10-20-13 End of the season

We've had some frost on the lawn in the past week.  Not a hard frost yet, but it's coming.  The basil is done, the impatiens are gone.  Today seemed like a good time to harvest what's left.  The beans just keep coming!  Time to pick the chard and beets too.  They actually look better than I expected.  Ironically, I have about 10 strawberries on the vine that don't stand a chance of ripening now--figures!  Tonite's supper will be salmon with orange sauce, and chard sauteed with pine nuts, parmesan and basil.  Oh, and sweet potatoes (not from the garden--I left those in, I don't think we'll get more than  puny roots).  Dessert will be banana chocolate pecan bread.  These cool days are re-kindling my desire for bread-making.  Here come the winter pounds!

So really nothing more to write about the straw bales.  It worked mostly as advertised.  At $4/bale, we really got our money's worth.  The ability to keep them close to the door, on the patio, made the minimal upkeep easy, and the fact that I could sit while planting and harvesting was the frosting on the cake!  I'll need Scott's help to put what's left in the wheel barrow and up to the compost pile.  But that means I won't need to buy potting soil for next years pots.

So here are the final pictures of the year:

Chard and Beets

Izzy hangin' out with me (if you look hard, you can see some red strawberries)

So Long until Next Year!

September 1, 2013. Reap what you sow!

The garden continues to produce.  Tonight's spaghetti sauce is going to have a vegetarian sauce with beans, zucchini and squash (thanks Tom), peppers and of course tomatoes.  It sounds interesting, but I have no doubt my resident chef will make it good.  Thank goodness for the irrigation system!  We may not have needed it earlier, but we're now in a "flash drought" (LaCrosse Tribune).

A few grasses have found their way back into the bales, but everything is growing so well, they have no where to go.  I'm not losing any sleep.  It seems I have to keep checking the beans and tomatoes every few days, with a large majority of the tomatoes probably ripe later this week.  A few carrots have survived, it will be interesting to see how they look.  The leaf lettuce has officially gone to seed.  I could probably re-seed...

Get this, just when I had given up on my strawberries, it seems the fat ground squirrel has had his fill, and they are now growing again!  I had 2 last week, with several more ripening right now.  I may yet hit 10 whole strawberries (woo hoo!).

The beets are getting big, as is the kale.  Not sure when I should harvest them... The pea pods seem to be done, but they were really good while they lasted.  At this point, I think I can call the straw bale garden experiment a success!

Notes for next year: Either try different carrots or don't bother with them.  We should put in some fingerling potatoes (not sure if the sweet potatoes are actually doing anything).  Label things a little better....but at least it's now clear what is beets and what is kale.  This years beans were apparently wax beans, so we should try another variety.  The impatiens in the sides of the bale worked well (the shaded ones anyway), and I think I'll skip the zinnias next year (or just put them elsewhere-they;re infringing on the beans). 

8-15-13 New Garden Guardian

Well, Izzy's been living with us for about 3 weeks now--hence no spare time for blogging.  She's a rescue dog, and she's had a few issues (namely house-training), so the garden hasn't been top priority. The fact that it's so maintenance free is a plus right now.  Still no weeds, but also no strawberries :(  The kids' CD's worked great for the birds, but it seems it's the striped ground squirrels have a hankering for them.  The green beans are just doing great==we' had lots of fresh ones right off the vine.

And for those wondering if green beans will stick to your shirt, here's your answer Shannon!

July 16. This is war!

I've suspected something has been sampling my garden, but it's now confirmed.  I had a strawberry I've been waiting for, and today when I went to pick it, it was gone. Severed clean off the stem.  I'm suspecting birds.  Ironic that I feed them in the front of the house...Anyway, that prompted this evening's bird intimidation project.  Thank goodness the kids left CD's behind when they moved on (such yesterday's technology).  Between those and some aluminum foil strips, I'm hoping to deter the birds.  So Andrew, if you're reading this, no offense, but I hope the birds will hate "The Stokes" and "The Shins".  Krista, "Buckcherry 15" is your contribution.  I couldn't bear to put the John Mayer Trio out there (and in fact I may play that one tonight).  Cross your fingers this works--I want more strawberries!

