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Bee, your garden always looks so pretty. I love how you have all the flowers planted around your garden. I have faith that you will run upon some hay for your garden this year.

henless said:

Bee, your garden always looks so pretty. I love how you have all the flowers planted around your garden. I have faith that you will run upon some hay for your garden this year.

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Thank you! And, me too! I've prayed for hay and have every confidence that God will provide it...in His own time.

The woman who brings me horse manure brought me a small bale of hay like the one she got me last year. I love that stuff. I made her some sourdough bread and gave her eggs. It’s such a win win for both of us. We really appreciate each other.

Mary

ninnymary said:

The woman who brings me horse manure brought me a small bale of hay like the me she got me last year. I love that stuff. I made her some sourdough bread and gave her eggs. It’s such a win win for both of us. We really appreciate each other.

Mary

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What a great setup and how nice for you both! I'd definitely bake bread and give eggs if someone would bring me hay....I'm still not finding a source for it.

I'm planing on the heavy-mulching/BTE method this year. We have field mice here, and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced mice in their hay/stray/alfalfa mulch or haybale gardens. Unfortunately I'm already having to put out a poison dispenser to deal with them. I hate to do it, but I don't have control over the field next to me that will provide them endless housing and I can't have them moving in. Any experience?

TwinCitiesPanda said:

I'm planing on the heavy-mulching/BTE method this year. We have field mice here, and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced mice in their hay/stray/alfalfa mulch or haybale gardens. Unfortunately I'm already having to put out a poison dispenser to deal with them. I hate to do it, but I don't have control over the field next to me that will provide them endless housing and I can't have them moving in. Any experience?

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we don't seem to grow things that the mice get into that much. yes, i will see signs of them nibbling on the dry beans later in the season but otherwise i don't think they damage anything else that i've noticed. and i know we have a thriving mouse population around the house as i have to trap them along the foundation until i find the gap they are using to get into the walls and i see their tracks in the snow come back within a few days after i've caught them all. there's a lot of hiding places in the rocks we've got piled all around.

chipmunks on the other hand... they like to eat some of the bean sprouts/seeds as they are being planted and growing and they also go after my strawberries. i don't mind sharing some of each with them, but if the population gets out of hand they can really take a heavy toll (they also like to eat a lot of the crocusses and sometimes they'll go after the tulip bulbs too).

TwinCitiesPanda said:

I'm planing on the heavy-mulching/BTE method this year. We have field mice here, and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced mice in their hay/stray/alfalfa mulch or haybale gardens. Unfortunately I'm already having to put out a poison dispenser to deal with them. I hate to do it, but I don't have control over the field next to me that will provide them endless housing and I can't have them moving in. Any experience?

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Yes, in Arkansas I had mice and especially rats in straw mulch or even in plants that just self-mulch (get so thick they make a good shelter). Rabbits made nests in there too until I fenced them out. I had fields and fence rows close around me that were not mine and those sheltered rate and mice. I was in the country and did not mow everything real close real often either and would often see mice and rats wen I did mow. That's one reason I kept the area right around the house mowed pretty well, to keep the vermin and snakes away.

I only saw one snake in there in ten years, a small ring-necked snake. They mostly eat bugs so I was glad to have it.

TwinCitiesPanda said:

I'm planing on the heavy-mulching/BTE method this year. We have field mice here, and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced mice in their hay/stray/alfalfa mulch or haybale gardens. Unfortunately I'm already having to put out a poison dispenser to deal with them. I hate to do it, but I don't have control over the field next to me that will provide them endless housing and I can't have them moving in. Any experience?

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Not really...my cats love to lounge in my garden all season, so no mice, voles, or other rodents. Did uncover a brown snake one day under the chip mulch but that's a good thing, so I left him there. My chickens haunt the perimeter, so nothing getting in or out of there they consider fresh meat. They LOVE the baby brown snakes and treat them much like earthworms, running from one another and trying to snatch it away...good protein.

Other people I know who are doing it are having a vole problem they can't lick but they don't have any outside cats, either.

Well, I’m about 3/4 of the way finished with a 30’x34’ wheat straw covered garden bed. I’m hoping I don’t have problems with rodents as some of you have mentioned. I plan to cover the wheat straw at least partially with wood chips so the wheat straw doesn’t blow away and maybe won’t be as hospitable to rodents. I had to put out the straw in slices of bales so it wouldn’t blow away in our high winds. I’m planning on planting potatoes in the half that’s complete and leaving the other half unused for spring. Then Ill use my 20x12 wood chip only plot for tomatoes this year and turn it into a strawberry patch next year.

I'm finding no affordable hay this season, so no hay to place on the garden yet. As a result, I'm finding that I have to cultivate a bit before planting this year, which is where our little Mantis comes in real handy. It doesn't dig deep and stays within the top soil, but just works it up finely enough to plant into. Without the heavy mulch covering, my soils quickly compact down, so cultivating some to loosen the soils was necessary....that was the first time in 3 years that garden was cultivated....last time it was done it was merely for weed removal, but not deeply enough to work the soils loosened.

Got the lettuce and greens bed worked up and planted yesterday, as well as a small bed of spuds(not planting as many this year as we aren't using as many in our diets...mostly just in canning soups), and a bed of new rhubarb, asparagus and strawberry crowns. After 4 yrs of heavy mulches such as wood chips and hay, the top layer of soil is a rich, easily workable black color....it was a delight to till up!

After getting these main beds in, it looks like I'll have plenty of room for corn, squash, beans, broccoli, peppers and flowers left over. I'm pretty tickled about that!

Using a raised bed this time for rhubarb, asparagus and strawberry, as what I was doing before wasn't working real well for any of them...have killed several full grown rhubarb plants these past several years now. Our soils are too wet and heavy for rhubarb to grow in well, so I'm raising them above the clay base and will be adding compost materials all season long. I'll be able to feed them better this way and they'll get good drainage there. Plus, that puts most of my perennials in one bed, which helps in garden planning.

I also planted two more raspberry plants yesterday.

I hope to do all wooden~made from saplings~trellising this year for all climbers and things needing extra support. All my cattle panels and T posts will be going towards a temporary sheep shelter and pen, so it's back to nature for supports.