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?)