Straw Bale Garden Not Dead Yet!

I got the bales into place, soaked 'em down good for several days, sprinkled the nutrient mix on as I went, and then went to put the bedding plants and seeds in.

Reaching down into the bales to make openings for the potting soil and plants/seeds, I was pleased to find that the bales were pretty warm inside. It makes me happy because that heat is an indication that the bales are already in the process of breaking down. As they do, they'll provide nutrients for the plants whose roots are even now growing down into that warmth.

I put in sweet peppers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and beets. The cantaloupe and watermelon get five gallon pails, and I'm thinking to see if I can get green beans to grow up along the fence.

So far things are looking pretty good (knock wood) and the peppers are beginning to flower.

So we shall see what we shall see.

*laughing*

One thing that I do see is that apparently that wasn't ALL just straw in those bales. I'm going to have to weed them as I have a strong suspicion that if I don't I might have a good crop of wheat coming.

Electronic difficulties are the reason I haven't gotten photos into these posts, but hopefully that will soon be figured out and fixed.

Straw Bale Garden

I'm finally going to try that straw bale garden idea.

I've got the bales, which was somewhat a minor adventure all by itself. We, my cousin Bill and I, drove over to the next town to pick them up. I ordered them and paid for them a couple of days ago but had only a little car. A pickup making a lot more sense, I asked Bill if I could use his to bring them home with.

It's been raining (showers of blessings for this area) and the bales had been sitting outside and were soaked already when I ordered them. Sideways glances from a couple of people let me know that they thought I was a mite off, not fretting about those bales being soggy. They tried to talk me into taking the ones that had been under cover and were dry (the way they're supposed to be). Nope, sez I, it will save me having to use so much water to wet them down.

Not explaining further was possibly not nice of me.

At any rate, on the way over to pick them up, hoping being wet wouldn't make them fall to pieces (don't want Patsy Cline bales), it started raining cats and dogs, a real gully washer for just a little while there. But it was just for a little while; then it calmed down to a nice steady rain, which is a good thing all the way around.

Bill handed me the keys when we got there so I could go get the bales loaded while he shopped (for boots as it turns out) and out I went to drive over to pick them up.

Right.

The humidity had the windows so fogged I couldn't see a darned thing. Plus I can't get the seat to advance in that pickup to save my life so was hanging onto the steering wheel to keep myself where I could reach the clutch, brake, and gas pedals. Backing out of the parking place it dawned on me that there might be somebody behind me that I wasn't able to see, so I held onto the steering wheel with one arm while I used kleenex to wipe the windows clear of fog with the other hand, and rolled down the driver's side window while I was at it.

Now the loading guy was apparently watching.

He asked me if I wanted to put one of the straw bales in the driver's seat so I could drive.

No.

Just put 'em in the back.

But I was grinning when I said it.

I only got a half dozen and they filled the box of the pickup nicely.

By then the fan was keeping the windows clear so the short trip back to the parking place was less traumatic.

Since we were in the vicinity we made another stop and got a few other things. I picked up another little round washtub for the other half of the geraniums I'd gotten, and a five gallon pail since I can't find the one I just got not that long ago.

I'll get the bedding plants I need in a few days when it stops raining, but I did get seeds for carrots and beets. If I end up with any kind of crop at all I'll be able to make borscht. That's like a vegetable soup that's a purple-red because of the beets. Unless you're a very careful eater, don't eat it when you're wearing white. You have been warned.

By the time we got home the rain was in abeyance for a bit so we unloaded the bales, which weren't as heavy as I was afraid they would be. Either that or I'm stronger than I thought I was. Whichever, they're lined up in my back yard along the fenceline between my house and Bill's.

They're plenty soggy, but might be still dry inside so tomorrow I'll put a hose on them to make sure they're thoroughly soaked all the way through.

Then I'll sprinkle them with a nutrition mix and get more water on them to spread it down through the straw. Until that straw begins to break down it needs a bit of a boost on the nutrition end of things or my plants aren't going to be much to write home about. They might not be anyway, but I'll give them the best shot I can.

For the next few days that's what I'll be doing with my straw bale garden - getting it wet and getting the nutrients distributed through them as best I can.

Then I'll get on with the rest of it.

That would be digging holes in the straw, putting in some potting soil, and planting the seeds and bedding plants.

Part of the reason I'm hoping this works is that it keeps my garden up where I can reach it more easily.

Another part, of course, is that I want to make that borscht.

Yet another part is the ease of harvesting the root crops. When that time comes, the rebuttable presumption being that there are going to be potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets to harvest, all I'll have to do is knock the straw off. 

It's an experiment for me.

Everything is hypothetical and Bill is skeptical but keeping an open mind.

Another benefit, if it works right, is that the straw bales will break down and can be tilled into the ground right where they now stand, making for some good mulch for next year.

So we shall see what we shall see.

Garden Ideas : Vertical, Straw, and Flower Pots

I'm beginning to THINK GARDEN so here come some of the ideas that are bopping around in my head.

You'll recognize this if you've seen the What to do with old fence sections post.

This is the idea I want to use to make a backdrop for the garden I want to have this year.