July 14-Beans, beans, beans!

I truly believe if I'd been sitting on my patio (with a cold beverage), I could have watched the beans grow!  Apparently they are pole beans (or do all of them climb?).  Anyway, their long tendrils appeared overnight.  So off to Shopko again for another trellis.  Amazing what warm sunny weather will do!  We had the pea pods in a delicious salad, and I ate a couple more right off the vine.  The strawberries are teasing me, one by one.  Not as prolific as I'd hoped... The chard and beets are picking up.  I'm having trouble telling which is which because I think I threw the seeds in together.  How do I know when to pick the carrots??  I think I'll let them go a while--Scott thinks they'll stick up like the radishes.  I'm certainly learning by doing this year.  I'll let the photos do the talking.

Peppers

Tomatoes!

Eggplant

Beans

Sunday July 7

Sunday July 7, 2013
Happy belated birthday America!  We FINALLY put together a stretch of summer weather.  I don't believe we've had any rain in a whole week--wait, I have to take that back.  We had a weird sun/downpour on the 4th.  But our rainwater barrel has actually run dry, so tomorrow we'll have to use the irrigation system to water the bales/plants.  We've pretty much neglected the garden in the past few days, due to the holiday festivities.  But other than making sure they're watered (which hasn't been so labor intensive this year), there's not much more to do.  The weeds have remained non-existent since the grass has been pulled.  So I still take my morning stroll to see if anything needs to be picked, and yes, I've now had FOUR ripe, warm strawberries.  Glad I didn't count on them for pie, because they're just ripening one by one, but there's still more to come...Tonight I also picked 6 pea pods.

 The Zinnia seeds I tossed in are coming up nicely and will hopefully blossom soon.  The sweet potatoes are really doing nothing, and the chard has stalled too.  The peppers, eggplants and tomatoes still look good, and my beans are taking off.  We'll see how things go now that we're in the heat of summer (I hope!).  There's still some leaf lettuce left, but I've been told it will probably be bitter.  I guess I should pull it and re-plant more seeds in a few weeks. Until next time...

beans (left) peas (climbing), zinnias and strawberries (in side of bale)

Wed June 26
Every day I have to take a spin around the bales to see what's happening, and I'm really starting to see some action!

Blossoms on my eggplant.

My first tomato!

Peppers (there's 2 on there, but the photographer is crummy).

This is the best--STRAWBERRIES!  There was one point where the strawberries had some sort of slimy fungus on them, and I thought I'd lose most of them (you know the drill--no sun, too much rain).  I didn't know what to do, so they got a little bath with Ivory soap and a rinse with holy water (not really, but I WAS praying).  At one point I had a total of 2 blossoms between 5 plants.  They battled back though, and look pretty good now.  This experiment will be considered a success in my book if I can walk out my door and pop at least 5 warm, red strawberries in my mouth.  Critters beware: if you steal my berries, it will mean war!

And here's my secret weapon: Labrador Layla the garden guard is on duty.  No critter would dare to venture here!  My wax beans are in the foreground, the little things just sprouting are the zinnia seeds I threw in last week.  My peas are climbing one arbor, and my pretty purple clematis is in the background.  You know, at the very least, this has given me something to look forward to each day.  Despite the bugs, heat, rain, whatever, I love to watch things grow.  And now that I've pulled out the last of the grass, it is finally living up to it's weed-free billing (yes, the chia pets are gone).  Scott is definitely catching the bug, too (he's the one that decided we should have sweet potatoes and showed up with them after grocery shopping), and he's already planning next year's garden...so cross your fingers and stay tuned!

Sunday June 23
WET!  We haven't need to use the irrigation system since mid-May.  The one good thing about the bales is that they drain well, so despite having mushrooms each morning (that promptly disappear with any hint of sun), the plants are hanging in there. 

