It pays to shop local!

Today I headed out to the local feed store to try to get some straw for my potato towers, and garden beds to use as mulch...Unfortunately he had sold his last bale of straw yesterday, and wasn't expecting the farmer to bring him more until tomorrow. I was a little bummed, but planned to return tomorrow to get my straw. When I told him my plans for the straw he stopped me and said..

"Well, if you're just using it in your garden, I have a bunch on the floor of the barn over there where I keep the straw. If you have a way to haul it, you can have it!"

I tell you I jumped on that opportunity. The hubby and I left to empty the bags of dirt off the trailer, and returned with tarps, and rope to collect our straw. It took about a half an hour, the feed store man also let us use one of his tarps, we filled an 5'x14' about 6" deep with straw, covered it with his tarp, he also gave us 4 pallets to place on top, to hold the straw down. We tied it all down and returned home with WAY more straw than we had intended to purchase originally. When we returned his tarp, I also gave him 11 of my tomato seedlings, which he was very happy to get. And we got 4 more pallets in return!

IT PAYS TO SHOP LOCAL!!! 

The people in these stores become part of your lives and sometimes you can be mutually beneficial to each other! I got the straw I needed, and got rid of some of my over abundance of tomato plants, and he got his barn cleaned out and ready for a new straw delivery for free, and HE got 11 tomato plants!

I was also able to give my neighbor some of my tomato plants today, and planted my tomato beds with 13 plants. I plan to plant some out by the chicken run as well as in my raised beds.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I will be busy playing in the dirt, mixing my planting mix, and my straw and hopefully be ready to plant my garden!