experiments Revisited

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In February and March, I posted two garden experiments .  The titles of these were Compost Hits and Misses and Spinach Experiment.   Follow the links to get a quick refresher.  Basically to sum it up the compost experiment was to see if an anaerobic compost pile is easier to keep than an aerobic compost pile.  The spinach experiment was testing the germination rate of  mulched seeds.

One was a success, one was… in Myth Buster lingo, we will call it plausible.  We will start with the success.  The anaerobic compost pile.  I was pretty happy with the end product of the pile.  I put in almost all the contents of my “after winter” compost pile.  Which is basically kitchen scraps, pumpkins, landscape material from last fall, all not really decomposed because it sat all winter.  So I took all that plus some manure and made a pile where my herb garden is going to be.  Then I threw a black tarp on top and secured it with rocks.  Every week I would dumped a 5 gallon bucket of water or two on it and once gave it a good stir around with my pitch fork.

This is the anaerobic compost pile after 3 months. It is pretty well decomposed. The farmer ran over it with the tractor.

Pros

  1. The pile decomposed fairly quickly.
  2. Almost no management except adding the water.
  3. Lots of worms when the pile was used.
  4. The pile did not really stink.

Cons

  1. The black tarp was an eye sore in my yard for a few months.
  2. The farmer ran over it with the tractor when we were getting other garden areas ready for spring.

I would use the anaerobic method again.  I would suggest, I guess with all compost methods, put it somewhere out-of-the-way and out of sight.  It was nice to put it on my future herb garden spot, because the farmer just tilled all that compost right into the ground and it is now part of my herb garden.  Over all, a good experiment.

Now the spinach experiment.  I mulched one of my raised beds with hay and made rows to plant spinach seeds.  I did not have a great germination rate.  Maybe somewhere around 50% or less.  Some rows did better than others.  I believe they just did not get enough sunlight to really pop up.  I do have spinach though, and we enjoy a spinach salad just about every night so it was not a total loss.  Also it took longer than normal for the spinach to really get going.  Again, because of the lack of sunlight right when they were emerging from the soil.  I don’t think I will do this again.  I will just plant in rows and hoe in between.  Then when spinach is done, I will do consecutive plantings or if not in the mood just mulch the whole bed, to keep weeds down, until fall when I can plant more spinach.

Since I now read a lot of garden blogs, I have noticed that many gardeners will have an experiment going in one form or another.  It’s just not enough sometimes to hear someone tell you something works or does not work.  You have to see it for yourself.  I had books and others warn me about trying an anaerobic compost pile.  It would stink, it takes longer, maybe I didn’t do it right, but I sort of liked it.  It gave me some quick (3 month) compost.  It’s worth it to just try something and make your own conclusions.  Those are this farm wife’s thoughts on the subject.

The Farm Wife

Garden Install and Mulch

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I learned my lesson a few years ago.  Don’t put your garden in before Mother’s Day.  It’s an easy rule to follow.  A few years ago the weather was getting nice and it was wednesday before Mothers Day.  I thought, what the heck just a few days early won’t matter.  Yes, you know where this story is going.  The night before Mothers Day the evening temp got down to 30 degrees.  I lost all my tomatoes, basil, peppers and eggplant.  I made two mistakes that year.  I planted before Mothers Day and I didn’t watch the weather.

This year I do have my garden in and it is before Mother’s Day, but I am watching the weather.  Since the spring trend has been warm I felt pretty safe in making my move to get my garden in last weekend.  First, I looked at the 10 day forecast, 40 degrees is as low as it’s going to get between now and Mothers Day.  Pretty sure I’m going to be safe.

I was very happy with my newspaper pots, and disappointed in my peat pots.  I think that I will be using newspaper pots exclusively in the future.  Above I have my pots in a egg collecting basket.  This is a farm auction find for $1.00.

Between my tomatoes and peppers they take up 50% of my garden.  The rest is peas, beans, basil, eggplant,  broccoli, head lettuce and cucumbers.  That is my main kitchen garden plot.  I have another plot that is the strawberry patch another dedicated to onions this year and another that is the pumpkin patch.  The farmer is in charge of the pumpkin patch.    This is after everything is planted but before the mulch is put on.  The stick structure is my bean pole.  Here is my mulch.  I used all of this and I am going to need more for touch ups.  Thank goodness we had a good hay crop last year.  We have some to spare.  That is my sons favorite outfit.  I can’t get him to stop wearing it.  He does rotate between two different John Deere t-shirts though.After mulching.  I have more mulch to install I am just going to wait until some plants get a little bigger.This picture shows how thick the mulch is.  It’s probably a good 6″ thick.  This mulch will cut my weeding time dramatically.  I will have to weed in between plants until they grow and form a canopy to block the sun.

These are my tomato cages.  They are bent hog fences.  Don’t waste your money on the dinky tomato cages at Walmart.  There are many other options to try.  I have a friend who ties her tomatoes to a stake as they grow.  Works well.  I like these bent fences.  This idea came from my neighbor Lynn.  I got him the fences and he bent them for me.

