Last year we had a very difficult time with our garden, we did not plant it in the sunniest part of our yard, since not much of our yard is that sunny. Then it rained most of the spring and early summer so the vegetables got eaten by slugs. The ground around them was to wet and they could not grow. This year my brother-in-law saw a hay bale garden in a magazine and suggested it to us. We thought it was a good idea because it was like raised beds so better drainage and it was not permanent so we could move its location from year to year.
The first step was to buy four bales of hay for each garden. Dan was able to get these from a farm down the road and made two trips with his VW wagon to get them home. We put them together on th
e side of our house (the sunniest part of our yard). Making two square beds right along the driveway. Once the beds were set up we had to cover them with organic fertilizer and then cover that with rich dirt and fill the middle hole so we could later plant root vegetables. Once they were covered the magazine stated that they should be keep well wet for two weeks to help them break down and then once that started you could plant right in the hay and root vegetables could be planted in the center. I suggest usin
g a soaker hose daily to keep it well moist during this time because we found it was the most effective way to keep the garden wet and provide enough water directly to the hay bales. You only need to run it a short time each day but it needs to be daily and for a short time not just getting the tops wet but really running through the hay bales.After the two week period we went to the garden shop and bought our small vegetable plants. You can not plant seeds in these beds but your could start from seeds in small pots and then transplant into the beds when they were ready. We were very excited to start planting we came right home and started. The middle was very easy to plant in and we planted our carrots and beets there right away. Then when I started to plant the tomatoes in the hay part of the garden I realized some of it was not soft enough. This could have been avoided if we had used a soaker hose in the beginning to keep things wet but we did not so they had not broken down enough. So we went and bought a soaker hose and ran it for a few days and then we were able to plant the whole garden. The garden has been planted for almost two weeks and we run the soaker hose almost daily for a about ten to fifteen minutes. Everything is growing beautifully and looks like it is doing well. We are very excited and hope the progress continues.
We also have planted a few things in the old garden area towards the end that is the sunniest and to keep the slugs away we have small dishes on the ground filled with beers. We have caught a few slugs already so it works. But even still those vegetables are not doing as well as the new hay bale gardens, so it may just be a drainage or sun problem but looking forward to these gardens continued success.
