1st time bale gardeners - Who's trying it this year?

I'd like to hear who's trying it for the first time this year.

I know there are many out there that just read and don't post, but I want to encourage you to at least make 1 post and tell us you're in.

Kent

Okay Kent, I got my bales today and I am already to go. I will give them a couple of weeks of watering whether by rain or by me. Then I can start planning out my bounty. I want to plant strawberries, greens, tomatoes, and I am going to plant nasturiums around the corners and edges just to make them pretty. I have to have a little class you know. I think I have them on the right side. The string is touching the grass, right?
Jan

This message was edited Mar 21, 2008 2:25 PM

Whoops, I forgot my picture

Jan: looks good; will your push mower get between the bales?

Kent

Yes, I premeasured our mower and I hope that our gardener that does our mowing has one the same width. I made it a few inches larger. I think its a little over 36".

I'll be giving the straw bales a try this year. They seem to be a bit hard to find around here thanks to our recent monsoons, but I did manage to get a few going. Looking forward to the results-it sure seems a lot easier to prep than the standard till, plant, weed method. I'll let you know how it all goes!

Jan: 10-4

sacmae: welcome aboard, too!

Kent

I am as well with just two bales for tomatoes and squash. I am hoping the bales will confuse the squash bugs! My neighbor plants huge amounts of squash and does nothing to foil the bugs so they finish off that bounty and come looking for mine. I usually keep them off for a while but they usually win in the end! I will post a pick today sometime. I just mulched the veggie bed and set the bales yesterday!

Strawbaleman - You have inspired me! I can't start my bales until the 3rd week in April but I'm rarin' to go!

I'm a'hoping to! I'm not sure if I have the energy for yet another project, but I'm really curious. I have such a problem with deer, that unless I'm missing something in the many posts I've tried to read through, I feel like I'd just be putting my stuff up right at the proper height so they wouldn't even need to bend down to munch everything!! But I do want to try it.

Sanna

Wow! We have started another epidemic. I do hope that this one spreads to all good neighbors. Good luck everyone. May your bales be prolific and the sun warm and the rain light. Just enough goodness to help the growing season along.
Jan

lavender, Lulie, and Sanna: hey! hey! Glad to have ya'll on board, too!

Be sure to put your marker at: www.frappr.com/strawbalegardeners

(lavender, you'll be our first one in Nebraska that's on the map!)

Sanna: I tried some organic stuff last year but the deer are just getting too brave and hungry. Development is pushing them out of their former territory. I'm ordering some deer fencing soon.

Kent

This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 4:13 PM

Wow Kent, you're getting a big following. When are you doing the Tee shirts?

Jan, I planted a few petunias around my tomatoes last year. You know, isn't it marigolds that the aphids don't like? Watch out tho, I think nasturtiums are an aphid draw aren't they?

Jeanette

Yay I am on the map. Nebraska is represented!! Hey I am up for any gardening method that is less work. I have been doing straw mulch and pit composting for years!

Whew! Is that right about nasturtiams. I love them. They are tasty in salads. I don't want aphids though. Can anyone verify the nasties and the aphids story? I figured I could plant some allisium and marrigold would definately be a plus. Any other good flowers to grow amist the vegies?
I watered like crazy today and they say its suppose to rain tomorrow. Thats good news for the bales but its not good news if the bunny is hiding easter eggs. I remember one year In Arizona that it snowed in the morning but by about 10:00 it had melted away and we could hide the eggs and just told the grandchildren that the easter bunny got stuck in a snow bank and didn't get to hide the eggs till later.
Happy Easter everyone.

Jeanette: I wish someone would come up with a nice screen-printed design with some tomatoes in a bale! The home-made, iron-on t-shirts I made were OK, but they were no where close to a nice screen print.

lavender4ever: way to go! NE now has at least 1 rep!

Kent

I have never had aphids on my nasturtiums. I grow them in the flower borders. I have had alot of trouble with the cabbage butterflies on them though. I read somewhere recently that nasturtiums help repel squash bugs, so I am going to try them on my squash bale.

