Question for LZ on SAVING YOUR BACK

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007OZDLPK

Does hay bale gardening really save your back? Ans. Yes and No. It takes a back to lift the bales and plant your seeds and transplants. Once your garden is in there is really very little to do other than to occasionally water.

I have started using landscape fabric in my walkways. It really does keep the weeds down.

Here is a picture of my beginning garden for the year. I had to use my back to prepare the soil. I like planting seeds but I instead planted transplants since I had a late start.

This year I used my bales differently. I put them outside my fence as windbreakers and perhaps an insect deterrent.  Insects find it hard to discover my plants hidden in a hay bale enclosure.

I'm still growing in hay with soil and lots of spoiled hay on top.   The mulch makes it so that I water only once a week even in extreme hot temperatures.   I have to be careful and not overwater.

LET'S GET BACK TO THE BACK

Start juicing for back repair. You have a bad back because you lack the essential nutrients that gives a strong back. I've had a bad back for years but since I started juicing and drinking it twice a day....I am pain free with only a little stiffness in the morning.

Watch my blog about extreme juicing... It has saved my life from all the ailments that plague modern man from eating the American diet. With the Ninja blender/juicer you can juice carrot tops, beets, beet greens, kale....anything that grows in gardens except for a few things like green potatoes and green tomatoes.  Always do a search (internet) on what you eat before you eat it unless you like Russian Roulette.

Sunday 6/25

First thing I do in the morning is drink my special herbal blend of green juice. Prior to juicing I went 

out to get a little wheatgrass. Juicing has become a ritual with me. As I went out to my potted wheatgrass I found a visitor:

It was a frog blending in with the wheatgrass like a chameleon. Here is a closer view:

It was pretty cool.

I potted up some other kinds seeds for juicing, Ryegrass and Fenugreek. Most of my buckets contain spoiled hay at 3/4 of a bucket full with soil on top. I have 1/2 holes in my bucket for drainage with landscape fabric on the bottom. The fabric keeps bugs out of bucket or pot but allows drainage.

I found another use for my hay bales. I use them like tables. I'll keep these buckets on top of my bales and water them when I water my garden.

The grass bale I used  for bucket filling showed signs of being ripe for the using. As you can see the bale wicked up the moisture from underneath and has nearly composted itself. It is ideal for garden tasks.

My heirloom tomato plant has curly leaf fungus. I'm going to make a solution of Nicotiana Alata juice from its flowers and use it as a fungicide.

The flowers from this plant is known to have a protein that explodes cancer cells and properties that kills fungus. 

At last I want to show you that my new batch of wheatgrass is coming up in the buckets. I used hay mulch on top in order to keep the birds from eating the seeds. It works. It also helps to keep your buckets off the ground out of reach of hungry critters. 

People are Hand Baling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66zc7scktMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C_twGdgyGk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_dYfTc1Wsc

The Hay Bale REVOLUTION has begun.

Sign of an Aging Bale

Mushrooms are a sign that the bale is decomposing and can be used for mulch or for growing a plant. The Bale will not grow weeds but it does grow mushrooms. Young bales are too dry for most gardening plants. I have found age bales are the best to use.

I use bales from the borders to the garden itself.

Always keep a bale aging.

Scything my Yard

Here is a row I recently scythed. The tall grasses will make a nice bale. You can make a bale in a baler or a tote or box. I have a video on making a bale in a tote.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u1hM74V4yk

The taller scythed grasses will keep birds from stealing it and using it for their nests.

Look at how much finer the mowed grass looks:




You can still use mowed grasses for a bale. After aging the bales, they will become matted. However, I still prefer scythed grasses.

Bales have many uses. I'm going to use some bales to keep my watermelon from touching the damp ground. Take a look:





I stake the vine using a large tie-down. Cut sharp on one end and stick it through the bale.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007OZDLPK

Thanks to all of you. My book has this rankng:


Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #396,540 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#301 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > Crafts, Hobbies & Home
#1076 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture


#4035 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Landscape Design

Straw Bale Gardening Sham

I was looking at some picture of straw bale gardens. The proponents of straw bale gardening claim that they are growing in a straw bale alone. They claim they use only spoiled straw bales treated with lots of fertilizer. But what they don't tell you is that they are not growing in a bale alone but through a bale. The straw bale decomposes and the plant roots extend through the bales into the ground where plants normally grow.

