Adventures in Gardening

Today our house in Woodbury closes escrow, and with it our beautiful raised-bed garden. But don't worry - I'm not wallowing! I'm taking advantage of our time in this rented house to try a new method of gardening. My hope is that once we finally decide where in Saint Louis we want to buy (this never-ending quest/debate could be the subject of multiple blog posts, but in the coming months I'll do my best to spare you) we might want to incorporate this straw bale method into our garden plan. With that in mind, I'm going to give it a try! (On a small scale .....)



To get this project started I first had to get some bales of straw. For this I went to the cute little town of Kirkwood (coincidentally, one of the places on our list of where we might want to buy a house). After stopping at the "OK Hatchery" I became the proud owner of three bales of straw. (I had originally only planned to buy two, but in a Brad Harrison "why build if you're not going to build big" moment, I heard the words "I'll take three" coming out of my mouth.)



Before heading home I walked across the street to the locally renowned Kirkwood Farmers Market. It's open nine months a year and this was my first visit. It did not disappoint.



It's too early in the season for the market to offer much locally grown produce, but even this "imported" stuff looked great. I picked up some veggies for dinner.



The market also sells plants. I got some herbs and flowers for pots.



Once home, I unloaded and arranged the bales. After trying out a few different arrangements I finally settled on this U-shape. For the next ten days I have to "condition" the bales with fertilizer and water to encourage composting inside the bales. Planting won't take place until we return from our May travels. But you know once that happens, I'll keep you posted!