Happy Easter! I'm going to try this year - in the front yard, no less! We just got tons of snow, though, so setting out the bales will have to wait until the snow melts (and I actually get some bales).

Chris

Chris: glad to have you with us. Your front yard garden should get some attention! You'll be our first one in WI if you'll plant your marker!

Kent

P.S. - I forgot you were the one who started the cowpot thread.

This message was edited Mar 23, 2008 4:50 PM

Not to worry - I need to figure out how to get the pics off my digital camera and then how to get one onto frappr, and then I'll be in business.

Well, I don't have to worry about watering today. It poured alday yesterday. Great for the bales but a little soggy for those little easter egg hunters. Mine are all grown up but with 15 grandchildren I still get to think about the easter bunny. My grandchildren are all so far away though. Its alot more then just a Hop, Skip, and a Jump to Texas and Colorado from Oregon.
But my bales got a good watering. I thought that maybe I would aline one of the bales just a little and that just isnt going to happen. They are staying right where they are. I am sure glad that I positioned them right where I wanted them when they arrived. So now I just have to get my amonium nitrate if I can, otherwise should I just use the bloodmeal? Or am I suppose to use both?
Remember, I'm a newbie and going to be asking lots of questions. Like they say, there isn't a stupid question, just stupid mistakes for not asking in the first place. :-]

Jan: no need to use but one nitrogen source to jump start your bales. If you can't get the ammonium nitrate, then others have used UREA, made their own compost tea, or the BLOOD MEAL. But I found the Blood Meal to be kind of expensive if you have alot of bales.

Kent

Urea, from what I'm afraid to ask?

Didn't look to see what it was from Jan. :-) All I saw was the 21-0-0. I think that was the Urea.

Jeanette

Jan: UREA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea - scroll down to the agricultural use portion.

Kent

This message was edited Mar 25, 2008 3:13 AM

Okay, Strawbale man, I was thinking it was made from urine. I couldn't imagine putting that on the bales. How ever, when we lived in Japan when I was a very yound girl there were men that walked around with two buckets slung over there shoulders and they were called honeybucket men or carriers. Twas not honey that they were carring in those buckets. I have a photos somewhere of one of the men. They were very proud people and He was especially proud to be carring those honey buckets. They would take them to the fields for use on their crops. So glad we don't have to do that here. Whew!

This message was edited Mar 26, 2008 8:45 AM

Just plain ol' manure tea works wonders Jan. LOL

Jeanette

Hi all, especially to the new bale gardeners,

I used manure tea as well as blood and bone meal, it worked fine.
I heard somewhere that urine is supposed to be a fantastic fertiliser, high in nitrogen. I havent been keen enough to try it yet though.... has anyone? :-s

I have a few nasturtiums in my bales, they do attract the white cabbage butterflys, as do my brocoli and kohlrabi plants! I havent noticed any aphids on them though. Nasturtiums are supposed to be great companion plants for cucurbits. I also grow allysum, which attracts the wasps, natural predator of the cabbage caterpillar. I cant say I have found it very effective though.

I pulled my first bales appart today! The cucumbers had finished, and the bales were heavily sunken and deformed. I was really pleased with what I found inside. There were alot of worms, and the yummiest softest black compost! I spread some around my in-ground tomatoes, and "planted" some arum lilys underneath the remainder in a corner of the garden. What a valuble waste product. Cant wait to get my hands on the rest of them!

Im thinking of getting some fresh bales soon, starting again with a winter planting...

Lena

sacmae, still have a place on lake erling altho i make my home in n. georgia. i'm going to try this also .have never had luck with tomatoes here, they get a blight on the bottom and just start dying on me.i've done all the right things , dont work!! on the lake, i got four bushels of better boys off four plants. they started to stress the first week of sept when i got back from vacation but after t l c and watering ,got a bumper crop until frost.gosh,i'm excited to find this forum, hope i can find bales this early in year. let me know what success you've had growing in the ground over there in p.d. sally

Lena: good post and pick about the end results of bale gardening: nice mulch, worms, etc.

digger: looking for good results from you, too

Kent

Hey Kent. My DH and I decided to try it! Still prepping them. Will be growing his tomatoes and my eggplants in them. Thanks for inspiring us.
Jaye

Jaye: woo hoo! Someone practically in my own back yard! I love it!

