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| Straw bales are a neutral, organic medium that can feed plants and keep them hydrated. Hay bales would sprout a zillion field weeds. |
When I was looking into straw bale gardening, Mrs. Ichabod confused straw and hay, as many city-slickers do. I started thinking about the origin of soda straws and the straw used on farms.
Cereal grain stems use capillary action to draw moisture up to the flower and seedhead. What is left after harvest is the straw, minus the seed and chaff. Straw is very useful in bedding for animals, keeping them comfortable and healthy. Animals appreciate a clean, dry bed, so farmers get to muck out the stalls - often.
Hay is a grass product, so bale includes stems and leaves as dried food for animals.
So a bale of straw looks like organic soda straws, which is pretty interesting in itself. Your grandchildren may grow up without realizing how cool a bale of straw is! Straw is clean, organic, and useful for city slickers and farmers alike.
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| Trees and grass air condition a property through this action of transpiration and capillary action. |
Capillary action is fairly well known to everyone who takes Science 101, but the concept was a mystery until modern times. Romans used it to move water uphill in their aqueducts, but that technology was forgotten.
Capillary action allows liquids to move against gravity without a pumping mechanism. Trees do this with a combination of capillaries, evaporation from the leaves to create lift, and osmotic pressure from water in the soil.
Compost, mulch, the soil creatures, and humus contribute to the moisture that is drawn up by plants. They need water most when they are flowering and fruiting. Trees mine their water deep underground, but plants have only the top 12 inches to gain their water and nutrients.
One nursery company will sell water storage gadgets that absorb water and slowly release it for plants. A redneck solution is to bury a gallon milk jar with nail holes (or bullet holes) in its sides. Just the top reaches the surface of the soil. Water is then hosed into the jar for slow seepage to the plant - a lot of trouble and one more hunk of plastic in the soil.
My solution is to place as much organic material on top of the soil and make sure red wigglers are set loose to do their digging. We have to water in the dry spells, but the effect lasts much longer with many bags of mulch, layers of newspaper, and soil creatures contributing to the moisture level and drainage.
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| One gardener made a fortune by introducing earthworms into the gardens of the wealthy. The miracle worker charged a fortune and never told his secret. |