The area of my yard best suited for a garden is not tilled. Every year for I don't know how many years, one of my sisters promised to let me use her tiller to make a garden plot in my yard. Every year when the ground finally thawed enough to till I waited until she got her garden tilled first; by then it was so late I had given up on the idea. Other years I made plans that included being absent for much of the summer; naturally I couldn't plant a garden. I inevitably was home all summer after all - but hadn't planted a garden using any of my alternative plans.

This year I'm not going to fret about tilling; I'm not planning on being gone for any length of time. 

This year I'm planning on having a garden.

The picture shows, kind of, what the backdrop of my little garden will be. One difference is that instead of stars it will sport climbing pea plants, and I'm going to leave the wider spaces that my fence sections have for this project and plant the peas in dirt between the boards at the foot of the fence.

Next idea:

Yup. 

Straw bales.

Living in the middle of farm country, I'm betting I can find someone who might sell me some straw bales.

There's a procedure to follow when it comes to this, apparently. Since it doesn't require tilling I'm fine with a bit of prep work. Especially if it works!

-First you get your bales a couple of weeks before you want to plant anything in them.

-Then you get them to where you want them.

-Then you turn them so the poky sides are up and down. If you want them to retain moisture better, or if (like me) you're fretting about them falling apart halfway through the growing season, you can wrap plastic around their sides.

-Then you get some stuff called 30-3-3 fertilizer (don't ask me; I'll find out when I go shopping for it) and some dead fish (this part is an experiment; if I were you I'd just go with the fertilizer until further notice) and some potting soil or dirt of your choice.

-Then you use the water and fertilizer every other day for ten days. The bales you're going to plant tomatoes in get the dead fish in them at about the depth you're going to plant your tomatoes. If they stink, plant them deeper or hold your nose or something. I'll let you know how this goes for me when the time comes. And no, I don't think you're supposed to use canned tuna.

-Once your ten days of every-other-day watering/fertilizing are done, let the bales set for four days, to cool down a little (the water will begin their decomposing process, which produces heat).

-Then have your bedding plants, sets, seeds, or whatever you're going to plant ready to go.

-For the seeds (like carrots and spinach and beets and such), trowel a V shape in the top of their bales, fill the V with your dirt, and plant the seeds in the dirt.

-For everything else, make holes the size your individual plants or sets need, fill 'em up with your dirt, and plant your garden!

-Pray for regular rain or water the bales enough to keep them from totally drying out. Fertilize them every week or two at first. As the season progresses you can cut down on the fertilizing because the innards of the bales will be decomposing and providing their own, and the roots of your plants will be down far enough to take advantage of that.

-Now, here's something you have to keep in mind. As roots start growing they'll have a tendency to push your plants up. Push them back down as needed until the roots get down into the straw.

Me, I'm going to TRY for spuds (potatoes), onions, carrots, cabbage, beets, and tomatoes in the straw bales. Until I'm reasonably sure I can make it work there's no point in me getting too ambitious about the whole thing.

The peas will presumably climb the fence backdrop.

In front of them, at a distance (probably several feet) I'll arrange my six bales in a triangle with its base closest to the backdrop. Said fence will face east, by the way. Our morning sunshine is great; come afternoon it can be brutal. I'll post photos as we go along, once we get around to the time to start going along.

In the back bales will go the tall stuff - tomatoes, potatoes, and probably the cabbages. Four plants per bale, to be on the safe side and not crowd them too much. Next come carrots and onions. In front, the beets. 

I also have a great big flower pot (more than two feet in diameter) that I like to plant spinach in. I'll move it back to my garden so as to have everything together. The first time I planted spinach I harvested my crop when it was the size of the 'baby spinach leaves'  you buy at the store - by pulling it up by the roots - and planted a second crop since spinach grows fast. THEN somebody told me to just snip the leaves and more would grow. That significantly cut down on the number of spinach seeds I had to use.

A note on beets: the greens are incredibly good for you. IF I can manage to make this work, I'll take some from each plant as they grow - to eat in salads and to dehydrate and use in soups and hotdishes and such come next winter. I'll do the same with the spinach.

Yeah, I know it's gonna be a pretty small garden. I'm okay with that for the first year. I'm only just one person.

Come harvest time I'll have myself a feast and can what I don't eat or already have dehydrated. When it comes to canning and/or dehydrating, we have plenty of farmers' markets close by - I'll go to them for corn and beans and squash and pumpkin and stuff I don't have room (yet) to grow my own self. 

Oh ... one of the perks of using straw bales is that once I've harvested my crops I'll take what's left of the bales and put them into the place I want my 'real' garden to be, which is right near where this one is going to be. They'll continue to decompose and eventually kill the grass in my yard right there (especially if I cover their remains with black plastic) while building a right fine topsoil for said 'real' garden. The same thing will happen where the bales themselves are so it's a good thing that's where I want my 'real' garden to go.

Being as I'm not getting any younger here I'll likely build myself some frames for raised garden beds, hopefully before I get too old and feeble to do it. The composted straw bales will be a significant contributing factor to the soil for them.

That's Plan A.

Plan B, in case I can't make this work, is to hope everyone else has better luck with their gardens and buy what I want at the farmers' markets.

Either way, I'd best be stocking up on canning jars and building more shelves for them.