My straw bale garden has sagged, but I don’t think it’s all bad.  I think it is on it’s way to becoming a pleasing, comfortable shape.  Earlier, this winter, some bulbs were places on top of it, then covered with a layer of top soil.  The soil ended up having more rocks in it than I remembered, but that hasn’t stopped the bulbs from sprouting.

A few days ago, I removed some of the rocks and added some amended soil to help smooth it out on top.  Then, I planted several kinds of flower seeds and repositioned the soaker hose.  It has been my experience that the flower seeds sprout when the temperatures are right.  There’s no need to wait to plant them until the last frost date is past.  Some of them, like the sweet peas and poppies, are sprouting as volunteers in other places around my garden already.

The addition of sweet peas, four o’clocks, and various colored California poppies should create color for many months.  I planted some of the sweet peas and four o’clocks so that they should cascade down the sides.  Time will tell if my vision was accurate.  Right now, it doesn’t look like much to the passerby, but to me it is just waiting to burst into bouquet.

The straw bale squash plant has powdery mildew.  Half the tomato plants were removed due to some virus and the others are barely producing.  Green worms and aphids are wreaking havoc on my cabbage.  The weeds got a definite advantage while I spent time trying to take care of other responsibilities AND process what produce I do have.  It happens every year.  Reality crashes in on my gardening dreams.  I know it’s going to happen and I try to brace myself, but I do want my nearly acre garden to be beautiful and bountiful.

Then I saw some photos that my Natalie had taken (like the opening photo of one of my dahlias grown from a cost effective bag of tubers from Costco) and I began to remember my successes.  A saunter through the many sections of my garden with the camera produced more photos of my own.  Some show the results of problems, and others zoom in on specific spots of beauty or vigor.  Here, for instance, is the wild approach to the front door.  The show of color and variety at the beginning of fall is due to research so as to have both perennials and annuals planted that like the heat and the fall timing.  I’ll get around to pruning the suckers from a rose that died last winter.  Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the color before the first frost kills it.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Seeing this makes it easier to look at this:

I have been so looking forward to eating some of my Sweet Dumpling squash.  There are some that may yet reach maturity:

I belatedly remembered there might be something to do for these plants, but I hope it is just related to our unusual summer weather this year.  Even my bind weed has it, as do many other plants, so it would take a lot of spraying.   gardenguides.com has a good article about it.  One of their suggestions involving a baking soda/soap spray is similar to what is said in my latest garden read, The Truth About Garden Remedies, page 127.

Meanwhile, I will concentrate on beautiful images like these:

Vines of Spanish Eyes

Purple centered perennial African Daisy which I purchased at Greenhurst Nursery a couple of years ago. They are lower growing than the arcotis annuals I’ve grown. And, yes, those are bind weed leaves mixed in with the foliage.

Leeks in the middle.  Midsummer starts of broccoli, hopefully for a fall harvest.  They are looking very healthy!

I’ve never grown or eaten endive before, but there it is all in a row on the left of my version of a trellis for peas that have since been cleaned up.

Fall blooming crocuses in unlikely places bring cheer.  I think it’s this one.

It seemed like it took a long time for the soft yellow blooms of the Rudbekia hirta to bloom, but they were worth it. I grew them from seed and they started out very small. They are planted in small groups in about three different spots.  Right in front of them are several kale plants for winter eating.  They are from midsummer starts, also.

The petunias and snap dragons that I grew from seed are flourishing, as are the weeds creating the fluffy border in front of them.  Maybe I’ll pull them tomorrow.  The glads behind them all are spent, but were gorgeous, as seen below:

Also from an economy pack at Costco.

Sunflower seeds ripening for the harvest are fun to look at.

Most of the hollyhocks have progressed to seed pod stage, but this fresh pink bloom attracted me and a busy bee.

Plants heavy with bell peppers; and they are heirloom, so I can collect the seeds!

Onions that I grew from both seed and start, in order to compare.  They didn’t get as large as I would have liked and I will try saving some for starts for next year.  I have already been cooking with them, which is great fun.

Another of my dahlias “from the bag.”  Happy bee -

These were volunteers.  Bicolored Four O’clocks are very reliable.

