…as mulch? I can get a 4 × 4 round bale for $20…the same farmer is selling 4×4 round bales of wheat straw for $40…as I said to MrD, it’s not like I’m one of those women who buys 4 dresses for the races and then doesn’t go because I couldn’t find hat/shoes to match…
sounds good to me.
wow that was quick, you startled me!
so I could use it on the vegetable garden OK? am nearly out of commercial cane sugar mulch and have been keeping an eye out for the wheat round bales as they harvested down the back about 2 weeks ago…
I’m pretty sure that Chick Peas are a legume and therefore would be of benefit to your garden as a green mulch even!
Yes, they are a legume and are grown to fix nitrogen in the soil on some farms around here…
Okies, I wonder if the farmer delivers?
Have been putting a couple of $20 notes aside…
Thanks PM…
others can input.
pain master said:
others can input.
i’m growing chickpeas – the stalks might be a bit woodier than pea straw.
i saw a bale of ‘clover stalks’ on sunday and it looks like a collection of tiny sticks. they make good mulch if you pile them on thickly.
how big is a 4×4 bale? is it the size of 16 small bales?
it sounds like a good buy – probably cheap because it is unknown.
a quick look-in before NCIS…
A round 4 × 4 is 4 foot diameter by 4 foot height…I’ll get back to you tomorrow morning re number of small square bales relating…
pain master said:
others can input.
Oh I hope so!
Dinetta said:
a quick look-in before NCIS…A round 4 × 4 is 4 foot diameter by 4 foot height…I’ll get back to you tomorrow morning re number of small square bales relating…
no need – that’s the one i buy – holds about 16 bales and just fits into the trailer. its a good buy – that size barley straw costs me $30 from the nearby farmer – and that’s a good price here.
Gee whiz…16 bales at $40…lemme see…that’s calculator please woah! wait ‘til I tell MrD!! $2.50 per bale….
Dinetta said:
Gee whiz…16 bales at $40…lemme see…that’s calculator please woah! wait ‘til I tell MrD!! $2.50 per bale….
you said $20 – so $1.25 per bale! – buy two.
Sorry, I was thinking about the wheat straw, which is $40 per bale…I think I’ll get two of each…might sound out MrD when he’s having breakfast…that’s 2 wheat and 2 chickpea…see how the chickpea’s going…if it’s popular, get some more, quick…I feel like a kid going into the Chocolat Maya shop (in the movie, Chocolat…)
Dinetta said:
Sorry, I was thinking about the wheat straw, which is $40 per bale…I think I’ll get two of each…might sound out MrD when he’s having breakfast…that’s 2 wheat and 2 chickpea…see how the chickpea’s going…if it’s popular, get some more, quick…I feel like a kid going into the Chocolat Maya shop (in the movie, Chocolat…)
steady – why the wheat straw? 2 bales of chickpea straw will drown most gardens in 100mm of mulch.
The wheat straw is going to be an all-purpose mulch for the rest of the yard…in the shrub bed, over where I plan to start the new vegetable patch, beside the house where the pots of four o’clocks and ferns etc generally live…
In our dry weather, the straw will last for ages as a bale…the chick pea straw is going to be a mulch for the productive garden beds…I’m going to go ahead with the lettuce bed under the jacaranda and have been watering it to that effect…
Dinetta said:
The wheat straw is going to be an all-purpose mulch for the rest of the yard…in the shrub bed, over where I plan to start the new vegetable patch, beside the house where the pots of four o’clocks and ferns etc generally live…In our dry weather, the straw will last for ages as a bale…the chick pea straw is going to be a mulch for the productive garden beds…I’m going to go ahead with the lettuce bed under the jacaranda and have been watering it to that effect…
your call – but wheat straw will cause nitrogen drawdown because its not a legume.
Point taken, but to be more specific: the wheat straw is to be used as a weed suppressing, moisture-retaining tool, and the chick pea mulch is to be used as a “feeder” mulch…
First bale now at home…I got about 2 small square bale’s worth as bonus, to stop my bale from rattling around the trailer…will collect the other 3 tomorrow…farmer says he’s got 200 bales and I said “well that won’t last long”…I think he hopes I’m right…
getting 2 chick peas and 2 wheats….that should keep the leucaena down…found my gloves too, so no more blisters from uprooting the leucaena…
:)
All four bales now at home…OMG the chick pea bales are heavy!!
