marsha val

Wow, this is all such great advice. Not feeling so regretful anymore, but inspired to see what I can make from this.

I think I will thin part of it out using starting with the bales on the outer row, taking using 2 or 3 flakes and fill in the ground that is still exposed. Whatever I have leftover, I'll just let it remain and see what happens. Maybe I will try planting right in it, like some have said.

I covered this one particular area mainly because it is the part of the garden with the worst soil.  I've amended it several times but it's never seems to be enough, but it is getting better. Been gardening in this garden for about 12 years.

Tomorrow I'll take a pic of it and upload. Thanks so much everyone!

Oh wow. Yes, LOTS of mold inbetween the flakes. The bales are sitting one after the other in a continuous row with about 8" between the rows. It doesn't cover the garden completely. There's some area left open.  

OK,  I'll spread this out to cover every square inch.  I do think it needs that to make it less dense.  Should I move flakes or just not worry and toss with a pitch fork?  This will disturb the fungus/mold on the inside - Is that ok?  At what point will this fungus/mold die off?

I'm brand new to this idea, it's def a learning experience and I don't know what to expect.  This is sounding very interesting though!

Did you use seeds or plants?  How did your zucchini taste? Thanks!

So you layered flakes of hay and planted under the flakes?  
Aside from potatoes, could one also plant seeds? Like Zucchini/Squash or peppers, tomatoes, etc?
Thanks!

Hi, I had a bunch of old bales of orchard horse hay that I couldn't use up in a timely manner. Occasionally through the years, I noticed if we left a bale out over the winter, by spring it was nicely composted. Not completely, so I'd just rake it into the soil. So in November we took about 20 bales to the garden and just sat them in there and popped the strings. It's Jan, and they are molding in the middle but I really don't see much else happening. Now I'm worried I'm going to have a bunch of moldy hay to deal with in a couple of months.  Do you have any suggestions of what I could do to get this stuff to break down more quickly? I've looked up lime, but not sure it is the right way to go, some composters say it steals the nitrogen that's needed to compost. So would I use fertilizer that has nitrogen? and lime? In hindsight, I should've just laid down some flakes across the garden instead of the the entire bale.  I feel I might've created a big mess.  If you have any ideas, I'd really appreciate it.  Thank you!