Mulched onions.  I have 4 rows of onions I could probably have 6 if I didn’t mulch.  To me the loss of planting space is worth not having to spend all my time weeding.  I also have a lot of garden space so that is not an issue for me.  I enjoy the look of the hay much.  In these pictures it looks real fluffy.  It does compress as the season goes on and it’s easy to walk on with bare feet.  It also shows the kids where the garden aisles are so they are not running through the whole garden when the plants are little.

I’m very excited about my garden this year.  So far it is doing well.  We have gotten good rain and good sunshine days.  God has blessed us to have such great growing conditions.  This is why I love living in Wisconsin.  We can forget about winter for now.

The Farm Wife

Spinach Experiment

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I have a few raised beds that I plant the “early” stuff in.  Onions, garlic, spinach, lettuce these are usually my choices for my raised beds.  About halfway through the summer I move my interest from the raised beds to the actual veggie garden.  Consequentially, weeds start growing in the raised beds.  This year I am going to remedy this problem.  A few days ago, I planted my spinach and I am testing out a new technique.  I am a little afraid… oh we will get to that later.  Here is what I did.

First, I dumped in all the compost that I have left after my compost experiment (check out compost hits and misses).  Yes, there are pieces in there.  Some eggs, pumpkins with seeds, coffee filters, other odds and ends.  No, it is not completely composted and that is ok because it will finish decomposing right there where it is.  I have lots of worms in this bed.Next, I started applying mulch.  This will stop any pumpkin seeds from germinating along with blocking any weeds from popping through.  Then I took my pruning shears and cut 3 rows in the mulch.  This took a little time and effort.  I had to tuck, squeeze, and separate mulch as much as I could to make 3 distinct rows

Pros:

  1. There is no way a single weed is getting through that mulch.
  2. I can use compost that is not completely decomposed.
  3. All the other benefits of having used mulch, soil moisture, hay will decompose and add to the fertile soil.

Cons:

  1. I am worried that the seeds will be shaded too much by the mulch to germinate.
  2.  I would have room for 4 rows of spinach instead of 3, without the mulch.

If it works, I will be thrilled and I can keep planting spinach and lettuce using those same rows.  If it doesn’t work, I will have learned another gardening lesson (mulching seedlings is a must, mulching seeds does not work).  You have to experiment sometimes.  Whats a garden without an experiment or two in the works?

I will have an update soon!

The Farm Wife

If looking at your garden gives you a headache…..

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If looking at your garden gives you a headache, then you probably won’t spend any time out there in the summer months.  Garden aesthetics is very important to me.  We all remember our moms yelling at us as kids to get our rooms clean.  Then when she got tired enough of your room she would help you clean and get things organized.  Maybe this is just me.  Anyway, when your room was then clean and things like your socks and underwear were organized, all the sudden, you had a new appreciation for your space.  You wanted to hang out, you wanted to do your homework on your desk,  you wanted to play with all your stuff.  Well, this is exactly how you will feel about your garden if the appropriate prep work is done  in the spring.

Your family will be in your garden if it's a fun place to be.

Any time you can spend writing ideas down or thinking about your garden now will bring a smooth installation project come May.  Think about plant placement.  When thinking on plant placement ask yourself  where your plants were last year and put them somewhere else.  To help resist soil borne diseases, moving vegetables is a good first step.

I’ve touched on this a little in a previous post, the MOST IMPORTANT factor that will determine how much you will be weeding this summer is how much mulch you put on in the spring.  The biggest concern I’ve heard and I guess I had before my mulching epiphany, was “if you mulch with grass hay won’t the seeds get into your garden?”  There is a couple answers to that.  First, results depend on your technique.  If you mulch like you are shaking salt and pepper on your steak then yes, seeds will meet the soil and will germinate.  I did the salt and pepper method so I am speaking from experience.  I had a nice crop of oats in my vegetable garden that year.  Of course I said “well this mulching idea is stupid, I’m not doing this again”  Then I went back to my garden guru and said “ok, explain the mulch to me again, oh wise one.”  When putting your mulch down, think more in terms of laying a barrier 4″ absolute minimum.  My garden guru, Cathy, uses more like 6-8″.  I probably use 4-6″ and that works well for me.  There might be some reapplying during the summer.  The other answer, involves when the hay was cut.  The farmer and I cut grass hay in June.  At that time, the grass has not gone to seed so there will be very little in terms of seed.  If buying hay from a local farmer is your option ask what type of hay is it and when was it cut.  Also give it a good look and smell.   If you see seeds coming out of it that’s no big deal you are just going to need more because remember the barrier, if the seeds can’t germinate you don’t have a problem.  Then smell just because hay smells good!  It doesn’t have to be good hay.   Actually, if you ask the farmer to give you his crapiest hay you might get it for free you just will need a lot of it.

Hay will break off in sections so take a section and just set it right down on the soil.

Doing just a little garden thinking and prep now can help you a lot down the line.  Make it a place where you and your family want to spend some time this summer.

The Farm Wife