Mine resemble yours, but my grass is not as tall. I have kept them very wet (through rain and watering) I used blood meal as a nitrogen source and that helped to soften them up. Some were softer than others, but I planted my tomatoes in them this past weekend and they seem to be doing just fine. Go up to the April 4th post and you can see mine. I did put a bit of topsoil on the top. Hope that helps.
General Discussions - 2010 - Chapter 30
nini and Jane: Doug is right on the money. A good rule of thumb is wait 2 weeks past the average last frost date. You won't lose any ground.
nini: I saw a "fan" on my FB page from Honolulu!! I didn't know it was your daughter!! Good deal. I had sent her a note that I used to be stationed at Pearl Harbor back in the 80's!! I loved my time in HI!!!!! Many, many fond memories. I could live there.
Kent
BTW, to the new guys and gals, some bales will sprout more than others. Some will just stay "bald". I can't wait until you see your first crop of 'shrooms!!!!
Kent
You guys, if the "chia" look bothers you, take your scissors and cut the grass or whatever, wheat, oats, whatever off. It won't hurt anything. What are the bales? I'll bet they are grass hay? I looked and don't see where you said MJ. Do you know?
Do any of you have wild rabbits? It looks like one (or something else?) got on top of a bale and nibbled. 2 Brussels sprouts plants (planted early and not really doing well anyway) were eaten down to the stem. Also a Brussels sprouts plant growing well in a pot, but right next to the bales had the leaves chewed off. This is making me fear I should have put wire under the bales to keep gophers out too. I thought the bales would be high enough to ward off rabbits. Oh, the tomato plants were OK. Anyone have something like this happen?
Use the bird netting around them. They won't like the chance of getting their feet tangled in it. If it weren't for the straw, I would think slugs. They would do that. But I can't see slugs going up straw. As far as gophers, I don't know about them going up thru straw???
Those pesky rabbits will go to extremes to get tender morsels.
I have a little apple tree I have been protecting but the snow drifted higher than the plastic drain tube. the Rotten buggers pruned every limb to within 1/4" of the trunk. That could be good but it remains to be determined. Will have to see what happens when it starts to grow again, if it does.
Hi Kent,
Just checkin' in. I became a fan of your FB page, now I'm anxious to go back and spend some time checking out all the pics and videos.
I planted a couple stout heirloom varieties of tomatoes last year called "Moskvich" and "Ruth's Perfect," that I found at Seven Springs Farm in Check, VA. The Moskvich is a cool weather early red tomato about 4" dia. The Ruth's Perfect, was just that, perfect in every way!! It's about the same size as the Moskvich and extremely prolific red tomato. I got a good bunch of tomatoes dried and made into salsa and sauce before the blight hit, but didn't get any seed saved. (Note to Self: Always pick a few of the season's FIRST good tomatoes to use for next year's seed, THEN eat, can, and dry the rest!) If there was any way I could get seeds for either they would be the only tomatoes I'd grow, other than an heirloom paste or two.
We've been building a bigger/better arched trellis to use with the hay bales I'll be getting tomorrow. Still a lot to do and the weather has been very cooperative. But now we have to watch for the frosts.
Happy gardening,
Bev
Hey Jnette!
Bev: saw you on my FB page!! Welcome. I put the T-shirt link up on it, too.
KR
Good grief Bev, I thought you had hibernated and we wouldn't hear from you until the snow was gone. LOL
Good to hear your sunny voice!!
How did those cattle panels work for you last year? Didn't you use them? I finally talked Kent into using them. Made a convert.
Good grief Bev, I thought you had hibernated and we wouldn't hear from you until the snow was gone. LOL
Good to hear your sunny voice!!
How did those cattle panels work for you last year? Didn't you use them? I finally talked Kent into using them. Made a convert.
Darn!! Now there are another couple of "PERFECT" tomatoes I will have to plant next year. I will put them in my file Bev. LOL, better be good.
Speaking of which, Russ piped up too. Now we should be hearing from Digger (Sally) due back from Texas, a snowbird. Susie was on here a while back. Don't know where she went. Lena is having a rough time right now but she spoke up too.
Plus a lot of new members!!
Hi Jeanette,
Our snow has been gone for a couple weeks now. I didn't think it was ever going away! We only used one cattle panel last year for melons to climb, but they didn't have enough time to mature. We got our hay bales today, yay! I'm writing an article for DG about the arched trellis. I'll let y'all know when it might be published.
