. . and someone brought me a whole bunch of these giant tomato plants (with blossoms already!), growing in a little shot glass sized cell . . .
General Discussions - 2010 - Chapter 31
Tomorrow I have to get my beans in the bales . . . the plants are HUGE! I'm loving my grow lights!
Way to go Suz . digger
Suzan, Everything is lookin' good!!
Grow lights would be a good thing. The seeds I started inside just had window sun and were not very tall, even now that the 6 paks are outside in sunlight. I only just put the cukes, melons and peppers in the bales. Boy, what a contrast in bales compaction/decomposition. I have a U configuration and one side is slightly lower than the other and one of the open ends is even lower and the water has always run that direction. The lowest 2 bales are very soft and when I went to plant in them, I could just reach my hand in and have a huge hole! I back filled inside the hole at bottom and sides with potting soil and home made compost. When I stepped back I noticed one bale looks like it is collapsing. Contrast that with further to the center of the U, I still have to use the yard knife to actually cut through the straw. I see it looks like Suz has soil in her plant holes, does anyone else do that?
Hey, Guru Kent, any pics of your progress?
Adding soil to the hole when planting in bales??? Yes, I think we all do if there is room. I try to get a hold large enough for soil too. Think it helps them get a "toe hold".
quiltygirl- last time, I started my seedlings in window light . . .never again! they germinated beautifully (I use a heating pad) but got so leggy and scrawny, they never amounted to anything. This year, I used 2 old fluorescent fixtures (that I got for FREE on FreeCycle.com) and have had such great success with them. (I'll take a pic when I go down to water what's still under the lights)
I posted a series of pics showing the planting process on another thread ("Is there a sticky or "basic how to" somewhere easy to find?") - not that any of you needs it; just getting into the teaching mode.
3 or 4 of my bales are crazy with thickets of those funky black mushrooms. I know they won't hurt anything; just wonder how they'd be sauteed in butter?
(Here's my Gar[den]goyl Julie . . .she's a great help!)
Nini-
lovely photos!
Glad to hear you're using hay, too. If people could only see the difference, they'd be astounded!
Virginia must be just about ideal for gardening- great climate and a little longer summer than we have (although I'm not complaining- we have wonderful summers, too)
Where are you in comparison to Charlottesville? (my dad's family was from the Charlottesville area- love it there!)
Suzan: always good to see pics.
quiltygirl: now that you mention it, I do have 1 pic to post.
I got 40 more bales today and put them around the inside of my deer fence. $2.50/bale.
Just got through watering them down good.
I'm just gonna let them simmer until next year and then put them in my boxes.
Suzan... I'm about 2 hours or so from Charlottesville towards the coast. I'm not located on the water, but there is enough of it around to make the weather really variable some times. The bottom end of the county will have rain and the top will have snow (further away from the water) Makes life interesting sometimes when you are trying to garden
Suz, Julie looks just like the kind of pal that would let you use her for a pillow when you want to lay down in the grass for a break after tending your bales . After using the hay bales last year , they absolutely do hold water and seem to give more nutrients than the course straw . The compost is finer and breaks down to fine potting soil. I'm limiting myself to four tom plants and after all the dehydrating toms and the bushels of jalapenos for jelly and another two gallons processed in the freezer plus bags frozen whole , I told Dh if he planted anything else , he could process and freeze it himself . I have a lot of green toms all battered and loads of squash battered ,cut up for stewing and grated for cornbread in the freezer. Whew , my humble garden last year has given me an abundance for this year too.
Kent , you have exactly the kind of setup I wish I had room for . This year , I have to content myself with leftover compost from last year . Packed in milk crates instead of big , long boxes . Yours are beeeutiful . I have so much left over , I'll want to do it again next year . Maybe I'll have more trees cut by then for sun.
Kent, I love seeing your pictures,but they sure make me feel inadequate. My rows are never that straight, and the bales soon start to lean this way and that, and "things" grow between the rows (even a potato plant this year) and they're altogether a hodge-podge. Maybe I'll just tell people my garden looks just like yours :)
Nah, no-one who knows me will fall for that one.
OTOH, my squash babies appeared in their bales yesterday...happy happy, joy joy!
This message was edited May 8, 2010 8:19 AM
catmad: tell'em anything you like! I'll back you up! LOL
MOTHERS: a late Happy Mother's Day to ya!! Hope you had a special day and got pampered!
Kent
I'll tell. Come on Cat. It doesn't matter what they look like as long as they produce. That's all that matters.
And Digger, I know why you aren't planting like last year. Yours put out so much it made me go out and buy a dehydrator. But, I would never want to have that much produce. I am going to do the same thing you are this year. I hope we both have enough for the table and a little to make sauce.
Too much work putting up the stuff Kent is getting. Not to mention taking care of it all summer. You would think he was already retired. LOL Cat, what would you do with all of that produce?
The mushrooms showed up today. :-) It's still a bit early to plant anything, but I put ut some strawberry plants, because I'm impatient. traditionaly nobody puts there garden in until after Memorial day.
" LOL Cat, what would you do with all of that produce? "
Same thing I do with all the extra eggs, probably, give it away. I will confess to a being a bit (?) of a hoarder, I like to have lots of food "just in case". I dehydrate lots of veggies, keep them vacuumed in jars, and make "soup mixes" and such for Christmas gifts. If I layer them carefully, they are very pretty, and even if i don't, they are easy to cook, and good :).
