Looking better from the street

Believe it or not, most neighborhoods are not used to seeing gardens in front yards...especially gardens planted in straw bales. Since we want to be good neighbors (and I will be honest - we are so done with coming in from watering with a couple dozen goats heads stuck in our shoes) we decided we should spruce things up a bit.

 

Our front bales are planted with a variety of squash and beans. The ground between those bales, however, are filled with gravel and goats heads - vile weeds that bear seeds with thorns that are happiest when they dig deep into your flesh. After we have stepped between the bales to water, we sound like we are walking with golf cleats on, and we have to stop and pull those nasty seeds out before coming inside, lest we find them later with our bare feet. Something needed to be done!

 

The goats heads in this area have not started growing much yet, but with the water running off the bales, they soon will be. Enough is enough!

 

We started by laying alndscape fabric between the bales. We cut it a bit long, folded the ends under, and used large nails to secure the ends into the ground.

 

Just covering up the weeds and gravel is an improvement!

 

We decided we also needed to cover the space between the ends of the bales and the driveway.

 

Chuck bought 12 bags of mulch, and we started adding it in. We poured it into piles then went back and spread it out.

 

The space looks much better after the mulch is spread out over the landscape cloth.

 

Now all we need is for the beans and squash to start growing and filling in the space. If it all comes in, we will have enough for ourselves, our neighbors, and to sell at the farmers' market. We have more planting to do, but it is getting exciting!