I get cattle panels from Southern States... about the same cost, but I think mine are more than 4 feet, maybe closer to 5' ... I could go measure but I'm lazy.
1st time bale gardeners - Who's trying it this year?
Okay Janette. You talked me into it. I pretty much have these bales planted but will probably be getting more if these work out. Its still in experimentation state for me.
Jan
Digger, to make the hoophouse, I hoop them 8 feet across the bottom which puts them a little more than 6 feet tall in the center. i.e. They are 52" wide and 16 feet long. I hoop them end to end. 8 feet from one end to the other. Does that make sense? Then depending on how long you want your hoop house, I have 4 of them which makes the hh a little over 16 feet long too.
Absolutely not!! You can haul them in your trailer. There again, you hoop them end to end of the trailer. Just BE SURE you are not standing behind the trailer when you let them loose at the back of the trailer. Our pick up bed is 5 x 8 ft. We just hoop them end to end. We carried them all at the same time. Just fasten them real good and be careful 'cause they really have a spring.
You will find them at the feed stores, and possibly others, call around. The cost, we found ran between $14.50 to $16. each, depending on how far they had to haul them.
Jan, don't let me talk you into anything. Just make up your own mind.
Jeanette
Quoting:
Okay you guys, what is the trick to making the holes in the bales. I swear to who ever will listen that I worked myself into a sweat just trying to make the holes. Is there some special trick to this or am I just going to have to continue to wrestle these bales to get them to open up. I was almost tempted to cut the line. I DIDN"T but it was getting to be a battle between me and what ever tool I could find to make these holes. Okay, I have vented but please tell me the secret.
Gourdbeader: no special tool is required. With a little effort the bale cleaves nicely where ever you want to drop in a plant. I initially used a spatula to help get some leverage. A trowel will do nicely, too. But, I quit using any thing after the 1st year and just use my hands to pull open a crack in the bale. Take both hands, pull the long way parallel with the strings, drop your plant in, chink the crack with some potting mix, gently push the straw back together and move on to the portion of the bale.
If those augers work for you, use them.
Kent
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 7:39 PM
jnette,ok we do have a tractor supply about 20 mi away. i understand how you hauled them. i was stuck mentally on hauling them flat .will pick up a few next weekend .thank all you for fast ans .i love dg! have learned so much and i thought i was pretty informed,just took all this experence you guys have learned by trial and error and the help of others to show an old dog CAN learn new tricks,thanks again ,everybody sally
you'r lazy,darius? we must be kin
LOL!
darius: recently got back from spending several days in the Boone, NC, area. Some friends let us use their cabin for a few days. Lord, I love those mountains!
Kent
Thanks Kent for the info. What kind of spatula did you use. It just bent mine in half. Hehe. I don't have a year to wait, I want to get them going now. I pretty much have them done but I really worked up a sweat doing it.
Kent, how FUN! I have a dear DG friend who lives there so I get to visit occasionally. My family there are all gone now.
I did that with the spatula at first Kent, but maybe my straw wasn't decomposed enough because it didn't give much. The spatula I had was a very stiff strong one too. Oh well, whatever works.
Jeanette
Sally, just remember what I said. Those cattle panels have a kick like a mule if you get in their way just right.
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 9:59 PM
thanks jnette, i'm coming up 70 yrs old and very,very safety savvy.thats what men are for. i just stand back on loading stuff and cutting trees and supervise ! what i get out of it is dirty looks,but it works.poor ole lady,she needs help with that!! you can laugh now>>sally
Whatever works Sally. LOL
Jeanette
Janette,
You mentioned Remay earlier. what is that? Is it some type of cloth. I was thinking because I hear that we are suppose to be getting some cold stuff this week that maybe I could put some loose straw over the plants. Would that work to keep the frost off of them. You have to remember, I have never had a vegie garden before and I hate to lose all the goodies that I planted. Help. What should I do?
Jan
I may have spelled it wrong jan, Do you renenber seeing long rows of white cloth covering plants? That is what I am talking about. Yes, cloth. Straw will definitly help. Better than nothing.
Jan, you probably wondered who Robinz is. I am in Seattle visiting my daughter. Jeanette
This message was edited Apr 15, 2008 2:14 PM
Remay is one brand name for row cover. I've seen good prices from Berry Hill Row Cover...
http://www.berryhilldrip.com/RowCover.htm
I re4cently helped a friend put up a 100' hoop house with their row cover... the 1 ounce, which will withstand down to 24ºF. I plan to make one for myself later on. Sure wish I had several feet of it for tonight!
Hi gang. I'm curious to know of your experiences (if any) with soaker hoses and their efficiency? I'm not impressed so far- seems like they water everything BUT the bales. I tried lowering the pressure after reading someone's post yesterday, but ended up needing to hand water them all after a couple hours on the soaker hoses. (I'm starting to feel bad because one of my 'partners' in the garden bought all new hoses and soaker hoses, too.) At least the hose and hand watering get me out to the garden every day for an hour or so.
My bales are behind, as far as getting any good heat. I have 20 straw bales and 22 hay bales, and have applied urea 4 times, including today. When I 'took their temp.' the other day, they were only at 72° and didn't really feel warmer today, but my little plants are getting really big! Gotta start a bunch more tonight. (Thanks in advance to Lena and Margo for the seeds!) It's supposed to be in the 70s (to 50s at night) after tonight, all week- I don't know how long I can STAND not to plant something!! Aargh!
