Homesteaders

[OrganicFarmWife]

We use our own straw and yes there are always seeds. it has never been a big problem, the wheat sprouts but usually just dies.

 

[Loc20chick]

My grandmother had gooseberry jelly on her table to eat with bread and butter at dinner time. I loved it and helped her pick the gooseberries when I visited at the right time. Now I know that she must have used tons of sugar to make that jelly sweet. My grandma and those gooseberries have been gone for many years now but the memories remain. Gooseberry plants are hard to find locally. Some day I will find some though and grow my own so I can continue the tradition.

I suggest you order some bushes NOW. It will take a couple of years to get them established. Plant them on a raised bed for better drainage. There are Green and Red. Get two of both. Depending on how many berries you expect to use you'll be glad to have more than enough. I figure I can sell, freeze or "unuse" berries but I can't use what I don't have.

All the nonsense I've read about how EASY they are to grow is a crock. Mine are finally getting established.

My Currants have lots of flowers so I will be covering them with bird netting. If they do well I'll sell the extras per recipe amount. I hated picking more than I needed.

When do I uncover my roses? I cover mine with burlap wrapping.

I ordered two black velvet gooseberry (Red ones) plant earlier during the winter and they shipped this spring, they are establishing well, I have never eaten gooseberry or had their jelly but had read on them and hoping when they start to bear fruits I will like them.

 

[rancher hicks]

This is the first year I used straw as mulch (like I seen a lot of people on BYC do) ... and it apparently was full of seeds so now I've got straw growing in my raised beds.

Guess this is a learning experience for me, but one I would rather have not had to learn. It is easy enough to pull, which I am doing, but now I would like to get educated please. Do you all do something to your straw before you use it as mulch? I have one bale of straw that I haven't used and it is growing straw out of it also. So far it has grown as tall as the tomato plants I have.

I used hay for my Garlic and it wasn't good, BUT if you cover it with either black plastic or cardboard you should be okay. Newspapers and cardboard are a much better mulch, than hay or straw.

Too, if you have chickens they will clean up the mess in the fall.

I was just reading an article in a magazine about having gardens on three sides of the coop and rotating usage for the chickens. Of course it mean three pop holes but that's not a bad thing.

I use straw or hay in the chickens run, they work it and make good compost of it. Even if you free range your chickens you can use a run for rainy days and snowy days.


chickens got in and shredded the papers but not so much as to allow weeds to grow.



Compost makes great mulch for plants. With my Currants and Gooseberries I used newspaper and then mulched with Compost.





I dump some peat moss in the run and they work it in. Excellent compost.

Covered with plastic in the winter it's a dry floor for them to walk on.

 

[limited25]

Thanks, I will pull it all, put newspaper down, and put the dried straw back. Appreciate the pictures and ideas.

 

[RustedOak]

I had the same problem with straw sprouting heavily in my large no till garden. I just looked at my problem as a solution though. Every day, I'd go out and pull a bucket full and feed it to the chickens and rabbits and before you knew it, it was gone. The critters were quite happy about it too

 

[limited25]

Thanks for replies ... didn't know everyone expected it to grow, and just pulled it. lol

Will offer some to my chickens. Next year think I will ask for clean, wheat straw and see what the difference is.

 

[Beekissed]

I've never had problems with hay sprouting in the garden...used it for years without any issue.... but straw seems to do so....usually straw is oat or barley straw, so it has plenty of seeds in it from those and both are good nutrition for the flock, so it might be the best option for you to harvest those and feed them out.

First broody hatch of the season....14 chicks, hale and hearty, out of a clutch of 16...two eggs were unfertilized and did not develop a chick. Accidentally left one chick in the wood pile when I moved the family last night and it stayed out all night by itself, in temps in the 40s-50s, damp and chilly. Heard it peeping this morning and found it on a ledge in the wood stack, none the worse for wear. Bright eyed and not a bit chilled acting, ran to his mama and burrowed in, disappeared into the white fluff like magic.

 

[beautifulpirate]

Straw is actually the leftover stalk, after the various grains have been harvested. Hay is bundled up with all the seeds intact, intended to be fed to animals as a whole. BUT many people, including the people who sell it to you, will sometimes use the terms interchangeably. If you are getting hay and they are calling it straw, or straw hay, or straw haybales... you'll get a ton sprouting from it. You have to be pretty specific about what you want in order to get the right thing.

 

[FrugalmamaTx]

FYI if anyone is looking for fruit trees, check Walmart. Our's had them on clearance for about $10, along with all their seed plants and slips. Going back tomorrow and hopefully they have some left, as i crunched the budget and we can swing a couple fruit trees.


Getting our chicks today, as soon as my daughter gets up. Not getting the buff orpington's I had wanted - it's just too far to the one place that has them. Maybe next year. Brooder is all set up, just waiting to go get the chicks.

Spent the last two days working on ripping out our hedge. I have about two more bushes to go in stripping them down to just trunks, and then I'll start on trying to cut out the trunks. It's amazing how much better the house looks without it - now I'm rethinking my plan to put a berry hedge back in it's place. Maybe just a nice bed with flowers and herbs instead.

 

[KentuckyMom]

I just recently cut down a bush in our front yard and moved a small apple tree out of the front yard to an area where my other three apple trees are. The front yard looks nice and clean. My husband is debating putting another bush up there, but I said "leave it alone." It just looks nice and big and open now. I may change my mind later...