I long for the soil and sun.

I can't believe that it's nearly the end of May, and yet still so cold. I can't help but sit in the house looking out the window on these cloudy, blustery days and long for warmer temperatures. Most of all I am so excited for our first stab at straw bale gardening.

For years now we have attempted to grow a garden in the land that was left behind after the flood of 1976. The wash of sand gravel and rocks has become as much a frustration as a problem. I've never seen soil so sterile. Of all the things we planted there was very few things we harvested. Peas, beans, spinach, lettuce, and some very reluctant raspberry bushes that actually managed to give us a berry or three. Even our carrots failed to produce anything even worthy of being called baby.

Every year we brainstorm ideas on ways we could make raised beds with out spending a fortune on lumber and top soil. Nothing seemed to meet the requirements that we had. Then one day while we were buying this years seed, we went to Paradise pond and garden. The wife of the owner suggested to us that we look up straw bale gardening. I was skeptical. I figured it would be more like building boxes with the straw and filling it with dirt. Not even close.

As we researched it, we turned out several pages of garden that had been planted in the actual bales after an aging process with nitrogen. I was amazed. I was excited. The prospect of planting a garden without fighting the inclement ground and weeds, and when the bales have been used beyond stability the strings can be cut and the resulting mulch can be tilled into the ground. A major amendment to our soil. I wonder if there is a downside to this.

Now, as the bales aged there is a chance for us to see grain sprouts, which we have in a bale or two. The harvester that reaped the fruit of the parent plant obviously could have been a tad more efficient, but I'll take that over spending days pulling up a carpet of wild oats and other weeds.

As for out other plants, tomatoes, peppers and squash, we will be planting them above ground in tired beds made from tires to be discarded from various tires stores around the area. They absorb heat and hold in moisture, aaaand they are free! What a great way to reuse things bound for the transfer station.

All that is left for me to figure out now is where to put my new strawberry bed, and where i will be transferring my peonies, irises, and tulips later this year. Less dirt under my fingernails, and hopefully a much better harvest.