Suz
me too suze,i'm putting a lot of faith in these bales and i want to get going..i think my momma just didn't raise a patient gardner i'm even going to try gooseneck squash,they always collasp just one day before harvest,if the tiny ones don't die first
Suz... My experience with soaker hoses spaned several years before I gave up. I discovered topography (elevation) has an important bearing on effectiveness. Since none of my yards have ever been FLAT, I finally gave up. Just got tired of too much water in low spots and none or not enough uphill.
You might do a Google search on T Tape or something where you can space emitters where you want them. That's what I plan to use when I have some money...
Well, as far as I can tell my plants survived the cold snap. Now if I can just get rid of the slugs. eew! I bought some slugmeal today so I will give that a try. I was hoping that they wouldn't bother the bales. Fat chance of that happening. I have never dealt with slug problem before. Is is safe to use this stuff around things that you plan on eating eventually?
Jan are you saying the slugs came in with the bales? You have never had slugs before? Read the label on the container. I doubt that it would be a problem using them on edibles. I used to use it in Seattle, but then I didn't grow a lot of edibles other than tomatoes. Coffee grounds and crushed egg shells work also. Diatomatious Earth too.. Anything that is course I understand. Other than the DE. I think that cuts their bellies and they die. And, of course, you know about the good old salt shaker. And beer.
Jeanette
Yep, I did the salt shaker thing yesterday but with the rain and all I wondered if the salt would hurt the ph of the bales? Im not saying the slugs came with the bales its just that I haven't had anything planted that I needed to worry about slugs before. We didn't have them in the desert.
No, slugs would not be a desert creature. I don't know about the salt and ph. I guess if I had slugs I wouldn't worry/think about ph. I would just grab the old salt shaker.
Jeanette
Well, I just went out and shook some slug meal out for them. I hope they eat their slimmy little selfs to death. Does that sound too cruel?
Not as bad as salt. lol
Jeanette
You know what my dear sweet husband told our nephew? He said that slugs ate salt. He was visiting and had gathered up all these horrible banana slugs and wanted to feed them. Before I knew what was happening our poor little nephew came running in the house just screaming like crazy and told me what was happening. I was so angry at my DH and he and Christophers daddy thought it was so hillarious. They were ROTFLOL. Poor little Christopher was tramatized. I just could have beat them both. I did have a little chuckle behind closed doors though. Hehehe
Jan
Jan, that is totally disgusting. I know exactly what Christopher saw when he looked at that terrible mess.
Jeanette
Isn't that just awful. I felt so bad for the little guy. I asked my DH what on earth was he thinking of and he admitted he just wasn't thinking what it would do to Christopher. Jerk!!!
That was many years ago and now he has graduated from the university and is an engineer. Not sure what he builds but he definately came away with all the brains in that family.
Jan
Sounds like it wasn't too debilitating. LOL
Maybe he makes bridges for slugs.
Jeanette
Too funny Jeanette,
bye
Jan
I am a first time straw bale gardener. I have mushrooms in droves that have come up around my tomatoes. Is this harmful to my plants or will it slow their growth? Thank you, 444Bear
4444Bear: answered you from your DMail inquiry.
Kent
Hi, 444Bear- welcome. As far as I know, the mushrooms are a sign that all's well in your bales. I wouldn't worry a bit. Mine are kinda cute!
Namaste- Suz
Jan,
Thought about you this weekend when I was moving my plants into different flats and found a slug about 2 inches long on a pot. Not that I thought you are a slug, but as I put it down the disposal and ran the water after, I was thinking about what your husband did to that little boy.
Jeanette
i guess i put this on another thread ,but if your bales were as tight as mine,dh came to the rescue with the chain saw .i had him cut about 8" deep so that i could bury the tomatoes up to the new leaves . plunge it straight in ,about 4" apart .that will loosen the straw enough to get the plants in . i also got hold of a bale that was so loose,had no trouble digging my hand right in . sally
Sally: this year my bales were so tight I had to use a garden trowel to help make a crack. Didn't think about using my chainsaw - that will certainly open up those bales!
Kent
OMG Janette,
That is the grossest thing I have heard yet. You ran that slug through your garbage disposal. EWE!!! I can't believe you did that. It sounds like when I bought live mouse traps and then decided I better not let it go or it would just come back in the house so I flushed it down the toilet. The poor little thing just swam like crazy and looked at me as it went down. I sat down on the floor and bawled like a baby. That was horrible
.
Thanks digger.
I wish that we hadn't gotten rid of our chain saw. We even had a small one for branches and that would have been perfect. What were we thinking.
Kent, after all assurances of no more frosts, we finally staged plants in the strawbales last week. Planted tomatoes, peppers and eggplants while I tucked in some blooms, as you can see, and some oregano too. The veges were itty bitty when they were put in. Tomatoes are in the fore front.
Strawbaling is the perfect method for people like us with bad soil. DH just broke 2 shovel handles trying to dig the ground!
Thanks again Kent.
Edited to add:
Where the strawbales butted against each other, we packed the top spaces in with the straws removed for the veges, and planted the annuals. We also added potting soil.
This message was edited Apr 28, 2008 9:40 PM
I just used a little 2 tined garden "claw" (upper right in photo) to pull enough straw/hay out so I could plant. It was certainly easier in the hay, but imminently doable in the straw, too.
Suz
I have planted all that I can in the bales that I have. I have planted several strawberries, 3 tomatos, sugar snap peas, and I dedicated one bale to herbs. I know that doesn't seem like much but this is still experimental to me. I will see how these go and If I see that it is going to be a go I will get more bales. I would get them now to let the age but I'm still not sure about my strawbale gardening skills.