Straw Bale Gardening (Part 2 Southwest Style)

This is so interesting.
Do you need to fertilize?

From what the SB guru says we will need to fertilize about once a week.
Does that sound right TF and Mary McHaybale?

I plan to play the fertilizing bit by ear. I think I about destroyed several plants with some 'organic' fertilizer - even though I followed directions. Probably I'll use some fish emulsion or compost tea (a Mary favorite) after the plants have grown up a bit.

It is exciting and interesting; I can't wait every morning to go out and see what seeds have popped up. Got my fingers crossed that the high temps predicted for the next several days don't fry those itsy bitsy leaves.

Looks like I'll have to replant the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in the alfalfa bales. I think I cooked them. I might need to wait another week or two to let those bales cool down.

Oopsie. So sorry, Ray. Have you taken the temperature today? Why do you think the bales are so hot after all this time?

I wont be able to until I get home.
I'm guessing all the green matter in the alfalfa bales. Loads of nitrogen.
OK. Maybe that was my problem. Adding nitrogen to a source already high in N.
Or....
When I planted the bales interior was a lot different then the straw hay. I wonder if because its so dense it retains the heat?
Hmmmmmm.

Grrrrrrr....!!! I just discovered big fat dog paw prints in my bales. Smashed down some of the new growth and made big depressions where I just planted seed. I don't know whether to start over there or wait to see if they come up after all. Anybody want a dog - or three?! Any ideas how to keep 'em out? Without fencing myself out, of course.

Aw jeez. You guys are having a real bad day in straw bale reality. Glad I waited.....;-))

Had to get caught up on work today. Tomorrow's Saturday, my bales are all straw (not alfalfa) and have been staying about 90 to 100 degrees. That may still be too hot, huh?

This message was edited Sep 28, 2007 3:13 PM

cayenne pepper is supposed to repel dogs. I don't know how many dogs know about that, though.

What TF said -GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
What do I find when I get home? Same thing. She has not shown any interest what-so-ever in the bales. And why today?
Did our dogs make plans for this?

Checked the temps of the bales right after I watered.
Alfalfa North - 102 degrees
Alfalfa South - 118 degrees
I really should have done this first before putting plants in these two bales.

The hay bales were all right around 90 degrees.

My dogs gnawed on the baseboards as puppies.... I sprinkled cayenne pepper all over the area and they just licked it off. My dogs love spicy Mexican food!

Did they wonder where the margaritas were?
Dang mom, you give us the spicy stuff and nothing to wash it down with?

Mama takes care of the her doggie, Bert. Good Boy. He's rooming with 5 bitches as we speak and all is just wonderful for him.

Mama takes a little............
The Cuervo Gold
The fine columbian
Make tonight a wonderful thing - Steely Dan

Interested to hear about the new and improved SBs in cooler weather.

great tune A~

Hey, Ray, did you have to fix your bales? Hope your doggie didn't do much damage. Isn't it weird that your dogs and mine decided to go bale-walking the same day? I finished filling the spaces with soil and I'll water that down for a couple of days before I try putting root crops in. I really don't see why it shouldn't work.

I think it is a little hot, besides the bale temperature to start that stuff yet. Is everyone planting already or just Ray.

My bales were 70 degrees on the ones a year old and 80 degrees on the ones I got 6 months ago. So I planted today, 4 bales and 3 small garden plots. Nearly all my seed starts are in, still have 6 or 8 tomato and peppers that I don't have room for. It's 11am and getting too hot to transplant them now. Hopefully this evening since it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

The light was not right, too bright, so I didn't get very good shots but here's a couple. Don't have PhotoShop so cannot put them together in one show.

The little piggy got some flower seeds planted in him.

Here's the bale that's perpendicular to the fence, I call it Bale A.

Bale D, last in the row.

And here is Lily's in her daytime sleeping quarters.

Last one....here's a long shot of Lily's favorite hideout, so you get the overview.

good kittie!

Ray and Alma - what's happening you two? Have you dropped off your straw bales into a patch of weeds??? Updates please.

Mine have been planted a week and all look great! Yes!!

Mary, the bales are pretty much covered with little green seedlings - some smushed down by dog paws. Dadblamed dogs! Some seeds are taking longer than others and I wonder if maybe some aren't going to come up at all. I'm thinking of reseeding a couple of 'rows'. The only transplants - so far - are brussel sprouts and they're growing like crazy. What all did you plant?