And here are some late Heavenly Blue Morning Glories.  Those in the full sun have given up for the year, but these add the perfect dash of blue to my barely functional garden gate.  These particular flowers remind me of stories I’ve heard about my great grandmother, as I’ve been told they were her favorite flower and that she loved to garden.  I didn’t see her much and she died when I was young, but she planted a seed in my mind.  As she knew her time to on earth was nearing its end, she wrote a page in a small notebook that clearly and succinctly told of her faith in Jesus Christ.  She asked that it be copied and handed out to all of her descendants, to make sure they knew.  I was already a believer, immature as I was, but her message had impact on me, seeing how warmly she wrote, how substantial her faith was.  These were no idle words or ramblings of an old, hopeless person.  These were the words of someone who knew what to expect next and looked forward to it with peace.

God blesses us while we are here, but there are ever present reminders of the effect our sin has brought to earth.  May all your gardening bring you full circle to true hope.

  Winter Shapes of the Straw Bale Garden

Day 17 – Transplanting into a Straw Bale Garden

Day 20 – Some days one just wakes up and realizes the possibility of doing things one has never done before.  Like making custom lengths of soaker hose.  Laugh if you must, but it was a welcome revelation to me.  So, on one recent trip to the garden nursery where my oldest son works, I asked him about it.  He knew exactly what I would need, because, as he said, “When you work at a nursery, you learn hose repair.”

At home, after raiding my husband’s tool box, I made the irreversible cut in the “mother hose.”   This I accomplished with a normal pair of kitchen scissors.  It wasn’t as easy as cutting paper, but I only had to apply minimal pressure and the cut was clean and perpendicular.  I felt a satisfaction similar to knowing I had found the key to solving a chemistry equation, this was such a novel venture for me.

The next step was to twist the cut end onto the piece that would enable it to be capped.  After that I needed to pinch the metal fingers down, but found the pliers wouldn’t open wide enough (not my son’s fault, he didn’t tell me which tools to use).  I visited the tool box again and found something that I couldn’t name, but was perfect.  ( my husband now informs me that they are channel locks )

I have saved the caps from the ends of a few soaker hoses that were no longer functional, so dug one of those and a rubber washer out of a box in the greenhouse and placed them on the modified hose end.  Then I bustled down to the straw bale garden and placed the new miniature hose in a visually pleasing spiral.  It fit perfectly, but the final test would be turning the water on.  A moment later, it was sparkling appropriately, showing that the new end was working.  Chemistry equation solved!

Next up: Straw Bale Garden Complications and Problem Solving

Day 1 – Chronicles of a Straw Bale Garden

Day 5 – If You Give a Gardener a Straw Bale

Day 8 and gopher tales

Day  17 – Sunday I put my first transplants into my straw bale garden.  The good news is that two days later they appear happy and growing.  The bad news is that getting them planted was a lot more work than I anticipated.    It could be that the resources I read were referring to much smaller transplants, like those that come in pack of 4 or 6, such that the dirt and roots are less than 2 cubic inches.  I do think it would have been much easier to slip those into place.  As it was, I had flowers (which I began from seed) in 3 inch wide pots, the pots also being about 4 inches deep.

Another factor may have been our unusually cool spring weather, so that, maybe, the bales had not broken down as much as they might have.  With all  of the rain, they did certainly get moist enough; and there was some sunshine.  They must have broken down some, because I was able to pull and tear at the straw just under the layer of compost and finally get those little green things planted.

So now my painted daisies are ready to poke their heads up through the vines, which I am waiting a few more days to plant.  I am planting them from seed into the completely soil center of the straw cube, so it will be very simple.  I just want it to dry out and warm up some so the seeds don’t rot.  Next for the straw bale experiment:   I will attempt to make custom lengths of soaker hose.  I hope it’s not too entertaining for the engineers and mechanically -minded in my family to observe…

Day 1 – Chronicles of a Straw Bale Garden

Day 5 – If You Give a Gardener a Straw Bale

Day 8

I am living in the heyday of strong, energetic, employment seeking young men in my family.  They are at an age where they are quite happy to go around moving large rocks just to show that they can.  How much the better if I pay them for it.  Thus, it was very convenient to arrange for help with the landscaping around my straw bale garden near the driveway entrance.  In the amazingly short period of one hour, my son (aka, “the gorilla”) and my nephew relocated multiple boulders and created an aesthetically pleasing, natural looking display.