View of the bales from the back door.  It's awesome to just walk a few steps and grab some lettuce and a few radishes-- It's making the prospect of eating salads much more exciting!  You can see the bales are very dark now (and see how pretty those impatiens are:)

Potatoes are one of the crops that supposedly do very well in the bales, and they come out dirt free.  BUT we rarely eat regular potatoes, so we decided to put some sweet potatoes into the side of 2 bales (you can see the second cut of lettuce on the top of the bale to the left, and my chard starting on top of the bale to the right). I just popped them in today, so once again, we'll wait and see!

Happy Father's Day!
What a beautiful day today (finally)!  We did some hiking this morning, to the Seven Bridges Trail (where we were only able to get to bridge 4 due to high water), then on the Clearwater Farms Trail in Onalaska.  Beautiful views, low humidity, light breeze and mid-70's.  THIS is what I've been waiting for.  After we got home, I cut our leaf lettuce for supper tonight (and tomorrow--there was more than I thought), and we harvested our first 2 radishes.  We are starting to reap the benefits of the garden!  The tomato plants, while looking a bit beat up from the cold and rain, finally have some blossoms.  The peas are going crazy, and best of all, the strawberries have blossoms too!

I had a few seeds left, and an underutilized bale that doesn't get full sun.  I gambled and stuck some wax bean seeds and some zinnias in.  We'll see what happens.  That's half the fun of this--watching to see how everything does (and the zinnias are because my bales have to provide some beauty too).

We're having strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.  Our own rhubarb (but not from the bales), and frozen strawberries.  Can't wait until my plants start to produce!

The bunnies don't seem to have figured out they could have a feast if they just jumped on the bales--at least not yet, and I'm not going to tell them.  The bales are getting quite dark in color now,and they haven't started to sag much (yet) either.  I've managed to pull most of the grass out now (today was the perfect day to sit in my chair and weed).  If it weren't for the grass, it would truly be a weed free enterprise.  Scott even talked about "next year" so I think he's been converted!

Top--leaf lettuce (before harvest)
Middle-- bales with tomatoes, peppers, strawberries (and imaptiens growing in the sides)
Bottom--strawberries with blossoms and radishes

Sunday June 2, 2013

It didn't rain today!  But it did again last night, so there were plenty of mushrooms this morning.  Bill T toured the garden before golfing with Scott and commented on the chia pet syndrome, thinking that it's leeching some of the nutrients that should be going to my plants.  So even though I've been trying to peacefully co-exist with the grass, he guilted me into trying to weed it out.  It's actually a bit satisfying when it's so wet and I can get entire clumps out with the seeds on the ends. Just to be clear, Krista and Andrew, the grass that's growing in my garden isn't THAT kind of grass--lest you start any rumors about your hippie mother.  Now that that's established, everything is still alive, but I can't say anything's really thriving yet.  The poor strawberries had some kind of white fungus on them earlier in the week, so I pulled the affected leaves off.  So far, so good.  No buds on the strawberries or tomatoes yet.  I do have a pepper starting, and more blossoms on those.  The lettuce is doing well--see pictures below of last week and this week.  I put some impatiens in the sides, and they're starting to bloom.  The peas are growing and climbing, but I haven't put anything on that bale yet (except for a strawberry plant on the side).  That one has the most grass.  On the plus side, I certainly haven't had to use the drip irrigation lately--Let the sun shine!!!

 Lettuce last week (above)

 lettuce today (above)

 Layla pondering the strawberries

beans climbing their pole on the worst chia pet bale (how 'bout that metal flower art?)

