Hello,
I decided to post this as a follow-up to this thread HERE:
https://permies.com/t/223604/Straw-bale-gardening-organic
I ran into my friend a couple of weeks ago and haven't gotten a chance to reply until today. Basically, his plans have been modified a bit. He no longer plans to put in a 1/4 acre straw bale garden right away. That was going to entail buying, transporting and placing something like 650-700 straw bales and he just was not up to that. His current plan to drastically reduce this plan and start much smaller with something more like 50 straw bales just to get him started. This number is enough keep him busy but not enough to overwhelm him just as he gets started. And more to the point, he plans on using all-organic sources of nitrogen to get decomposition started! He is still looking at blood meal, fish emulsion and other forms of nitrogen, but he mentioned that the fastest and cheapest source of nitrogen for him is probably urine. Personally, I think this is a good idea. While I liked his idea of the huge garden, I know that amount would overwhelm me, especially if I just jumped into it.
Aside from that, his plans are pretty much unchanged. He plans to get legumes and grasses to establish some real fertility in the mine tailings. He does have some water on site in the form of a strip-cut that has filled with water. He has some filtration system so that he can use this water. He does have access to some degree of trees--mostly autumn olives along the edges of the property, but a few other fast-growing silver maples as well. Perhaps he will get some more trees planted soon.
At any rate, I just wanted to update that previous thread.
Eric
At any rate
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