This son, on the left, is the same one that caught a gopher by hand last month.  Everyone should have such efficient, dedicated staff.  Of course, he didn’t know what he was trying to catch, just that it was  putting one of our fruit trees at risk.  He could see its head popping up on either side of the trunk as it began to set up house, so he went and put some gloves on.  I was in the house, not feeling well that day and not aware of what he was doing.  His 13 year old sister was observing as he studied the varmint’s movements.  After a few misses, he grabbed it around the neck and pulled it out while continuing to grip tightly.  I am told he raised an eyebrow and commented, “Huh, I didn’t know it had such big teeth.”

When I heard shouts of victory and began to realize what he had done, I still did not go out.  I did give directions about finding a container for it so that we could let his father identify it later that evening.  I also checked to see if he had been bitten.  I may be the family’s head gardener, but gophers are a new pest for me.  Fortunately, I still have a son around to help me.  We will investigate safer methods for future captures.

Day 17 – Transplanting challenges

Chronicles of a Straw Bale Garden – Day 1

Day 5 – Last week a friend of mine found herself suspected of being both a drug dealer and a pyromaniac by going into a local, reputable garden store and asking about nitrogen fertilizer and straw bale gardening.  This prompted me to educate myself, so I did some research on the possibility of spontaneous combustion in straw or hay bales.  It involves some fascinating  microbiology.  In short, my straw bales are not at risk, which is good news since I already set up my straw bale garden.

The main reason seems to be that they are not a big enough “pile” for the heating of decomposition to feed itself.  Heat and moisture can escape sufficiently.  The secondary reason is that they are last years bales and have already gone through metabolic processes which have a lower heat maximum with every cycle.  If you are looking for a bonfire, you’ll have to look somewhere else, like possibly the plastic 5 gallon bucket under our back yard brick oven.  But that’s another story.

Meanwhile, here are some websites that I found very helpful.  First, to inform about constructing a straw bale garden, I still like the simple steps from the June 2010 Fine Gardening magazine best.  However, the instructions from the other sites indicate that there is not one absolute method.  I received a gracious reply from a University of Idaho extension representative that introduced me to:

Nichols Garden Nursery article on building a straw bale garden

University of Minnesota Extension information on straw bale raised beds

If you thrive on understanding the intriguing chemistry and biology of gardening, then you’ll want to read more about the ongoing cellular respiration of cut hay, mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria, and interior bale temperature. This Virginia Tech article gives an excellent detailed, but easy to understand explanation.   yourcattle.com gives straight forward advice about managing these temperamental bales should you be storing them in stacks for any length of time.

I remain hopeful for the outcome of my bales, having faithfully watered it with fish emulsion solution again today.  It may look like dirt frosting on a piece of straw cake to the casual passerby, but I see the promise of a vivid jungle of vines of squash with their exotic orange blossoms.

Day 8, plus gopher tales

Day 1 – Yesterday I got my first straw bale garden bed cooking.  Literally, I guess.  Per the instructions in Fine Gardening (This video is not as complete as the article in the magazine), I set up the bales,  filled the hole and covered the top with compost, sprinkled it with granular fertilizer, and watered it thoroughly.  During the next 10-14 days, as I continue to douse it with a diluted fish emulsion fertilizer solution every day, it is going to go through a chemical cycle that breaks down the straw and generates some heat, but not enough to lead to a fire, as sometimes happens with hay or straw stacked for storage when it is too moist.

My straw bales must have been longer that those used in the tutorial, because my space in the middle was comparatively huge .  I dumped about 8 -10 wheelbarrow loads of compost by the time I filled it and covered the top with a layer.  However, limited space is not an issue for me.  I am interested in this method as a way to create a nice, warm mound for a large squash plant at the entrance to our driveway.  It looks like I will also have some room for some flowers, like giant zinnias, that can poke up through the plant and add some color.

I’m considering putting some rocks or something around it, since it might look to the neighbors like I’m putting out my harvest decorations too soon….   It will be another couple of months before the squash and flowers come close to covering it.  Meanwhile, it’s kind of like gardening  crock-pot style.

Day 5 – If You Give A Gardener A Straw Bale