Here's a sneak peek of the trellis with the hay bales in place...
Looking good Bev, but let me ask you. Maybe I am missing something, but why are you putting the bales on the outside? To hold the panel? You must be using something besides the bales to hold it. I put my bales, lined the hoop on the inside, both sides of the hoop and then I can cover the hoop with visquine if I want to keep the heat in.
But, what are you using to hold the hoop down? I am having to do things different this year because I can't get bales. I am boxing the old bales in.
Let me know how it works out for you.
Bev: your arch trellis is great. Those cattle panels are a much better solution than that concrete wire.
Kent
Hey sundowner, that looks great. I would also question what you use to hold that cattle panel down. Looks really strong, so I would except a lot of, well, SPRONG (thought I made that word up, but spellchek let it go). Looks like you would need four people to hold it down and a fifth to anchor it in place. Also, what are your bales on top of? They also look taller than mine, but maybe yours are on their side.
Went to a 'tomatoes' class at a local nursery today. Have been to them last year, but still learn new stuff. Like the Nightshade family of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant have leaves that are poisonous, and that is why the bunnies did not eat my early planted tomatoes, but did eat the broccoli. So, no netting needed on all those bales. The gal that taught the class had never heard of strawbale gardening, and enjoyed the photos I brought. Another gal outside was familiar and said I should have put wire under that bales against gophers. Even though I said they were squishy inside, she thinks I should get someone to help me tilt them up and slid wire underneath and up the sides a bit. Oh dear.
We've been busy trying to get more done on the arched trellis and other yard chores, and didn't mean to leave y'all hanging'. We took a couple pieces of 2"x2 "x 20' long angle iron, 7' apart, to use as a base for the cattle panels. They are anchored to the ground with 'L'-shaped rebar driven through holes in the angle bases. The panels flex very easily so once one end was in place the opposite end can be set without a problem. We're still shoring the sides and ends of the trellis up a bit and have a gravel floor and inside beds to build up, too. I am soooo excited about this structure and can't wait for it to be finished.
Jeanette, I could have placed the bales on the inside, but decided this year to place them on the outside. I was in a hurry to start "curing" the bales, and I don't know when we will get the floor and beds finished inside the trellis. Last year our arched trellis was made from concrete re-mesh wire and it did so well we decided to spend the money on the cattle panels (which look 100% better and much stronger). Next year we will swap out the re-mesh in the old arched trellis with new cattle panels, so we'll have 2 arched trellises!
Hi there quiltygirl! The hay bales are sitting on dirt mounded up to level the ground under them. That tomato class sounds like something I'd love to go to myself!
Don't you love the cattle panels? They are so flexible and strong. Even when the snow and ice caved them in last year my DH took them out to the driveway, one by one, he flattened them out and put them back up. You would never know that happened.
QG, unless you have an excessive problem with gophers I think she is off base with her suggestion. I have been doing this for, what, 4 years now, and Kent, how many? and we have never had that happen. Gophers tunneling into the bales.
Well. I thought about the cattle panels, but since I do all of this on my own and I have an shape that would not lend itself to the easy use of the panels, I decided to stay with the tomato cages. The panels are neat looking, just could figure out how to use them in my set up. Spent the day laying out the soak-er hose and making all the cages and putting in the metal post to stabilize the cages. I still have some to finish, but it looks a bit like Alcatraz in that corner of the garden. Have attached a picture of my efforts.
This message was edited Apr 11, 2010 8:33 PM
More of a close up... still have one cage to finish.
Also put the pepper plants out today. Hopefully by midweek I will have all of my Eggplant starts in the ground.
That looks real good nini. Did you make your tomato cages? They look good.
Ive got to check into the cost of those cattle panels. That looks like such a good idea. I've been looking to try and do something like that, but never thought of cattle panels.
Marti, we pay anywhere from $14.95 to $17.95. Should say that is what we paid 4 years ago. It depended on how far they had to bring them. Up here they charge a lot for delivery charge.
Call around to the feed stores, Lowes. HD, etc. They are wonderful to work with. Just be careful because they have a strong spring to them. We hauled them in a hoop from front to back of the pickup. But, you don't want to take the tailgate down while they are in that hoop 'cause it will behead you. Seriously, be careful.
