When I first mentioned to Neil that I wanted chickens, his initial response wasn’t very positive. He grew up in the Berkshires and sometimes the farm aesthetic was pretty awful. We have a small yard, so any chicken coop we got (I was working on him!) had to be attractive. We spent way too much money on the Eglu by Omlet. It’s a beautiful coop and very easy to clean, which was a big bonus for me.
So everything was going well in our beautiful backyard farm until I took a couple of composting classes at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The teacher was great and very inspiring as to how to scavenge materials in the city. Coffee grounds from your local coffee shop, bales of straw from neighbor’s Halloween displays, etc. It was armed with the information from this class that I purchased a Toro leaf blower and decided to vacuum and mulch my leaves. It actually took a lot of restraint not to become the crazy leaf lady and walk up and down my block vacuuming up the neighbor’s leaves. Hey, I only have a finite amount of “browns” for my compost bin!
Well then I happened upon an autumnal display (this was in October) that had bales of straw and quickly asked them if I could have the straw when they were done with it. I was able to cart off 2 bales. Those suckers are big and heavy and you definitely look like the crazy straw lady when you are wrestling them down the streets of Brooklyn on a cart. I generously spread a layer all over the backyard and piled the straw up in the plant beds. I was glowing with how the straw would break down by the springtime and help my crummy lifeless soil become rich with nutrients and life. Neil was skeptical, but has gotten used to my crazy schemes, so he didn’t grumble too much.
It is now spring and as you can see from the photos, I have plenty of straw on the ground and in the beds. It has shown very little signs of breaking down. The grumbling has gotten quite audible. I planted grass seeds and there are tiny little green hairs peeking up. Hasn’t shown any sign of covering up the straw.
Even I have to admit that my fabulous composting endeavor looks pretty awful. People who come over think that the straw is for the chickens and this is exactly what Neil wanted to avoid in the first place. Neil encouraged me to pull out the leaf blower to suck up some of the straw and grind it into smaller pieces. That seemed to work, but I didn’t put it all back. I think I will dig it into the beds over the summer and fall and add it to my compost bin. I think the grass will grow through what’s left and my backyard will look a little less like photos from the Dust bowl fairly soon. Cross your fingers!