The second bale was much heavier than the first, it took me 40 solid minutes to unload from the trailer…a case where I had to use my brains to get the best result from my brawn…
The wheat hay bales were a lot lighter and they were collected and off-loaded within an hour…I think the farmer is pleased to see the end of me…nah!
The chick pea is last year’s crop, that’s why he’s selling it for $20 per bale, he gave me some extras (broken bales) “to stop that bale from rolling around your trailer”…happy sigh
I’m still a bit stiff and sore from the unaccustomed pushing and shoving…will be spreading the chickpea today, specially around the corn roots…
Dinetta said:
I’m still a bit stiff and sore from the unaccustomed pushing and shoving…will be spreading the chickpea today, specially around the corn roots…
goodonya :)
(still catching up here) I never get that stiffness as I do stretching exercises daily. It really helps. I can throw myself headlong into the accasional heavy task and not get sore. Helps with arthritus too, which is the reason I started doing stretching.
This is the site I follow :
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Stretching?OpenDocument
Happy Potter said:
This is the site I follow :
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Stretching?OpenDocument
This is very good, I have just read a few of the other links as well…thanks for putting it up, Happy Potter…every little bit of information helps…
I didn’t realize stretching helped arthritis…I have arthritis in my feet left over from Ross River fever, and the podiatrist showed me some exercises for the feet that, if nothing else, give me the idea I’m “doing something about it”…my mother got it in her shoulders, and she was told to walk her hands up the walls: you know, using your fingers to “walk” up the wall…this arthritis has come back to haunt her and besides sitting in the sun she has had a go at the finger walk again…a very mild form of stretching I suppose…
(back to the site…)
They don’t have ergo…
:(
Dinetta said:
Happy Potter said:This is the site I follow :
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Stretching?OpenDocument
This is very good, I have just read a few of the other links as well…thanks for putting it up, Happy Potter…every little bit of information helps…
I didn’t realize stretching helped arthritis…I have arthritis in my feet left over from Ross River fever, and the podiatrist showed me some exercises for the feet that, if nothing else, give me the idea I’m “doing something about it”…my mother got it in her shoulders, and she was told to walk her hands up the walls: you know, using your fingers to “walk” up the wall…this arthritis has come back to haunt her and besides sitting in the sun she has had a go at the finger walk again…a very mild form of stretching I suppose…
(back to the site…)
You know the saying ‘ use it or lose it’..if I didn’t follow my drs and psysio’s recommendations, I wouldn’t be able to move at all.
wish I could get some chick pea straw at that price.
roughbarked said:
wish I could get some chick pea straw at that price.
This is last year’s chick pea straw…he has not harvested this year’s crop yet…it’s the $20 price because it is so old, and I didn’t ask what he would charge for the new stuff…I’m rather chuffed as it is giving me high mulching without the bulk usually associated with high mulching…
To my mind, “deep” mulch is when you pile it on thiiiiiiick and it is a solid blanket…
Dinetta said:
roughbarked said:
wish I could get some chick pea straw at that price.
This is last year’s chick pea straw…he has not harvested this year’s crop yet…it’s the $20 price because it is so old, and I didn’t ask what he would charge for the new stuff…I’m rather chuffed as it is giving me high mulching without the bulk usually associated with high mulching…
To my mind, “deep” mulch is when you pile it on thiiiiiiick and it is a solid blanket…
OK .. deep mulching is done by worms that hatch out by applyig any mulch.
Thick mulch is just that.. thick mulch // because once it goes deeper.. it becomes humus. ;)
roughbarked said:
Dinetta said:
roughbarked said:
wish I could get some chick pea straw at that price.
This is last year’s chick pea straw…he has not harvested this year’s crop yet…it’s the $20 price because it is so old, and I didn’t ask what he would charge for the new stuff…I’m rather chuffed as it is giving me high mulching without the bulk usually associated with high mulching… To my mind, “deep” mulch is when you pile it on thiiiiiiick and it is a solid blanket…
OK .. deep mulching is done by worms that hatch out by applyig any mulch. Thick mulch is just that.. thick mulch // because once it goes deeper.. it becomes humus. ;)
high mulching – deep mulching?
can we have a piccie of the chickpea mulch ? – it sounds great – but i’m lost as to these terms.
pepe said:
high mulching – deep mulching?
can we have a piccie of the chickpea mulch ? – it sounds great – but i’m lost as to these terms.
I think they were created by the author of them ;)
roughbarked said:
pepe said:high mulching – deep mulching?
can we have a piccie of the chickpea mulch ? – it sounds great – but i’m lost as to these terms.
