Okra. Planted these in bales for the first time. Doing well. Confounded Japanese Beetles got to them the day before I took this shot. Some Liquid Sevin took care of them. That's the only time I've had to spray for anything in my bales. The Beetles haven't bothered anything else.
Cukes doing well; tons of blooms and I've got lots of cukes to pick tomorrow.
More photos in my diary along with some pics of my house, yard, etc. I invite you to take a look. I'd love to have you all over, but this will have to do for now.
Mu cucumbers have not done well. They are planted in straw bales while everything else is planted in grass hay bales. I pulled up 3 sad little cuke plants yesterday afternoon and planted tomatoes n their place. I have 2 cukes left that show a bit of promise. This is the best one.
Cajun: too bad on the cukes; mine looked like that until I started throwing the Miracle Gro to them.
Your garden looks fabulous Kent. Cajun I got my cukes to grow in the strawbales but, like Kent said, only after getting the fertilizer to them.
I tried to send some pictures last night and there must have been so many people on that I couldn't even enlarge your pic Kent. This morning is just the opposite. Super fast.
I want to send a couple of pictures of my hoophouse. If you remember I put a cinder block raised bed with flowers in one end and strawbales with tomatoes in the other. I have tied the tomatoes to the cattle panels overhead for support. Please note the corn in the buckets. They even have tassels!! If I had known they would grow I would have treated them better when they first were planted.
Here's one more. Jeanette
I think this might give you a better idea. Jeanette
Here's a pic taken today of my straw bales.
ZEPPY was right, onions didn't do so good, some good sized ones but most of the tops died prematurely
At the risk of bragging, this one's for Alyrics, who thought my posts were too tall. These are my two Mexico tomato plants, now only about a foot and a half below the top of the posts. ☺
The Mexico tomatoes are really starting to set fruit now in this warm weather.
Oops, wrong picture, this is cucumbers, pickling, doing pretty well.
This message was edited Jul 4, 2006 9:29 PM
And here are the same 2 plants I posted on June 9.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2373164
I thought this was interesting. Squash, planted at the same time, the same size when planted, in the same bale....
Big Red: now that's what I call a tomato stake! Good looking crop.
Melissa: I had a set of squash do the same thing in the same bale, too.
I picked about 8 lbs of cukes today so the missus could get a batch of sweet pickles going. I let the cukes get real big and she pickles the rinds. They are so good.
I also put down newspapers around the cuke bales to keep the grass from growing up in the vines. Now I'll just have to keep them damp so they don't blow everywhere.
Big RED! OH MY ! Those are some skyward pointing maters! Well I can't claim that but I'm looking for the coming week of sunny hot weather to set some fruit. I've got flowers but no fruit yet. And all the rain we've had should the past 2 weeks should have them ready to go. Thanks for those pics - very inspirational. How much are you fertilizing? I am taken aback at Kent's fertilizing 2 times a week. I never heard of such a thing. But I'm going out today to fertilize if thats what I can get out of it.
Kent - I laid down cardboard along my bales to keep the grass down since I'm unable to mow in my borrowed garden area. Gives me a good dry place to walk too. You don't have to keep it wet and it has stayed in one piece so far.
Everyone's pictures look fab. Some people put so much work into prep and infrastructure. This being my first veggie garden I've got a lot to learn yet - LOL. Now we need to talk recipes for freezing. I am not canning all those tomatoes - ha
Photo updates:
Corn and squash in soil, getting tall and huge. The corn dwarves my son and I. (and isn't he handsome? :)
This message was edited Jul 5, 2006 11:25 AM
Another:
These are all growing, slowly but surely. On left, there are butternut squash and canteloupe. On right, there are two eggplant varieties. The eggplant began to do much better after I sprayed with neem oil plus, because they were getting chewed up by roly polys. (those two bales have tons of roly polys)
Now the eggplant is beginning to bloom, yeehaw. I had that zucchini in the blue bucket, in the bales, but it just wasn't doing squat. I dunno why.
This message was edited Jul 5, 2006 11:29 AM
One more:
Lots of green maters. Nothing red as of yet, although cherokee purple seems to be getting a rich chocolate tone. The have all gotten so tall.
Loving those photos, gang!
Just about everyone seems to be getting the hang of this bale gardening, with a few mishaps here and there. But overall, we're all doing a great job and learning alot.
Kent
alyrics, I've only fed mine once about 2 weeks ago. I sprinkled and watered in some triple 10 fertilizer. The only ripe tomatoes so far are Stupice but they've been very small. Can't wait for these Mexico's to ripen!
I correct myself - I do have fruit on the vine - as it were. Tonight we discovered 4-5 small green tomatoes on I think Celebrity. I have to check again tomorrow to make sure. The cukes are blooming. All the rain took care of watering for a few days so today - I fertilized again with Mighty Plant which is 18-18-18 figuring they must have washed out a bit. You're right Kent - we're having fun and learning a lot. I suppose I should be doing something special with fertilizer - lower N, and I could use some hints there if anyone has a minute.