What a sham that people pay over twenty dollars for books that promises something new but instead are all deception.

In my books I tell you exactly what goes on in bale gardening. In fact, I help the plant by adding soil to the decomposing bale. If you don't believe me then try growing your bale on hard cement without soil and see if your plant survives.

I believe in hay bale gardening that uses common sense and a sensible approach in growing the garden of your dreams.

Question for Larry Zoro

Question of the Week: I thought this was a how-to book on using the straw bales to plant a garden in. But in this case the bales are just the border around the planting bed.

You have to fill the center with soil that may have weed seeds that will still germinate along with any seeds you might plant. NOT GOOD!

Using borders around you planting bed is an idea that I still use.  

The rotting or spoiling of hay bales draws the earthworms and makes an habitat for your garden. The other day I saw the largest lizard from under a bale. Think of how many insects he must eat? When the bales get old I use them for mulch.

When you use a lot of mulch you do not get very many weeds. Mulch from hay is a very good idea only if it had be scythed. Short strands of grass birds will use for their nests and take it away. Scythed grass is long and does not remove from your garden.

As you will find, bales are not just a fancy border. They have many uses. Chapter three talks about using them for windbreaks.

Join the hay bale revolution and stop buying expensive straw bales. Make your own and enjoy the harvest of organic and fresh produce.

Hay baler plans:

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Essential-Tools-Bale-Gardener-ebook/dp/B015453ZJI

Is it Hard to Find Hay Bales?

I made it so simple to make hay bales. I made a video that shows you can make them out of a tote. Best of all I have a website that sells the plans www.aaahomebaler.webs.com

What is even easier is buying my book for only $3.99. 

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Essential-Tools-Bale-Gardener-ebook/dp/B015453ZJI

I have the plans for a baler right inside the kindle book. So you have two choices to get the plans for the baler: my website or Amazon Kindle Books. You can't even buy a bale for the price of this inexpensive book.

When you make very inexpensive bales you can begin to experiment. Look at this carrot patch protected from wind and those pesky varmints. When you bales get old you can use the rich spoiled hay mulch to keep your plants moist and healthy.

Hay Bale Gardening Going Strong

I'm still gardening the way I taught in my first book on "Hay Bale Gardening." 

https://www.amazon.com/Hay-Bale-Gardening-Larry-Zoro-ebook/dp/B007OZDLPK

In Chapter three I mention using bales as a windbreaker. It really works. I usually get broken plants during a storm but not now.

I line up my bales around my garden and when the bales get old and spoiled, I break them apart and use it for mulch.  Mulch keeps the ground moist and in hot weather I hardly need to water.

INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
MAKING HAY BALE RAISED BEDS
Chapter 2
TYPES OF BALES
Chapter 3
WIND BREAKING
Chapter 4
THE DISINTEGRATING COMPOST BALES
Chapter 5
DON'T BAIL OUT WHEN YOU SEE THEM VARMINTS
Chapter 6
GROWING IN BALES
Chapter 7
STUMP REMOVAL OR STUMP HIDING?
Chapter 8
THOSE PESKY GARDEN INSECTS
Chapter 9
TO SCYTHE OR NOT TO SCYTHE?
CONCLUSION

This book is a good little read and it's only 99 cents.

Nicotiana Alata

https://youtu.be/aMEpOia3KvU

It Snowed Egg Shells in my Garden

I heard somewhere that egg shells are great for your garden. I know that slugs and snails hate traveling on them and some birds like eating them. Perhaps some of that calcium gets absorbed into the ground I do not know.

I keep all my egg shells in a shoebox on my kitchen floor.

I get macho with them and break them up with a sledgehammer.

I then literally toss handfuls of them in my small garden.

It looks like it snowed egg shells. I hope they do some good.

I BECAME A WHEATGRASS FAN

The God factor in gardening is when God gives you wisdom or an idea that improves your gardening. God is wisdom and today I learned that wheatgrass or young straw has some valuable uses.

Today I planted some more carrots. I increased my bed size.