Jnette... I made 8 of the cages and I bought 3 sets of 2 tall tomato cages from Gardener's Supply.. (all I could afford this year) My homemade cages will be fine, but I must admit, I wish I could have afforded all of them from Gardener's Supply. They were easy to put together, fold flat when done (the best of all) and are made out of a really heavy gauge wire/metal. I was impressed with the ones I got... I made mine the same dimensions as the ones I bought. They are 14" square. This made it easier to fit them all in.
What did you make yours out of nini? You did a good job. They look real good.
Jnette...I made them out of a product I got from our local Lowe's (but they have it at Tractor Supply and I am sure HD) called REDBRAND Welded Wire Fence. It has 2" x 4" openings. My cages at this moment only have three sides. (I have attached a close up of that) Unfortunately, I cannot get my hands through those 2" x 4" openings. (I watched a video of the Garden Girl putting her hands through the openings to get her tomatoes) Petite has never been an adjective that would describe my hands and feet... therefore I had to come up with another plan. (this idea actually came from a fellow who was describing how he used 2 cattle panels for his tomatoes and separates the tomatoes by putting sticks through the cattle panel openings to separate and support his tomatoes) What I plan to do is make the fourth side of my cage with leftover 1/2 water pipe I have... I am going to cut it into 16" pieces, drilling a hole in each end 3/4" in from the end (so I can easily tie it to the wire) , and use 4 or 5 of these per cage.... then I can get my "less than petite" hands in to prune/harvest my tomatoes, yet still support the growth of the plants... It should work.
This message was edited Apr 12, 2010 12:07 AM
nini sounds good to me. Boy, what we do to have good flavored tomatoes. huh? Your tomatoes are looking good.
Nini, your cages look great.Did you use a table to shape your sharp corners? I used what we call horse fencing. It had been used so it is not nice and flat, so I have some tomatoes on either side depending on how 'the wave' goes. I hope I have not planted some of them while too small. I did use the plant 'em deep method and took the bottom leaves off and planted them deep into straw. Now, I see you have dirt on top of your bales. Is that ground soil, bagged garden soil, or potting mix? I have not noticed that in other photos. I did use some of my homemade compost in the holes and around the top.
Jnette - your description of bringing the cattle panels home in the truck and being careful of the SPRING when you opoen the tailgate, is perfect to the picture, in my mind, of clutzy me dealing with them! To your suggestion of the bird netting, DD and I spread the one used panel I had from last year out. over 3 bales (that's all the further it spread), down the sides and on the ground next to them. This was before I planted my cukes. Only problem, so far, is that while planting I kept getting my feet and portable oxygen tank feet caught in the netting. We pinned it to the ground, but need to revisit that. Walmart is not carrying the netting this year, so need to check HD/Lowes. I think we need to cut it in half to cover more bales and plant the rest out and get some seeds going too. The watermelon seeds have sprouted.
Has anyone else started seeds IN the bales? I am going to try some beets too as an experiment and some little Texas Sweet Onion starts I bough a bundle of yesterday. My yellow onions I planted from starts are starting to flower in a half barrel. I have 3 window boxes I am using to try to grow fingerling carrots and 3 kinds of radishes.
And yes, Jnette, the gophers are plentiful and voracious. One DG'r south of me is fearful of being hurt if the ground collapsed from the tunnels - and she is NOT a large person. We make little chicken wire baskets to put line the planting holes before putting the root ball in. The galvanized heavy gauge, smaller holed chicken wire or galvanized wire hardware cloth. Those suckers chew through regular chicken wire. I considered lining the holes in the straw, but that was just too much for me.
QG, I don't "spread" the netting, ( I know you were talking about the spreading the panel), I just lay it loosely so their little feet get caught. If you spread it they can see where to put their feet. LOL, my reasoning, not theirs. Their eyesight is better than mine I am sure so they can see where to put their feet. I just laid it out in kind of a loose roll. I imagine if you cut it lengthwise why couldn't you lay it around the bottom, kind of in a loose roll, so they couldn't get to the plant to climb it? Then you could get twice the length couldn't you?
So bad about the gophers. On another of the forums I am trying to learn more about Milkie spores? To get rid of the voles, moles, and don't know what else. Do any of you know about them?
Would think you would need the soil, or mix, to start seeds in the straw. You have to have something around the seeds to keep the air from drying them out and dthere would be air pockets in straw. No matter how wet it was. I would think.
quiltygirl wrote;"Has anyone else started seeds IN the bales? "
Me (waving). I start beans, cukes, and squash in the bales. I do put some potting soil or compost down first (sort of dug into the bale in the places I want the rows to be). So far, so good, they did very well two years ago, not so well last year, but the whole garden was that way. I'll be planting in them again after the 15th. Superstitious....