Ray, you're awfully quiet...

Mostly hot peppers, habeneros, jalepenos and a hot Thai pepper. Also tomatillos. Yeah, where's Ray?

All,
I've heard that Ray and Stinky Pete were picked up by the Flying Monkeys. It was the night of the Full Moon. Ray and Stinky switched outfits; Ray the Pink Tutu and Stinky the black tights. Once again, caught Dancin' In The Moonlight while taking in a little of the cactus juice. An irresistable pair. We can only hope they make it back to the Strawbale Garden to tell us of their travels.

LOL! But really, where's Ray?

Ray told me once, when i asked him if he ever worked, or just stayed at DG all day...he said his work was either feast or famine..........must be in the feast stage now..contracts coming in or something.............or are you just lurking Ray?

Nah, he wouldn't be lurking, he would give us news about how the bale is coming along. You are probably right kakiana, preoccupied with bringing in the mortgage payment. He'll catch up sooner or later. By then I hope my chili's and tomatoes are spilling all over the bales!!

Lets see if I can put all these wild rumors to rest. LOL
I was enjoying the nice San Diego weather. Had a blast. Now I'm back at it. If it wasnt so darned expensive there and there wernt so many people I could live there.
By any chance have any of you seen the show Sand Blasters? We didnt know they were having the competition where we were and got to see them blow up one of the sand sculptures. Very cool and fun.

And as far as work goes, I have 4 projects in the design phase right now and two are a month or so away from going to construction.

Latest on the straw bales.
The broccoli and cauliflower that are the straw bale are putting on some really nice growth. Now I need to find who has been sampling some of the leaves.
I have have snap peas coming up on the sides of two of the bales. A couple cilantro seeds have germinated. Got some lettuce seeds and spinach seeds also popping their heads through the bales.

Planted a new batch of cauliflower and cabbage in the south alfalfa bale. I didnt take any temp readings but when I made the hole for the transplant the interior was a lot cooler than my first try.

welcome back Ray....glad you got some R&R......love San Diego!

Whew! finally some news. Happy to hear you were relaxing not stressing with work. I'm headed to San Diego at the end of this month, business trip but will go a day early to play. Looking forward to it. Welcome back Ray!

Hey, Ray, welcome back. I could have skipped the news about your SD trip; just makes me jealous! Glad you had a good time. Now to my big question: How the heck are you keeping your dogs off the bales??? I've had to fill holes they made in mine and I see I'll need to reseed a few areas. That's not all bad as it is helpful not to have everything mature at the same time. Otherwise, they're lookin' good and growin' green hair all over!

I could have used about another week or two on the beach playing with the kids and looking for seashells.

And all the plumeria I saw while driving back on Mission Bay Drive. Very nice looking plants.

So far my dog has stayed off the piles after I warned her that I'd cut her feet off and feed them to the coyotes. She's a funny and very good/sweet dog. I'll talk to her and she acts like she really understands what I'm talking about. I'll take her to the spot and tell her no and she usually stops.

I've only had a couple sprouts of the hay coming up so no hairy bales yet.

Welcome back Ray. Hope you're back in the saddle with your funnies.

Sounds like you and the family really enjoyed yourselves. Beautiful area, San Diego!

I'm wondering how you continued to water your plantings... overhead sprinklers?

SIL helped out with the bales and animals. Got some serious eye rolls while trying to explain what I was doing. LOL

Kids had a fun time trying to drown me. I dont go down easy.
And my neck and arm is sore from watching the ladies volleyball tournament. The arm is sore from the wife wacking my arm.

Ray....glad to see that the wife is up to the job ! I love SD too.....My DGD is stationed there and we are talking about going to her home for Thanksgiving.....Jo

Welcome back! Glad you had a great time! I love it there too!

Dave has created a new forum just for Strawbale gardening...if you like, Terry would move this thread to the new place.....Jo

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/strawbale/all/

I've been in that forum and have posted in that forum. As far as where this thread sits I posted it here in this forum because our climate is a little different than most doing the strawbales. Looked like most of the other places had more humidity than us. Plus there were several of us in the SW forum that were curious about strawbales so I figured what the heck, I'd give it a shot. I've thought about asking Terry to move it in the past but decided to just leave.