I had to cut up some aged hay from a bale and sprinkled it on top of my carrot seeds for a covering that fosters quick growth. Light mulch does wonders in helping seeds germinate and come up quickly. The problem with hay mulch, however, is that it is too dense with leaves, debris, and thick grasses.

Solution: I juice wheatgrass everyday. Why not grow wheatgrass for your plants? Look at those nice delicate blades of grass:

  

When I grow my wheatgrass in buckets I trim them when I make juice. The wheatgrass keeps on growing like grass in your yard that had been cut. Why not grow an extra bucket or two and harvest the cut grass? As you keep harvesting the grass you can dry it out in the hot sun or perhaps on a rack so air can get on all side. The mulch that you will obtain from your newly planted seeds will be like green gold or heavenly mulch.

Extreme Juicing by Larry Zoro

Bale Logic link video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhhXOLTHW6I

Garden Video Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5imuQUvv28

Why Don't You Love Me?

Don't dump your unwanted cats on the roadside. Find them a nice home. They cannot survive on their own. It is too hot in Missouri and the ponds are foul.

All the cats we own come from stranded pets. Even today they often inquire, "Why didn't they love us."

If you own a pet it is your child and your problem.

I'm not really speaking to my friends but to the WORLD OF HARDENED ANIMAL HATERS. Perhaps just one person will change his mind when he contemplates whether to dump his unwanted pets on the roadside.

Don't Use Wood in Your Garden?

I get a lot of flak for using hay bales. The fear of weed seeds spoiling your garden is common knowledge. I hate weeds but don't blame the aged hay bales. They won't spoil your garden. Today I cut some hay that I will make into bales and then set them aside for aging.  

You do not need acres and acres of land in order to get a lot of hay. 5 acres would be nice but two or three is okay. All this hay was from a little road I cut to the barn from the house. Each wheelbarrow load is enough for a bale.

I set three bales today around my little garden.

Look at all that top mulching that has my hay on top. I guarantee that no weeds are growing from the hay. Some might grow through the hay buy not from spoiled seeds from in the bales.

Anyway, I am still making hay and setting them about. They would make great barriers in order to keep rabbits out. I have a carrot patch outside my garden fence that will find protection by using a freshly made hay bale.

Caution: I will attempt at some humor: Do not use wood. Wood retains weed seeds that will wreck your garden. Here is the proof:

Look carefully the grass is growing in the wood. You must use only treated wood. I am joking of course. Wood is fine to use just like hay bales. Don't use treated wood (chemical poisons in the wood) and don't let the straw bale people sell you a bill of goods by saying only their bale products are the best to use in gardening. It is just not so.

Happy gardening, you hay balers, goodbye till next time....Larry Z  

 

Hay Bales

In my last post I mentioned my aged hay bales. IT is SO idiotic that some gardeners consider hay bales weedy or going to give off seeds that make weeds. Aged hay bales are safe to use. The heat of the bale makes the seeds unviable and also being spoiled they are easily absorbed into the ground.

I would not use freshly cut grass or newly made hay bales but the aged ones are fine to use. Come on, do you really like paying ten dollars for a straw bale? Do you know the history of the bales you get? Are they herbicide free?

My newest book is going to be about a workmen's garden. Look at my mine with the new hay mulch from my aged bales.

    

Take a look at all that mulch. I made it myself with my hay baler and a little time to age the bales.

Happy hay baler gardener. Hope you're having fun.  Larry Zoro

The Workmen's Garden

Most often people remark that they can't wait until retirement in order to grow a garden of their dreams. It is a shame that most gardens are too time consuming and hard work that the average worker cannot not achieve growing one until retirement. Is there an easier way to have a garden than waiting for retirement to make one?

The common workman needs nutrients in order to maintain the greatest output. For most workers their muscles are taxed to the utmost and need constant repair. Store variety of food does not hack it. The food is stale and lack vital energy. I have found that you must grow you own food in order to achieve the ultimate health.

While you're waiting to read my newest book make a hay baler. Gardening without hay is not gardening. Take it from me, Larry Zoro, "A little hay will make the garden of your dreams."

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Essential-Tools-Bale-Gardener-ebook/dp/B015453ZJI/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

This book has my plans on making your own hay baler.

I use hay  bales as borders in many places. When I need an aged or spoiled hay bale they are always readily available.