Starting a small terrace-raised bed-soil building area sort of thing...Free.

I threw this together last night so I thought I would post a couple quick pictures.  There is nothing ground-breaking here, just a simple method to make a quick growing area for this years plants, and that will server other functions down the road.

My brother had some straw bales he used around a building for insulation over the winter.  We have a friend that sells organic straw at decent prices, so my brother used those.  Well, spring is here and the bales were starting to break down, so my brother gave them to me.  I have a spot next to my driveway that is pretty steep but gets really good sun.  I piled the straw bales along the drive and about ten feet from it.  After that I added some free coffee grounds from a store near my house that have been sitting all winter.  Last layer is some finished compost I had from last year.  You can see small amounts of biochar in the compost I think.

We are in the rainy season here, so the next weeks will soak the bales further, and water the coffee grounds and compost into the bales.  I also poked some of that material down in with my digging fork.  When it's time to plant, I'll rip some holes, dump more compost into the hole, and plant directly into those spots.  Over the season the bale-mix will break down and turn into really great soil.  At that time, I can either rake it flat to make a small terrace, or use the soil elsewhere.  If I go the terrace route, I will plant perennials, and probably make a small rock wall to help support the downhill side.  Either way, I can use the area to plant this year, and it will turn into beautiful soil in the next year or so.  Everything I used for this was free except a little of my time and very little effort.  I really love the little simple things like this that, over years, can have a large impact towards my goals,

I just did something similar with goat litter (mostly hay with some pine shavings mixed with manure and urine). The area near our baby fruit trees is very poor, sandy soil, and a slight slope, so originally when I was cleaning out the goat house, I was just piling the manure kind of on contour in that area, making mini berms between the fruit trees to slowly improve the soil, and also slow down the flow of water when it rains heavily. I didn't want to put fresh manure too close to the fruit trees, but I figured this way by the time their roots reach out into those areas, the soil will be much better than it is now.

But then spring came and I was running out of nice places to plant stuff, So I formed some of the little berms more into little C shapes, put a thick layer of purchased compost on the uphill side, and planted watermelons. I figure they can put their roots into the goat bedding if it suits them, or not. I'm thinking it will suit them. If we get some watermelons from it, awesome (and I think we will), if not, I am still improving the soil in our little orchard.

I tried to upload a photo, but for some reason can't get it to work.