It appears I neglected to provide the final chapter of this Straw Bale Tale. I’d like to declare that I was burdened with the harvest and overwhelmed with preserving the bounty but that’s not the case.
Truth be told, the harvest was less than noteworthy.
That’s a 4″ X 4″ tile.
But it was a great experience! Continue reading “I Must Have Been Busy with the Harvest”
Woot! We got to enjoy our first greens in a salad. Only the lettuce and nasturtium in the photo but it’s early days.
Note the (very minimal) presence of red romaine. It’s re-growing following a close encounter of the deer kind. As is the nasturtium. We’re just overcoming challenges all over the place here.
May I say that nasturtium is remarkable? So much more than just pretty. It has a wonderful radish-like flavour.
In the interest of increasing the chances of success with this whole project I thought it might be time to provide a nutritious snack. The garden layout made it tricky to have the suggested space around the plants but I did what I could and watered it in with an hour-long soak hose session. I’ll repeat and rinse again in about three weeks.
The tomatoes got a little extra attention in the form of sucker removal.
All those gullible kindly leave the garden.
While I’m not entirely sure about one of the plants in the bales I’m going to guess that it’s a determinate variety so it wasn’t subjected to the process. Determinate plants tend to be bushy and bear their fruit all at once, making them great for sauces, canning and freezing. It’s suggested that they not have suckers removed.
Indeterminate plants grow taller, are more vine-like and produce fruit on a more ongoing basis. My cherry tomato plants fall into this category. They didn’t have many but a few suckers were snicked off and heartlessly discarded.
These growths will actually bear fruit and a small number of them is alright but having too many can deplete the main plant and production.
What’s new? One of the cucumber plants has flowered and the deer-consumed nasturtiums are making an impressive comeback.
Never underestimate the therapeutic power of sitting quietly and watching your garden grow.
*My apologies for not being able to find and credit the originator of this wise quote.*
I’m cautiously optimistic that this whole straw bale garden thing might just work for me. I’m also a bit taken aback at the degree of my delight at the sight of a pea pod.
Things I’ve learned…
1. Deer like red romaine lettuce. Just red. Oh – and nasturtiums.
So much for pretty.
2. Cats are curious about deer that like red romaine lettuce and nasturtiums.
3. Things need room to grow.
Thin the radishes they said. Gad – it felt more like a slaughter.
What began as delicately separating little radish plants and oh-so-carefully extracting just the right ones to optimize growth of the Fortunates (saving the leaves for sandwiches as I went along), soon deteriorated to grabbing multiples, hoping I wasn’t hurting the carrots in the process, and thoughtless discard on the ground . ‘Cause if I’m being honest, I wasn’t even planning to plant radishes and I really want carrots.
4. Don’t give up.
Remember those tomato plants? I was sure the understudy plant would have gasped its last breath by now and while it’s not flourishing, in the words of John Cleese, it’s not dead yet. And that other one? It’s growing.
The plant in the pail is winning the game so far but at least there are contenders.
In addition to the radish and tomato excitement there are lots of onions, the pepper plants seem to be doing well, potatoes are newly peeking through the bale, the cucumbers seem happy enough, and there’s a modest crop of peas. Oh, and some funky mould. Apparently that’s a good thing.
I don’t even much care for tomatoes. It’s the seedy slime; get rid of that and I can handle the rest. The flavour’s actually quite fabulous.
But a vegetable garden just wouldn’t be right without them so they’re part of the plot. It’s a pretty thin plot as stories go but their character has figured prominently and secured notoriety as First Death.
The scene opens with four plants – two Mighty Sweet cherry tomato plants kindly gifted from a friend, one Roma plant, and one Beefsteak of some sort. We planted the Roma and Beefsteak in the bales, nice and deep as directed.
So we fixed that, carefully positioned the cage, and thought we were well on our way to gallons of tomato sauce or scads of BLT’s. I didn’t know which because there was no identifying tag and I don’t know a tomato plant from a potato plant.
The next day…
And the next…
And…draw the curtain.
Mistake #2: I think the bale was too hot in this particular spot and, to make matters worse, it seems tomatoes aren’t fond of high nitrogen levels. The other plant is still alive but hasn’t grown at all.
Enter the understudy cherry tomato plant. Its height better suited the giant cage but there was definitely room for spread.
It still wasn’t exactly thriving a few days later when an Experienced Gardener happened along, suggesting a solution and simultaneously snapping it off about half way up.
Me.
And now it’s over there. In the long grass.
The other cherry tomato plant is living on the deck in a vintage pail.