May 26, 2013
Oops, a little behind on the posting...Excuses are as follows: preparing for a trip to OK to see Krista, gone on trip to OK to see Krista, and recovering from trip to OK to see Krista.  Yes, one of my worst vacation fears, getting sick away from home, occurred.  Oh well, we survived.  So to catch you up, we have MAJOR sprouting going on.  I suppose the vinegar treatment would work, but honestly, there's so much, and now that there are plants in there that could be killed, I'm going to have to learn to co-exist with the grass.  We put in the drip hose irrigation system.  The tomato plants, peppers, eggplant, strawberries, basil, thyme, stevia, peas and impatiens transplants are now in.  It was pretty cool--just dig in with the hand spade and twist it around to make an opening, then shove the transplant in.  I felt like I was pushing a little hard on some of them, but they all lived through the process.

So, just as the book warned us, with all this rain came the explosion of mushrooms.  They just appeared overnight!  They're not edible, but not harmful either.  I figured I'd pull them out when I got home from work, but by then they were already gone (!) so no photos to show.  I'll have to try to catch them next time.

The leaf lettuce really sprouted while we were gone.  The little white things on the photo are blossoms from our apple tree.  They were almost ready to open when we left for OK (on 5-15, a month later than last year), and then when we got home they were finished already, with the remnants littering the patio and the bales.  If you look closely you can see a few mushrooms too.

I'll try to get outside tomorrow (if it's not raining again...) and get some current pics of the items we started from seed. 
Summary so far:

• NOT weed free as promised, but probably our fault for not asking for "harvested" bales.  Suggestion for next year, buy from Christen Farm Nursery.  A few extra bucks/bale, but much shorter hauling distance, and hopefully the right kind.
• I bought WAY too many seeds.  There's just not enough room for everything that looked good at the time.
• I probably should have made a deeper layer of Miracle-Gro for starting the seeds.  I think I lost some carrot/radish seeds because of this.
• I'll need a much bigger trellis for my peas.  They're already starting to climb my meager little poles rather aggressively (how would I know, I'm a rookie at this!)
• I love being able to walk out the patio door and "putz" in my garden.  The height is exactly right for me to sit in a chair and dig/weed to my heart's content.  That part is exactly as promised.
• So far no critters have taken up residence, and no evidence of the bunnies taking more than their share.  We'll see as the summer progresses...

May 5
(aka "Cinco de Mayo").  Well, we got a little behind last week when the temperatures plunged and the freezing rain/sleet hit. Could have been worse though, some counties to the north had a foot of snow (and if I'd woken up to it I think I would have cried).  Anyway, finally put the 10-10-10 fertilizer on Friday and attended a straw bale seminar that evening.  Like Scott said, "we probably could have given the seminar".  Yes we've done our homework.

So today is the day I've been waiting for: planting day!  I'm a little hesitant to put too much in yet though.  So we took 2 bales and put a thin layer of Miracle-Gro potting mix on the tops, then put in some lettuce, radish and carrot seeds.  It's looking like we'll have 70 degree highs the next few days, so I hope they're getting a good start.  The funny thing is, I'm not a big radish lover, but I find I can't wait to taste what comes out of our little garden.  The chard will go in next weekend, and that one fascinates me too.  But for now, we'll water and wait...

Sunday April 28
Chia Pet Sighting...Yes one of the bales started sprouting little green shoots.  Shoot!  So much for no weeds, all because we didn't know to ask for the right kind of bales.  Not to panic, it's in the book.  Page 95: what to do if you bought the wrong bales.  He recommends using full strength vinegar with a drop of dish soap to kill the shoots.  So I put it in a spray bottle and blasted those babies.  We'll see how it works.  On a lighter note, the temp inside the bales was 100 degrees today!  We are cooking compost now!  All we needed was mother nature to throw in two 70 degree days (on a weekend no less!)  We're currently on day 9. In theory we can start planting on day 12, but it sounds like our brief warm-up will have a relapse into the 40's (I know, it's killing me).  At least we were very productive with our nice days; got the patio furniture painted and pulled out the overgrown bushes in front.  Unfortunately, that one will be an ongoing project.  Getting the stumps out: Scott 0. stumps:1

Tomorrow is day 10, fertilize with 10-10-10 (need to get some phosphorus and potassium worked in).

