What did you do in the garden today?

[Swiss]

I'd break it up into 50ft sections, or less, with quick connects if you need to move it for mowing. Easier than lugging a 200ft hose. Or two 100ft section even, those are seriously heavy too.

Depending on your landscape, you might consider getting those big rolls of underground black water piping. Back in the day, I needed to get water from my pump to the main garden, so I buried that black pipe underground maybe 6 inches deep and ran a spigot up to the edge of the garden. In the fall, I just unconnected the pipe and let it drain. Whatever water was left in the pipe was not enough to freeze and break the line. Having the pipe underground, even a few inches, was enough that I did not have to constantly move hoses all the time when mowing. Also, a normal hose sitting out in the sun is going to weaken and possibly leak much sooner than the underground black water pipe. I have to replace many of my above ground water hoses after a few years. In my case, the underground black pipe is still intact and usable after 15 years. Anyway, for me, I found the underground pipe to be a better investment.

For that distance I'd get some landscape tubing from the hardware store and put host ends on it and just lawn staple it down. Put a true hose on the very end and hang it on the garden fence. Remove real hose for the winter and let the landscape tubing drain and stay there all winter. It's what we do here.

1/2inch tubing is inexpensive.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rain-Bird-1-2-in-x-100-ft-Drip-Irrigation-Tubing-Coil-T70-100S/204751445
I use this tubing.

I use these ends.
Can't find the link online. ACE brand hose repair. The cheap ones. for 1/2 inch hoses. SLide in one piece and screw one the clip clamp. They're green and black. Compression fits don't work for long before they blow.

I use the long landscape staples to hole the tubing close to the ground from menards, but sometimes they are cheaper on amazon.

I'm so happy I decided to ask my question here! You all are awesome for all the help you have generously given to me and everyone else who asks!I oask my husband questions, but he's not a gardener, so he is really more of a sounding board on this subject.

It will definitely be better to do this!!! I am thinking of going into town tomorrow just for this! Although, I do have a bunch of clothes to donate, too. So, 2 birds...

One more question, and hopefully that will be it for a while... I have no idea how much straw to cover my garden area 12 inches deep..... and now I am planning on doubling my garden size to make the compost delivery fee worth it. So to cover 250 sq ft of garden, how much straw should I get? I've been doing research and math, but I am unsure on how much I actually learned.

I'm hoping that's my last question until I have questions about a different aspect of gardening!

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I'm not too far from you... if there are any more up for grabs, would you let me know?

We use garden timbers, normally they are a good price. We use them for lots of things.

 

[BullChick]

I'm so happy I decided to ask my question here! You all are awesome for all the help you have generously given to me and everyone else who asks!I oask my husband questions, but he's not a gardener, so he is really more of a sounding board on this subject.

It will definitely be better to do this!!! I am thinking of going into town tomorrow just for this! Although, I do have a bunch of clothes to donate, too. So, 2 birds...

One more question, and hopefully that will be it for a while... I have no idea how much straw to cover my garden area 12 inches deep..... and now I am planning on doubling my garden size to make the compost delivery fee worth it. So to cover 250 sq ft of garden, how much straw should I get? I've been doing research and math, but I am unsure on how much I actually learned.

I'm hoping that's my last question until I have questions about a different aspect of gardening!

One bale covers an area approximately 80-73 square feet to a depth of 2 inches. So 18. Although, I have broken open a bale of straw in my coop before, and I swear it was at least 6 inches deep in 144 ft.².

 

[Sueby]

It's POURING out! But I left the big coop door open. Oops. I'd go close it except I keep my car parked in front of it (to discourage the bear ) so it's a big project.

I'll need to pick beans today. Probably about all I'll be doing in the garden.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Yes it is raining, but not so much here @Sueby. We're just getting bands of rain for now, the heavier stuff is due in a couple of hours. Happy news this morning, I figured out there is more than one turkey Mama grazing near my chicken yard in the morning. The first time I saw them it was the mama and 5 littles, two days later it was mama and 4 babies, Oh No! The next morning there were only 3 babies. I wanted to cry. This morning I saw a mama with her 4 babies. So I feel better. I'm hoping the mama with 5 babies shows up tomorrow. I did tend to the chickens as usual this morning, then did my walk around the gardens. More good news. I finally have a butternut squash baby. Hopefully there are more to come. I picked some more tomatoes and green beans, an okra and a radish. This is a question for the lima bean growers out there: how long do these plants take to finally form the actual beans? Happily, the surviving bushes are loaded with flowers and a few pods, but how long does it take for the beans to develop inside the pods? I did manage to get the rest of the grass mowing finished yesterday. There's some weeding that needs to be done in the front yard, but with the rain , nothing is going on outside today. Also heading our way is Tropical Storm Henri. The last report had it aiming at New England Sunday into Monday. I'm thinking it may not be a bad idea to look into hydroponic gardening. LOL! Have a great day everyone and happy harvesting.

