So I was very surprised at just how poorly some of the bales wicked up water, but then I took a good hard look at the underside, you see while the ground got cut away and the bigger and smaller tree parts got layed down, because the man with the tractor that could move the bales came a bit early, I didn’t have any time at all to fill in between and so that means that in some cases the wood is strong and high enough to just “hold” the full bale up on top with no contact to the ground..  Clearly on the bales that this happens with the only water is what is rain or what I poured into beside the plant holes..

On those bales last year, a few things grew a tiny bit, on the other hand the bales that had even a small part that touched to the ground and were able to wick the water up, grew pretty good, considering they were planted in about six by four inch holes cut in about four to six inches deep and filled with compost/dirt and seeds planted in.. They produced food, not at the rate that the same planted plants did on the ground but they did produce..

However that is a lot of planting space that didn’t produce well, so this spring and planting season we are having a do-over. We are going to haul the loads of the well dug, fine compost from the pig pen and fill the space from the ground up though the wood  at any place we can find to do so,  then we are going to haul loads of the heavier winter pack and fill in the space between the bales as high as it can go without spilling outward, this will then create side wicks up the bales and they will also be topped with dirt hills and planted into, to help hold the compost in place during rain or storms etc.

If this works correctly, it will mean that all the bags will have much much more water access for composting the middles, and growing plants in this season, I know that the books said that I was only going to get three to five season before it was composted down but I am at a I will believe it when I see it.. this is year two..

I need to figure out what is going in the bales, I think I am going to try a mix of things and see what does well and what does not, last year, I did squashs and strawberries

Is there anything you want to see grown in the bales and reported back on? If so talk to me and I will see what I can do.

Speaking of big bales, we are going to use the area that had the big roll out bale bedding and planting hills, will talk about that new garden space in a different post.  We are planning a min of two more area’s that will get the same treatment in the food forest garden area, it worked perfect for just pulling out a small area and creating a garden within a gardening space in a no-till method, that allowed the plants to inter-grow.

Now we see if we can make that happen again this year and improve on it with last years good and bad points taken into consideration.