(photo of the chia pet in the making)

One more thing:  Scott says since I went and brought up his little "procedure", I should at least follow up and say he is fine.  His awesome nurse showed me the pictures of his "inner beauty".  He was totally out and didn't feel a thing (unlike me--I swear I was high).

April 24
Conditioning Day #5.  We're getting into a comfortable habit of feeding the bales.  I'm usually a stickler for following directions, but they did not get warm water today.  So, we've noticed that the birds have an unusually high interest in the bales.  Ever the optimist, I just assumed they were gathering nesting materials (of course there's enough materials for several pterodactyl nests).  Scott had to burst my bubble by suggesting that they may be finding seeds. Seeds you say?  But that's why we have STRAW, not hay, right?  Ah, but there it is on page 42 of the book: ""Make sure you get 'harvested' straw bales.  In rare circumstances the straw gets cut and baled without having the seed heads harvested, which means the entire bale would sprout and grow 'hair' and you would have a Chia pet..."  Did we ask for "harvested" bales?  We did not.  Oops.  So perhaps not the weed-free experience I'd hoped for!  Live and learn.  Oh, by the way, the internal temp of the bales is 68 degrees (compared to ambient air temp of about 45), so our bacteria are cooking!

April 22
Correction--the REAL Earth Day today!  Day 3 conditioning: Bales fertilized with 1/2 cup per bale, followed by water from our rain barrel, which is working out great, I'm pleased to say.  I think I'm supposed to use warm water by day 6. Not sure how that's going to happen (I'm not carrying it from the house).  Mother Nature, care to help me out here?

OK, I took a little heat on the colonoscopy subject.  In my defense, I'm a health care worker.  There's no body part, or product-of-body-parts discussions that have ever been off limits in my home.  Besides, I pride myself on promoting wellness.  So in honor of niece Anngi and friend Marie, people do yourself a favor and get screened!  There.

April 21, 2013
Earth Day.  Ah, yes, mother nature continues to vex.  After a pleasant, sunny 50 degree day yesterday (downright balmy this year), today we awoke to clouds, damp and flurries again.  Today's directions for the bale are just to water to saturation.  We decide to hold off, thinking this may be provided for us.

So I was thinking, maybe I should discuss the reasons we decided to garden this way.  First and foremost (for me), is that the straw bales will provide a raised bed.  I love my new knees, but squatting just isn't going to happen.  Neck and neck with no squatting is no weeding.  I'm taking this Joel Karsten guy at his word, as that was always the worst part of gardening.  I didn't mind quite as much in the spring when the weather is mild and I'm looking for a reason to be outside, but once full blown heat and humidity and MOSQUITOES hit, my determination wanes.  We did consider building a raised bed, but that's just the problem: we'd have to build it.  I have a wonderful husband, but being "handy" was never one of his finer traits.  So the cost of each straw bale was $4-- That's it, no materials, wood or tools needed.  The bales weighed about 50 lbs, and Scott was able to unload them from the truck without much difficulty (now that they're saturated, they weigh considerably more--so make sure when you unload them that they'll be close to your final destination).  Another plus is that at the end of the season, there's nothing to put away and store for the winter.  The straw will just go to the compost pile. Done. And apparently it will provide great soil for my pots next year.  We've tried putting tomatoes in the yard, but always got some kind of blight that was apparently in the soil.  We moved them to containers the past couple of years with some success.  I'm hoping for better production this year and don't even have to buy any new pots (my big terra cottas cracked over the winter).

