Straw Man

LOADS OF MULCH
Two loads (six big round bales) to be precise.

I am the Straw Man at Greene Family Farm. No, I'm not an informal logical fallacy; I'm really the Straw Man. I get the straw that we use for mulch. One of the important elements in building the fertility of the farm is adding organic matter to the soil. We've done a lot of small things over the years to help with this. We put the leaves from the trees in the garden; we put grass clippings in; we got leaf mulch from the city (however, we got tired of the plastic bottles and flip-flops and beer cans that were often in it); we even put in some shredded paper and feed bags! But straw was the real breakthrough.

UNWRAPPED
Breaking into these big round bales is a bit like peeling an onion.
It's easy to handle with a pitch fork.

It began, as many things do for me, with catastrophe. When I was younger, I baled and hauled lots of square bales of straw for my father. One year, there were over one hundred bales still in the field when there came a quick, heavy, and un-forecast thunder shower. The bales were ruined, outrageously heavy, and in the way of the soybeans that needed planting. I wrestled them onto the trailer, brought them home, threw them at the edge of the garden, and collapsed. Next day while I was at work, my loving and beautiful wife broke all the bales loose and spread wet straw about a foot deep exactly where I didn't want it. That evening, I patiently and calmly explained to her that I wished she hadn't done what she did in exactly the way she did it. She took it well and didn't leave me. That part of our garden spot still has the most mellow and friable soil on the place, and that happened nearly ten years ago.

"Is this enough, Daddy?"
Seth loves to work with the pitch fork,
but it is wise to stay back when he's doing it.

Now we use straw everywhere. It's a weed barrier, an insulator, a carpet, a moisture holder, a wildlife refuge, and a great bedding material for piglets and chicks. A weed barrier: straw suppresses the weeds nicely. Does it eliminate them completely? No, but not even asphalt does that! An insulator: straw keeps the soil cooler in summer and warmer in winter. That has improved the quality and hardiness of our crops considerably. A carpet: we used to have muddy areas in the garden spot that the children called "the quicksand" because they would sink so deep after a rain. We've had nearly four inches of rain since July 1, and we went all over the place yesterday without sinking down at all. I didn't even wear my boots. A moisture holder: straw keeps the soil moist when everything else is drying out. When everything else was baking last week in temps over 100º, the soil under the straw was still damp. A wildlife refuge: the straw is a haven for critters. Earthworms love the microclimate that the straw creates at the top of the soil. Black snakes and toads feel right at home there (and startle us sometimes when we are not expecting to see them). A great bedding material: piglets and chicks flourish with straw bedding. There's probably a really sophisticated set of physical, chemical, and biological reasons why this is, but the soil explodes with life underneath that straw.

The Pig Patch - Planted & Mulched.
We call it the pig patch because we used the pigs to break it up this spring.