Jeanette wrote;'On another of the forums I am trying to learn more about Milkie spores?"
Jeanette. where would I find that? For some reason I had in my head that that was for Japanese Beetles......
Yes, I used soil to start the watermelons, but in Nini's photos she has soil spread all across the tops of her bales. Pretty funning about the bunnies seeing where to put there feet. I covered the whole bale, not just the base. Will need more for later also as last year I had birds eat tomatoes and this year I have berries (or hope to) too.
LOL, such is summer QG. Guess we could all live in condos and not worry about those. Buy our stuff in the grocery stores and have cardboard dtomatoes and tasteless green strawberries that are bright red on the outside but sour on the inside. (Like my strawberry shortcake I had Sunday)
DH hates condos and tract housing, but does not see the value in especially veggie gardening. He says, "your know, they sell those things at the grocery store"! Says the same thing to Fishermen. He likes a tomato slice on his sandwoch or in a salad, but that is it, so he does not appreciate the full, robust flavor of a fresh tomato or fresh anything. When I tell him about eating them like apples when I was a kid, with the juice running down my arm, he looks to see what scew is loose on me that day. He did accomodate me in going twice to the dairy to pick up bales, then laid them out for me, so for that I am thankful. DD helps me SOME and acts nonchalant, but when helping with the netting yesterday, I got so excited to see some broccoli growing on a plants, she did come running and pronounced it 'cool'. That is a 16 year old's blessing, LOL!
Oh QG, you poor thing to have to educate 2 people!! Sounds like the 16 year old is maybe on her way tho. Now to work on the older one. Sounds like that one is going to be a different or harder problem tho.
Hey everone ! I made it back and only went fishing four times . One of the cuts is closed in the barrier island due to the last hurricane and the water is too salty for trout. not many of them . The redfish were there , but when you find them , you can only keep three .Had a horrific drought on top of that,and the water couldn't flow back and forth into the gulf. Not any water in the rivers to keep it flushed out
I sold my house in arkansas , giving me enough to buy a nice repo trailer . The poor little lady had to go to a nursing home and the dd didn't want to try to sell it . Just let it go back .Go figger .
Russ , my rhubarb is up and looking strong . Can I get a coupla stalks off it this year? I'm really looking for a Tart , sweet pie .I'm picking up four Beefmaster tomatoes tonight .I'll pack leftover hay in plastic four gal milk cartons and grow on cattle panels. I had extra plants last year and did that . Easy to care for , for an old woman . Catch you guys later . I see new names on here. Great!
Jnette and all, I think it's gonna be a good year . digger
catmad, Milky spores. for crane fly grubs which is what the moles or voles feed on. Japanese beetle grubs. In other words, you get rid of the grubs and the critters have no reason to be there. Don't ask me how to get rid of the critters that eat the bulbs and roots. I use caster bean plants, but some say they don't work for them.
Digger so glad to see you back. Too bad about the fishing. So now you are ready to get back in the swing of things. Are you going to dry any tomatoes this year? I know you did tons last year.
Jnette , I sure plan on it . They make great snacks .Pretty darn good to cook with and found out it's easier to cut them up for cooking if you use sissors . digger
Hi digger; I was going to ask about the rhubarb. I'm pretty sure you should be able to harvest some this year. That is those that look nice and fat, as those plants probably were from some of the older roots.
I'm trying to remember now was that last fall or the year before that you actually got the ones I sent. If it was just last fall, I would go easy on harvesting. But I'm sure you can take enough to satisfy the old taste buds. Mine is up and almost big enough to harvest some. Today is really the first day that we may hit 80 degrees, so every thing still slowly coming up. No tomatoes out yet cause we could get frost yet until the middle of next month.
Jeanette that is right on with the moles. get rid of their food source and you will not have them. Milky spoore gives the grubs the virus and they die off, leaving no treats for the moles. although moles will go after night crawlers too and I like to keep the night crawlers around for all the free castings to make things grow better.
I have a lot of castor beans to plant too, I'm not sure it helps but the thought seems to make me feel better, that I'm trying to do something about the moles. If I find a tunnel I will drop a hand full of the beans in it, thinking they may eat them by mistake.
Well I need to get back out and prune the dickens out of a kiwi vine. It seems to have taken over more area than I want it to have.
Russ