This house has an incredible amount of space that lends itself to jar storage...and I intend to take full advantage of it. I learned to can several years ago, but we still have most of the peaches and jams. Mostly because I found out that sugar is out for me, and they mostly have sugar. This year I'll do sugar free stuff, and hope we do better at consumption. Still, I don't mind having them, everyone leaves here with jars of stuff, and I like opening the doors on the old Hoosier cabinet, and seeing all those pretty colors. And, I'm a tomato addict, so I can those. This year will be more interesting, I have very few "red" tomatoes, so the sauces and salsas will have a different look to them.
See? I have a justification for everything, even 40+ 'Mater plants.
Yesterday I asked Joe to pick up a couple of pepper plants, as mine are still too small to go out. Usually, he just picks up what is front and center, so I expected a green pepper, maybe a yellow or orange. Turns out he thinks pepper plants are pretty (who knew??) so brought home 3 cowhorns (because he liked the name) 3 jalapenos, a serrano, and a Thai Dragon. Guess there will be lots of salsa this year, especially my favorite peach variety.....
But not much in the way of peppers and onions :(.
Bookie , I have special good friends that live just out of Delta Junction . I don't know when they put out a garden , but on the videos, they have a huge crop every year of veggies . The cabbages would feed a whole city . lol . They grow enough to sustain them for the year . They go claming south of you and take all the jars to put them up right on the beach . Also salmon , can it right on site . What a wonderful life they have !
But you have to have a heated green house for tomatoes, peppers, and cuccumbers.
Here is a big one
http://www.adn.com/2009/09/04/923340/127-pound-cabbage-breaks-world.html
Oh , yeah .
catmad: what a wonderful problem to have . . . too much food! Should your yield prove more than you need, you would be an angel at a local food pantry!! or just put a little veggie table in your front yard and put FREE on a sign!! (Or sell to make $$ for your favorite charity!)
Great to hear you're creating such wonderful abundance! I'm really hoping for a big garden year! (Even putting in a small in-ground patch, in addition to my 40 bales) so I can have beets, radishes and turnips! I have a darling young woman helping me (when she remembers) and it's exciting, teaching her about gardening. she has great passion for food and growing things.
Namaste- Suz
P.S. picture of my first rhubarb pie of the season, at Eastertime)
Suz , can I come see you ? Yum !
Our local food bank asks everyone to plant an extra row for them. A few years ago the Fairbanks food bank refused to take any more zucchini :-)
Oddly, I had trouble giving stuff away last year. The food banks didn't want anything that didn't come thru their distributors, and said they can't accept eggs from individuals. This year I intend to try the local churches, which seem to be a bit more realistic. I hope.
If not, I'll resort to the old standard methods of distribution....any unlocked car is fair game *G*
That is truly unbelievable that the food banks are sticking to that. You are the second one that has said something like that. Another one said the food bank said her garden had to be "certified" by the state. Whatever that means. Amazing. They say to plant a row for the hungry, and then they won't take it. Wonder if their hungry know that.
Sounds like their "distributors" have a pretty good thing going. We paid $1.29 for one onion yesterday. Produce is as, or more, expensive than mean now. I would think that you would have to be pretty well off to be a vegetarian.
In teasing one of my friends, I told him I would raise zucchini, he said he would keep the shot gun by the door???? Yes I said friend???? LOL
I didn't raise any.
Mike, you'd be more than welcome:). I'll have to see how far Holly Ridge is from me...
Be warned, though, they come in different colors :)
Actually I gave mine to the Brother Fracis shelter - they aren't proud and feed and shelter the homeless. They'll even take fish and game. Most of the game processing places will process for them free.
I got my bales in and we have had two nights of frost and two days of rain. Yesterday it reached a whole 65 degrees. It is supposed to warm up and rain a few more days. I may not have to water my bales for a long while if this keeps up. I plan to add more compost to the bales before I plant.
If your local food pantry won't take your produce, perhaps a soup kitchen? And there's always a little table in your front yard. . .
I've thought of the front yard thing, (and I will be trying the local churches if I have a surplus) but my "front yard" is down a sort of long driveway and not really visible from the street. I'd have to put up a sign saying "free veggies" or something, with an arrow. May sound mean, but I'm not sure I want to draw strangers in that closely. Also, the garden is visible from the road, and I'm leery that some people might decide they'd prefer to pick their own. Boy, I do sound cynical, don't I ?? Sigh. I'll have to think more about this...
Cat , nursing homes are a good outlet.Altho it burns you up what they charge , and meals are included , it gives fresh stuff instead of canned , for the residents . Now, how do you keep the kitchen employees from taking it home ? (Cynical)
Golly you guys, think I'll will go in the house and lock all the doors, pull the shades and not answer the phone.
Pull the hole in after me.
*G*. I don't lock the doors, pull the shades, or answer the phone.....
Me neither , I live out in the sticks . I have little dogs to tell me if something is around .
OK guys.. have been a bit absent but thought I would post an update on my first attempt a straw bale (hay in my case) gardening. The tomatoes (even though we have had several runs of 40 degree weather, are going great. They have never been this large and they are setting tomatoes like crazy. Am going to post several pictures of what is going on in the bales. Enjoy... I know I will once everything starts to ripen. (and that will be awhile) These are my Red Pear Peri-form tomatoes.
Here is my Black From Tula.
Black Pearl Cherry Tomatoes
And another set of tomatoes.
And now the peppers. They all have blossoms on them. Should be a great summer. Also, I had to set up a soaker hose for the different groupings of bales. Here you can see how I have done it with a plastic bottle.