So while the weather did not inspire us to do any outside work today, I had a great morning just goofing off.  I read the newspaper, listened to my Spotify music, read a chapter in my book, played my uke, checked in on Facebook, threw in some laundry, cleaned up breakfast dishes, listened to NPR and rode my stationary bike while watching "House Hunters" re-runs.  Scott, on the other hand, is no good at goofing off.  Poor guy was like a caged tiger: pacing, lost, distracted.  I finally told him to think of something he wanted to do when, obviously desperate, he plopped down to watch HGTV with me.  Since the only moisture we'd received so far today was in the form of snow, which has since melted, he decided to go water the bales.  They're only fertilized every other day through day 6, so it only took 5 minutes today.  He finally decided to start planning his "last supper".  His routine colonoscopy (yes, he's late) is Tuesday, so tomorrow he starts his liquid diet.  We stopped downtown at the Food Co-op and found some live music at the Root Note.  We made a couple of other stops.  He decided on "comfort food": Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  I've already forgotten how limited the pre-procedure diet is--no nuts, corn, peas, beans, multi-grain products, fruit or vegetable skins.  He just discovered what I'm writing and wonders how in the world that topic made it to our garden blog.  I digress (but won't delete).  I will stop here for the day, though.

Conditioning Day #1

April 20, 2013
Still haven't hit 60 degrees this year, and it was snowing just yesterday.  BUT today dawned sunny if not warm.  Time to condition the bales!  I looked out at them before breakfast today, and saw I had a furry little helper (just hope he doesn't plan to live here...)

Scott had all the bales moved by the time I got back from the "Y".  We decided to keep them right on the patio.  The biggest reason is they'll be right outside our door, so it will be much easier to tend to and water the plants.  Another reason is that if they're in the grass, gophers can tunnel up under and into them, and it also puts them a little further from the deer

.  We may regret this if they fall apart and make a mess all over the patio, but hey, live and learn! 

We read our directions from the book, spread a 1/2 cup of fertilizer on each bale (20-0-4 lawn fertilizer), then watered them thoroughly with rain water (it's supposed to be warm, we had to break a thin cover of ice in the bucket--but Layla enjoyed the fresh ice water!).  So the conditioning process begins.

Scott also brought up a water softener tank to be our new rain barrel. Is it possible we could be planting in 2 weeks?  I'm afraid we're going to skip spring this year and jump to the 90's :(

April 1, 2013
You thought we'd have spring by now? April Fools!  We went to Minneapolis this weekend to visit Andrew and Anya.  We met them at Guerten's Greenhouse in Inver Grove.  At least it felt like spring there!  The sun was shining and it was 70 degrees in the greenhouse.  What a selection of plants and seeds.  Since it's way to cold to think about plants yet, we focused on the seeds.  This is what we bought: Canna bulbs and 2 kinds of zinnias (my bales must also be pretty!), 2 kinds of leaf lettuce, swiss chard (never had it before), green and wax beans, carnival blend (read "multi-colored") carrots, radishes (don't even know if I like them), gourmet blend (read "multi-colored") beets, and sweet cherry blend peppers.  Hope there's enough room in my 6 bales for everything I want.  I MUST have room for strawberries too!  We bought our fertilizer to start conditioning the bales, but mother nature's lesson this year is patience...

Day 1. March 24, 2013

Less than auspicious beginning. Wanted to go yesterday when the sun was shining brightly (on the snow), but I was down for the count with a headache. But you know me, when I'm on a mission, gotta finish... So today, despite the headache hangover the gray cold skies and the flurries, we set off to start our garden! Turns out the guy with the bales lived in the middle of nowhere, far from the “Brownsville area” he advertised. We lost the paved roads at least 10 miles beyond Brownsville. Thank goodness it was Scott's work truck that got covered in the mud and the muck. Friendly guy, said he'd “never heard of such a thing”. I had my book and showed him the pictures. He just smiled at this city girl. Got the bales home in one piece, but Scott hyperextended his thumb unloading them, and wasn't too happy about his mess of a truck. I hope all our tasty veggies and beautiful flowers will make this worth it!

I should back up and say that it was just last Saturday as I was lying in bed that I heard the program (http://strawbalegardens.com/ ) on WPR. I went and ordered the book (Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten) from Amazon, got it Thursday, and I am raring to go! Now if only mother nature would give us a sign that she hasn't forgotten spring this year...