Volunteer Day, July 9, 2011

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The question came up today: What is the difference between a hay bale and straw bale? According to Nick and Justin (who teaches classes in gardening at USF), hay is the part of the grain (the top portion that includes the seeds)--alfalfa, clover, wheat, etc that is used for human or animal consumption. Straw, on the other hand, is the part of the grain (bottom portion of the grain) used for animal bedding, mulch, baskets, straw bale homes, etc. Nick is holding straw on the left and hay on the right.


Here's Nick applying straw as mulch to the garden beds. It's really windy where the garden is located and the weather's been HOT. Sometimes we've had to water twice a day because the beds dry out so quickly. The mulch will reduce evaporation and with the use of our drip system, both will help us save on water and reduce our water bill, which is not cheap!






Yesterday, Powell Bros Feed and Pet Supply donated a bale of straw and leftover straw from their barn for our volunteer event today. We used most of it as mulch and here's Kimmie bundling up the extra pieces of straw for use later. Thank you Powell Bros Feed and Pet Supply! You folks are so nice!







Russell and Justin organizing the box of heirloom seeds that were donated to us from the Petaluma Seed Bank. Since Justin teaches classes in gardening at the University of San Francisco, he was able to let Russell know which seeds to start right now. It can be quite overwhelming--we have a variety of different seeds!








Russell prepping the five gallon pots that were donated to us by Loma Vista Farm. He's going to start some of the seeds in these pots.

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