I think they were created by the author of them ;)
probably – but no doubt she had summin in mind.
like you i’m jealous of that price – and i want to see the texture of the stuff
roughbarked said:
pepe said:high mulching – deep mulching?
can we have a piccie of the chickpea mulch ? – it sounds great – but i’m lost as to these terms.
I think they were created by the author of them ;)
Yes, I created them as my gardening terminology is a bit lacking…
pepe said:
roughbarked said:
pepe said:high mulching – deep mulching?
can we have a piccie of the chickpea mulch ? – it sounds great – but i’m lost as to these terms.
I think they were created by the author of them ;)
probably – but no doubt she had summin in mind.
like you i’m jealous of that price – and i want to see the texture of the stuff
Oh dear, a couple of photographs are in order…I’ll as Mr D where his field bag is, it has the camera in it…
I’m uploading to Photobucket, it’s a shared album and when the upload is finished I’ll put the URL up here…be interesting to hear your verdicts…
Dinetta said:
I’m uploading to Photobucket, it’s a shared album and when the upload is finished I’ll put the URL up here…be interesting to hear your verdicts…
If they are too big, I’ll need advice on how to make ‘em smaller…
…but that will have to be later tonight as I’m about to put the roast in the oven and take Elle Wuffles for her walk…
Dinetta said:
Dinetta said:
I’m uploading to Photobucket, it’s a shared album and when the upload is finished I’ll put the URL up here…be interesting to hear your verdicts…
If they are too big, I’ll need advice on how to make ‘em smaller…
…but that will have to be later tonight as I’m about to put the roast in the oven and take Elle Wuffles for her walk…
Dinetta on the front page of PB, right next to ‘ click here to start uploading’ theres a tiny blue ‘more options’ and another window pop up with sizes you can preset them to upload to.
Too late! nearly finished uploading now…but I might play around with this in another thread…
http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Dinetta_album/19Oct2009/
Try here…
Not a very big vegetable garden, is it? :(
Dinetta said:
Not a very big vegetable garden, is it? :(
Gotta start somewhere :)
Looks really good to me!
Gee, thanks Bon!
All words of encouragement enormously appreciated…also constructive comments…
:P
Dinetta said:
Gee, thanks Bon!All words of encouragement enormously appreciated…also constructive comments…
:P
I’m not experienced enough for constructive comments I’m afraid :)
how long have you lived there Dinetta?
15 years, why?
ok .. I’ve been here for 30 years..
Just evaluating how much gardening you actually do .. ;)
Yes I thought it would be like that…
I’ve never hidden the fact that most of my garden is in pots, and during the drought, most of it was maintenance of what was already here…
About 10 months after moving here (youngest of five was born here, in this house) I contracted Ross River fever. This lasted for four months, which is a long time for RRF…it’s been a long journey getting from there to here, where I am at last able to put into practice my dreams for the vegetables and the yard in general…
Dinetta said:
http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Dinetta_album/19Oct2009/ Try here…
that chickpea straw is stemmy like i thought. still the good thing is long term – by this time next year that will all be luvly composty stuff. your corn is well advanced altho’ next time plant more rows.
its luvly to see your place and now i understand the three sisters bed better. to plant the pumpkin you’ll have to pull the mulch back to exposed the soil, plant the 4-5 seed in a ‘bowl’, and replace the straw as the pumpkin grow.
if you click HTML Thumb below the picture that gives you this to paste on the forum
pepe said:
Dinetta said:
http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Dinetta_album/19Oct2009/ Try here…
that chickpea straw is stemmy like i thought. still the good thing is long term – by this time next year that will all be luvly composty stuff. your corn is well advanced altho’ next time plant more rows.
its luvly to see your place and now i understand the three sisters bed better. to plant the pumpkin you’ll have to pull the mulch back to exposed the soil, plant the 4-5 seed in a ‘bowl’, and replace the straw as the pumpkin grow.
Oh yes, I thought when I unloaded the chickpea that it was just right for melting into the soil…stuff only a gardener could drool over LOL!!
Thanks for the advice re the pumpkin: I was going to start them in a pot and then plant out, but your way is better, less mucking around…
I have mislaid all my carefully hoarded seeds in their envelopes, have found a couple of free floating ones so will plant them out…
pepe said:
if you click HTML Thumb below the picture that gives you this to paste on the forum
Thanks Pepe, I was trying to provide access to the photos without piling lots of photos on this site…might need to practise this week until I get it right …
Looks good.
veg gardener said:
Looks good.
Thanks, Veg Gardener! :)