 

[BReeder!]

One bale covers an area approximately 80-73 square feet to a depth of 2 inches. So 18. Although, I have broken open a bale of straw in my coop before, and I swear it was at least 6 inches deep in 144 ft.².

@Swiss Yea, I too feel that a bale does more than 80 sqft at 2 inches. I would say grab about 6-8 bales and spread them to see what you get. If you need more it's easy enough to just pick up a few usually. Feed stores around here sell the bales.

 

[Birdsonghill]

I really like it and talk about it whenever I can. One thing I don't think I have mentioned in this exchange is that I can use different sized wire to sift out the material. My main outside wire is 1 X 1/2 inch, but my inserts are 1/2 X 1/2 and 1/4 X 1/4 inch hardware cloth. If you needed even smaller wire for screening worm castings, I suppose you could make an insert out of screendoor or window screen mesh.

Absolutely, a versatile/useful device you built!

 

[Birdsonghill]

@Swiss Yea, I too feel that a bale does more than 80 sqft at 2 inches. I would say grab about 6-8 bales and spread them to see what you get. If you need more it's easy enough to just pick up a few usually. Feed stores around here sell the bales.

Square bales often contain variable amounts of well "fluffed" hay/straw upon opening them. They are subject to having more or less and being of considerable, variability in weights, according to the operator of the baler's settings and misc. other factors in the field. I have had some, that likely, weighed less than half of others. A good solid/heavy bale will cover a lot of area 2 inches deep! One bale of wheat straw, covered my coop (110 sg.ft.) about 3 to 4 inches deep, after a clean out, I performed yesterday, between our heavy bands of rain that fell. It was perhaps, a slightly above average, good, dense and heavy bale as compared to some others. Some bales weigh half as much as others, that I have had delivered or noticed, while loading bales, often in the past. I have had to be quality control when hiring someone to cut and bale for me(in the past), in regards to the balers settings and the moisture content of the hay. I had one guy, who did the bait and switch on me, many years ago, who had some good heavy bales for me to check out, but delivered half weight, loose bales, to get the count up for bales and double his money! That was a learning experience.

 

[WthrLady]

Square bales often contain variable amounts of well "fluffed" hay/straw upon opening them. They are subject to having more or less and being of considerable, variability in weights, according to the operator of the baler's settings and misc. other factors in the field. I have had some, that likely, weighed less than half of others. A good solid/heavy bale will cover a lot of area 2 inches deep! One bale of wheat straw, covered my coop (110 sg.ft.) about 3 to 4 inches deep, after a clean out, I performed yesterday, between our heavy bands of rain that fell. It was perhaps, a slightly above average, good, dense and heavy bale as compared to some others. Some bales weigh half as much as others, that I have had delivered or noticed, while loading bales, often in the past. I have had to be quality control when hiring someone to cut and bale for me(in the past), in regards to the balers settings and the moisture content of the hay. I had one guy, who did the bait and switch on me, many years ago, who had some good heavy bales for me to check out, but delivered half weight, loose bales, to get the count up for bales and double his money! That was a learning experience.

Oh the Beast!

 

[gtaus]

I had one guy, who did the bait and switch on me, many years ago, who had some good heavy bales for me to check out, but delivered half weight, loose bales, to get the count up for bales and double his money! That was a learning experience.

That's too bad if someone did that intentionally. I don't know how the farmer sets his machine for baling straw, but I too noticed a big weight difference in bales when I used to buy them years ago. Maybe OP should buy straw by the pound instead of by the bale to ensure consistent and adequate coverage. A half weight bale would only cover half the area of a full weight bale.

Just out of curiosity, after you had your learning experience, how did you buy straw bales after that to make sure you got a full bale and not a lightly packed fake bale?