Limited growing space..

[Cajun ClaudeParticipant]

Greetings from a city dwelling convert.
My back yard affords me about 40ft x 20ft actual growing space. I have a small polytunnel 3 chickens and am just about to get a 6×6 cheap greenhouse for my birthday (after eons of hint-dropping to my other half).
I purchased one of Charles books and couldn’t put it down so here is my plan (all advice gratefully received):
1. I don’t have enough compost to put on the ground yet as the chicken poo is still breaking down. So I am going to do some straw bale gardening in the area, I wish to use for the beds next year. (using the “watering-in” manure way)
2. As the bales break down into compost, it will give me the mulch I need for next year, in-situ.
3. By then there will be plenty of chicken poo compost to spread as well.
Does this sound like a reasonable way forward?
I don’t have the means currently to line the big garden centres pockets for expensive compost and having watched Charles composting video, I think this is the way to go. I’ve already scrounged another 3 compost bins so its just a matter of patience… he says in hope!

[HazelkyParticipant]

I had a straw bale area last year. They are still pretty intact this year so I am planting in them again. One is falling apart and I am layering it in my compost bin as I found using as mulch led to huge numbers of slugs. Just one person’s experience for info.

[Cajun ClaudeParticipant]

Hi Hazelky and thanks for the info.
At the moment my backyard is akin to Steptoe’s yard as I’ve had to move stuff around in prep for the greenhouse slabs to be laid. I turned over some old scaffold boards and there it was… SLUGFEST! Loads of them. The hens disposed of a couple of them but it must be an acquired taste (even for hens), as they give up after a while so I ended up collecting them.
Do you have any tips for prepping the bales?

[HazelkyParticipant]

They need lots of water (not a problem at the moment!)I cut bottoms off a few plastic bottle and hollowed a space to stick them in 2 to a bale and added water every couple of days last year, but April and May were very dry. They grew courgettes, butternut squash, pattypan squash, strawberries, cucamelons, all successfully. I planted in holes and added a little compost in the hole to help them establish, but only watered after that. I made a square with 4 bales with compost in the middle and grew sweet corn in the middle with borlotti beans supported by the sweetcorn. Unfortunately the lovely cobs were eaten in their entirety by rats the night before I intended to harvest them☹️

This year bought some organic compost from Aldi at £2 for a 40 litre bag. Have my suspicions that it is green waste re labelled. It is growing lovely salad leaves in the polytunnel, however.

Local tip sells green waste compost at £2 a bag which I have used as a mulch last autumn. Ours looks better than the green waste in Charles’ pictures, much less woody bits, but still dark and I would not try to grow seedlings in it, but it seems great as a mulch, lots of worms in it this spring.

Hope this is helpful, have a great time growing

[Cajun ClaudeParticipant]

That’s great info, thanks Hazelky.
It’s raining here tonight so I have put some more chicken manure on the top of the “trial bale” and let the rain do the work.
I’ll check the inner temp’ tomorrow to see if its warming up.

thanks again for the info

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