g'day all,
just popped in after seeing the forum listed on my hosting stats'
one gardener was considering a bale garden straw or otherwise, but found no affordable availability near by, the best option for affordable bales of mulch are produce agencies, buy only spoilt fodder or grass hay bales and check sugar cane mulch which we sue as exclusevly as mushroom compost, it is usually affordable ranging from $5 to $10 around and in brisbane area, the closer to where teh cane is grown gets down into the $3 range. i have contact details for a trucker who resides around burpengary, he trucks back from up north rolls of sugar cane mulch but may load bales on request. i lived at deception bay and could get s/c bales for $10 or a 10 bale roll for $60.
don't believe that the effort needed to till is needed at all, raised beds need no eges as such and can begin with a pile of mushy on top of prunings on the ground, start around 12"s. also sued to be a bloke up woorim way who grew and cut pasture grass mix even with delivery he was quiet reasonable and less than local s/c mulch.
back in an earlier post click on the straw bale link that's me.
building a new house now so early in new year new gardens this time more room to once again grow chillies, these beds now as we get older will be teh height and surrounded by corrugated iron, got lots of tree materila to cut up so far less to burn later if any at all, this is similar to what now is know as hugelkultur/beet system we have actually done this for a decade or more now everything gardening is just an adaption we try to mimic nature. and do as littel ongoing manual work as possible.
busy days ahead not getting younger in any hurry.
len