Salem he is indeed a handsome lad. VERY!! And that corn deserves a blue ribbon. I didn't see any tassels. Does it have any? Mine has tassels but I didn't look to see if it has any ears. Guess they need both to be able to eat it. LOL
Jnette, the corn just tasseled over the last few days, and now I see bits of silk protruding from an ear. There looks to be the beginnings of several ears on each stalk. Cool. :)
I am just learning about biodynamics - finding my land, trees, shrubs & vegtables are really responding. As mentioned Rudolf Steiner developed the method - what I know so far is the method invites cosmic forces to work with the land, there are various preps/teas which I have used and seen good results, & working with plants on their respective days - friut on fruit days, root on root days, flower on flower days, & leaf on leaf days (this may be working with the moon) provided by a calender.
I also work with compost tea and have seen such good results.
Yes Kent 60 bales is a lot - wanting to try plants under different conditions to see what works best.
I am having trouble with slugs. Is anyone else having this problem & how are you solving it? I can only use organic solutions. Several of the bales have cardboard under them. The slugs are on the bales with less sun/more moisture. I have not seen slugs on the bales in the greenhouse or in the full sun area so far.
I am finding watering 1 time a day seems plenty - some bales not even that much. What are other people doing?
I haven't seen many slugs in my bales, but I did use neem oil on my eggplant and the roly polys haven't bothered them since. The bottle says Neem II, and it says it's organic. I believe it also contains pyrethrins.
About Rudolf Steiner
http://www.homestead.org/Gardening/Can%20You%20DoubleDig%20It.htm
Farming, there is at least one or maybe 2 biodynamic farm(s) near Blairsville, GA just over the NC line. Plus, I think EarthHaven in Black Mountain teaches Biodynamics. I have a few books but they are still in storage.
RuTemple - aaccckkk! I've turned into one of your Squash People! I have such an abundance of yellow squash that I take bags of squash to work and pass them out. When anyone comes to visit me they leave with squash! All this squash from only 4 squash plants which started off in my bales and slid down to the ground.
farming- Welcome aboard! I would love to know more about your biodynamic gardening. I haven't had the opportunity to read those books mentioned, but I have read a few about "sustainable" farming, organic gardening, etc. and I go in that direction as much as possible. I have been using chicken manure tea on my bales every 2 or 3 weeks and all my plants are growing like kudzu except the bell peppers, which are not producing any fruits or even flowers.
Here's a thought about the slugs, (which I don't have) but I have read that if you break up eggshells and put them around your plants the slugs will not crawl over them because they don't like the sharp edges. Other than that I would suggest getting guineas! My guineas have been keeping my garden free of bugs at the ground level.
A friend told me to put out saucers or jar lids full of beer on the bales and it would take care of the slugs. I am willing to try most anything. They have decimated my peppers.
The iron phosphate pellets like Sluggo and Escargot are harmless to plants and animals but do kill slugs. I've had excellent results with them.
It seems like I read somewhere, to get granite chick grit and spread around the plant, would do the same thing as egg shells but wouldn't decompose....
This slug problem is fascinating, albeit, frustrating and demoralizing for those affected by them. Since I've only had one incident with Japanese Beetles on my okra, I'm counting my blessings compared to what some of you have to deal with. I've never heard of anyone in my area complaining about slugs. Good luck in overcoming these critters.
KR
I read an interesting post on another site about a retired guy who lived in an apartment complex.
He did some bale gardening by putting 1 bale each in a couple of wagons like the kind that kids play with. He was very limited for space so during the day he'd pull the wagons from behind his apartment into some vacant parking spaces that received alot more sun. At the end of the day, he'd pull the wagons back behind his apartment.
Neat idea that needs a name, so I'm going to call this a MASH unit just for fun
Mobile Agricultural Sunning Habitat
(It's getting late so I can't think of anything catchier!)
Now that is a cool idea!
Love the MASH name.
I was thinking VIEW Veggies in every Wagon
Kathy
The old "meals on wheels" would apply.
I crush eggshells and put them along the areas where slugs used to stay in the gardens. It seems to be working well because I'm finding hardly any slugs there. I bought a 50 lb bag of crushed oyster shell grit that they give to chickens from a Tractor Supply to use in my hosta beds. I can't really report on how well this is going to work as the weather has just cooperated this year so that I'm not having a bad slug year.
I can't imagine a slug eating a tomato leaf - have you seen that? I had them up on the bales but they weren't on the tomatoes. Was at my dad's gardens and yee gads the Japanese Beetles were just devouring his grape vines and apricot trees. He has never had a problem but they just arrived in droves this year.
My slug problem seems to be gone. I believe my bales were too wet. I stopped watering so much - some bales every other day and I have not seen any for the last several days.
Thanks for all the info on slugs - have it filed in case they come back.
Zeppy what area of the Shenandoah valley do you live - I grew up in the Shenandoah valley - Harrisonburg, VA.
Loving the way the papers keep out the grass. The vines can run and I don't have to worry about cutting them with the lawnmower. Man, what an easier way to go by just laying down some paper (or cardboard) and not having to run the tiller (which I don't have now) and chopping with a hoe. Photo taken 7/07. More pics in the diary.
Photo of tonight's cucumber picking from the previous photo. I let'em get big so my bride can make her pickles from the rinds.
Very nice Strawbaleman. I'm amazed at your fabulous results. My bale experiment is a self caused failure. I didn't water the bales nor apply fertilizer so the few things I planted either failed or didn't grow at all. But next year the bales will be ready, almost compost. Ah yes.....next year..... it's always going to be a better garden next year......
Looking good Kent! I wish I had tried some cukes in my bales, the ones I planted in-ground are just burning up!