And, with string sides DOWN!

I see you've been paying attention in class! :-)

Welcome aboard you two!

Kent

Hey Lena, lookin' good. Love those worms. Manure tea you say. Guess I'll try that this year. I bought some blood meal a couple of years ago but thought I might draw the dogs and coyotes. Did you have any problems with the dogs?

Maybe those little Wallabys you said you don't have huh? LOL

When do you have to go back to school? You've had a good summer vacation haven't you? Do you miss Germany?

Jeanette

It's my fist time too. We have 32 bales and I'm still preparing them. It seems to be going soooo slowwww.
I know it's too early to plant things outside yet. So I don't know what I'm griping about ☺

Here's M setting them up. We have since set them on their sides with the straw going crossway rather than up and down.

My 1st step was to apply Urea, a week later I added alfalfa meal and a couple of days ago some steer manure. Each time I have been lucky enough that it rained the following night and day gently soaking it in.

dovey: your picture reminds me of a song: "Wheat bales ring, are you listening! In the lane snow is glistening! What a beautiful sight, we're having tonight, gardening in a wintry wonderland."

Let me know if you get any kind of "heat" out of those bales.

I'd be surprised if you did, so that's why I'm curious.

Now, I'm no chemist/agronomist, but adding the urea may jump start those bales, but with what appears to be a cold-weather setting, I'm not sure if adding anything will help. Again, just my guess.

It seems like you have quite a ways to go before it's time to transplant anything unless you're doing some cold weather crops.

So, don't worry about it taking a "long time" to prep your bales. Just continue to keep them moist until all danger of frost has passed, then transplant.

I posted some info a long time back about the chemistry of straw decomposition. Some key ingredients are moisture and temperature. The higher the outside temp, the faster the bales will respond to the decomposition phase. The nitrogen additive acts like a catalyst for the whole process. Kind of speeds things up.

Also, are you set on keeping the bales up with the strings OFF the ground? No prob, but I think you'll be happier, watering wise, with the strings ON the ground.

Put one row with strings ON the ground and compare for future reference. It's all a great learning process and you may actually like them better one way over the other.

Anyway, keep up the good work and the pics.

Kent

Kent,
Strings are on the ground and so far there is no heat in the bales what-so-ever.
I figure from the goop I put on top and then what the rain washes down into the bale should have a positive effect when things warm up.

I guess sitting, freezing and defrosting is all they are doing now. We have at the least 1 month (closer to 2) before things can be planted.

Dove

Dovey, I see you are the same zone as me. I normally don't get my plants in before the middle or end of May. Our last frost date is May 30th. So, I put them under my hoophouse. I usually start my bales cooking the end of April. However, this year is probably going to be different. It is such a weird spring. We got 4 inches of snow last night and it has been snowing all day.

Jeanette

I'm just dying to plant something! *S*

What the heck has he got in his head to be dumping snow just when I am ready to get back out there and plant something. Dang, it was snowing quarter size flakes at 9:00 this morning. Enough already unless you ate planning on a dry summer, in that case bring it on ole man.

Do you guys plant containers for your decks, patios, or yard? Hanging containers? I have tons of seeds planted for my containers and flower boxes. Actually, the first petunias I planted did too well. Tidal Wave, I think I got from Seymour's. I will post a picture of them. I was shocked. I had them on a shelf over my head and reached up to see if they needed water and got my hand in plant leaves instead of potting soil. Here is a picture of them. The couple in front are hollyhocks.

I had used the tweezers on the petunias a couple of weeks ago so most of them are getting at least 4 side shoots.

Jeanette