Game on. Pail or bale?
Credit to the amazing Jim Henson and all those involved in the Muppets for the images of Beaker.
Planting the wee plot stretched over about 4 days but we’re all in as they say at the poker table. I delayed planting while I (mistakenly) awaited higher temperatures, so in the interest of record, the excitement took place the week of June 6.
My first mistake: I was shooting for a target temperature instead of basing the readiness of the bales on internal temperatures that were simply higher than the temperature outside. That’s proof enough of the breakdown process.
In hindsight it’s a forehead slapper.
Given what I perceived to be a late start I decided to go with plantlings as opposed to seeds for the most part.
The exception is a radish/carrot seeds combination on top of 2 of the bales. I read that carrot seeds are very fine, making placement difficult to control, and that combining them with radish seeds can resolve this problem.
In reality it seemed more like dropping large radish seeds with some degree of control while fine carrot seeds basically did what they liked. We’ll see how it all turns out. I created a shallow layer of top soil/compost mixture to plant the seeds into.
In addition to the carrots and radishes, the garden consists of the following plants:
I planted a square foot format rather than rows and even managed to slip in a bit of companion planting.
Planting visuals:
Straw bale gardens require more water than conventional gardens so I relaid the soaker hose around the plants in the hopes that they’ll adapt their growth to the presence. The onions and pumpkin-on-a-stick plant in the foreground are planted on top of the potatoes. That’s an unresearched shot in the dark. Stay tuned.
Furry farmers approved! Complete with a high-five from the cat.
Coming next…Mistake #2. Spoiler alert – the tomato dies.
It’s been pretty quiet on the 24 square foot farm.
Let’s face it, rising temperatures aren’t riveting. The 30 degree increase over that past six days is, however, worthy of note. Even with my limited knowledge of planting, I suspect we’re nearing P-Day so the current trend is heartening. Hopefully the next 30 degrees don’t take six days and we can get this show on the road.
If all goes well these tomato plants will be out in the bales within the next few days, along with carrots, potatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, and cucumbers. I’ll commit one full end bale to potatoes as they’ll destroy the bale. The others should be able to be planted again next year, becoming compost after that.
We’re shooting for somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 or 130 degrees as proof that the bales will be suited for planting (after they cool back down so that they don’t burn the vegetable babies). If the temperature doesn’t rise over the next day or two I think I’ll tuck them in with a tarp to heat things up.
Check out the bow tie. Best dressed gardener.
There’s always mud puddling to pass the time!
The argument that the breakdown process wouldn’t be hijacked by a snowstorm was presented. He had me at “I’ll help.”
What? It’s dark out there.
I can’t help but think this is going to put a bit of a damper on raising the core temperature of the bales. It’s supposed to be -1° and -2° over the next couple of nights so I think we’ll take a little break and come back to this when Mother Nature thinks about what she’s done and decides to play nice. I didn’t come across any what to do in the event of a May snowstorm instructions in my internet travels so I’m just winging it now.
Sooooo…talk among yourselves.
Or, hey! Here’s a great garden-related, fun food thing that will be even better with fresh grown carrots, cucumbers, onion, lettuce and whatever else is within reach at harvest time.
I just tucked sliced peppers, carrots, cucumber, green onion, and red cabbage into lettuce leaves and had a wonderful peanut dipping sauce on the side. The best part is that you can put whatever you want in the wrap (maybe add chicken, beef or tofu). Or try rice paper instead of lettuce.
To make them easier to eat I’m going to finely chop the veggies instead of having long strips next time.
I found the yummy peanut sauce recipe at ohsheglows.com Thanks Angela!
Use a mini processor to process the sauce ingredients until smooth or chop everything by hand and whisk it all together.
Guess what Urea is. Starts with ur… Yep-urine. I’ve just never had occasion to put much thought into fertilizer. It’s not like you wade through it on the way to the carrots in the produce section so it’s been off my radar.
I started the bale conditioning with blood meal but exhausted my meager (but not inexpensive) supply in the first two days so needed to find an alternative.
Turns out pee is a wondrous source of nitrogen. Yay. And it comes is large, economical quantities. Yay.
So I waddled my 55lb bag of dried pee from the far back corner of the store, wrestled it into the car and returned to the bales.
While this blog isn’t intended to be instructional, it bears noting here that fertilizers should be used with care, stored with care, and respected like a scary grandmother. Behave yourself around them. Seriously.
Days 4 & 5 – 1/2 cup of Urea watered into each bale. Ma Nature’s lending a hand today so the drip hose will get a mini vaca.
shelleyschell 