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

arugula, isn't that what i got that smells like bacon? i pinched a little for salad last nite and it doesn't take much. loved it with lettuce, tomatoes ,fresh spinach,onions cesar dressing, ritz crackers.suz, any fish in that quarry? get them, girl . later,y'all . sally

Actually, to everyone that seems to get it wrong. It is
GOURDBEADER. I Bead Gourds. See my last gourd.
And my name is Jan.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2008 9:31 AM

if it doesn't seem to be getting too familar, could we call you gourd, or jan? it isn't at all strange to me to feel as if you'r an old friend, you even look like i had you pictured.i misspelled a name here while back, and after i hit the send key, it dawned on me i had hit the wrong key.whatever you prefer. sally

Jan works for me. Thanks

Jan, that is a cool picture. I wish I could see the beading better. My daughter is into beading. She is doing cross stitch pictures. Very tiny little beads. See if you can get me a closer picture so I can send it to her. Thanks,

Jeanette

Oh, I forgot. Sally, no, I live in the country. I have 40 acres, but my house is sheltered by mountains and trees so it is hard to grow much. I have had it logged twice, but I hate to have all the trees around the house cut down that makes it real hot in the summer.

If you like Oregon so well why don't you move there? That Rogue river is beautiful. Very wild.

Jeanette

Gourbeader/Jan (LOL), you can't be Gourd as we have Gourd on T to T and you are there too. I will call you by your handle or "Jan". Wow! your gourd is gordgeous :)! How did you do that? Can you upsize that photo? It's awesome.

Sally, what you keep calling "bacon" is the arugula I gave you. Hope you put out some seed too as mine is every age and stage including new seedlings. It's pretty year around here. If we get cold enough we may have a couple of months without it and then it will start springing up again all over the place.

Laurel

can't at my age(70) i have one child ,in texas .my husband has three here in georgia. i spend 3 to 4 mos in tex,fishing and my dh does a lot of building for my boy,boat shed,porches,decks ,ect. my son does fishing guide service in summer and rents his weekend place out.that is where we stay and upgrade for him.scott, my boy says he wants to spend as much time with me as possible ,he lost his dad 6 yrs ago.we know at my age i could cross that rainbow bridge at any time. nothing going on, but only the good LORD knows when.my dh retired from g m 12 yrs ago and went back to work for a small co. that guarantees his job when we're back. it would be so simple to sell this place, and move to tex. then travel back and forth to n.west i'd love it.we're into gold prospecting also, and there is some nice gold in the sw quarter of oregon. pretty big nuggets.i got started, and am way off topic. better say something about planting in bales. btw, i'm going to plant my spinach in the morning.got some okra in to replace the ones the dog stepped on.meant it when i said come on and go fishing. sally

arugula, yes, i wasn't sure that was it .i got several plants of different stuff, and it is all alive. i looked for seeds yesterday, but didn't find arugula. you can bet i'll pick it up when i do find it. can't believe i've never had it b4. jan, we're waiting on a closeup of that gourd. sally

Here you go Sally, this is the elephant on the other side. I will show you the rest if you want to see it.
Jan

here is another view.

And the last one, sorry gang this is way off the subject of our strawbale gardening.
Jan

WOW!!!! Jan, do you sell those? That is beautiful!

I have sold other ones in the past but the African Rose was made for my Son-In-Law. I was offered $20,000. for it. Believe it or not. The other ones I've made sold for $3000. - $5,000. The African Rose took 3 years to complete..
Here is one other that I made and sold

WOW, Jan, what a remarkable art form- how'd you come to that? I'd dearly LOVE to see more of your work- it's thrilling! (And, since it's on gourds, it fits right in here ;-)

You're a lovely and gifted artist- proud to make your acquaintance!

Namaste- Suz

STUNNING, Jan. The shading and detail are so fine, and I love the texture. I'll bet it has lovely depth in the light, too (aside from the sculpting you do to accentuate your focal points.) I LOVE GLASSWORK! From the process of creation in fire and catching the flame, of trimming, cutting, or breaking, and the way the piece ultimately captures, colors, bends, and blends the light, it appeals to me so much. :)

Has wuvie seen your work? She hangs out over in the "trash to treasure" forum (although your work looks to be 100% treasure. :) )

wuvie does some neat stuff too. I believe we tend to be, as a group, very in touch with our creative energies.

It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. :)

-Joe G.

Well, the bales are producing. I have harvested several bowls of sugarsnap peas and strawberries. That was the most important of all the plants. Have lots of chocolate mint and orange mint. Basil never did come up. Maybe bad seed. Basil is my main spice in alot of our meals. That and thyme.
Hope everyone is doing as well with there bales. Tomatoes didn't do well so I have transplanted them into the ground. We shall see what happens there.

This thread is becoming very long to load even on high-speed cable...

gourd, i lost my wild dog that looks like yours ,yesterday . he got into a fight evidently a few days ago and i couldn't put my hands on him as usual , he laid up in the woods and hid . i looked everywhere ,he came up nite b4 last as i got home from hunting the woods again , but wouldn't eat or drink or let me within 15' of him ,he got up and staggered up the road.thought he went to one of his lay up places on the hill that overlooks our place. next morn ,went to pick up my sis at airport and he had died in the nite in middle of road . was going to go by vet to pick up some knockout pills so that i could get hands on him to go see vet. by the time i knew he was still alive , he was too far gone to save. the vet wouldn't have been able to help him.i know this isn't the place for this message , but wanted everyone i've been talking to , to know my sorrow at losing my wild, rescue dog so untimely. thanks for listening , sally

Oh Sally, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. There is nothing that anyone can say that takes away the hurt at a time like this other then, to those who can relate, I know what you are feeling. It is too bad that you weren't able to get ahold of him to take him to the vet but if he was as bad off as you say, then he wouldn't have come to you. Wild dogs are very private animals and you have to be so carful in handling them, even at the best of times. You just don't know how they are going to react.
My heart felt sorrow is with you and I hope that you can find another rescue dog that you are able to keep closer to you and protect him from the elements of other animals and people.
Jan

Sally, so sorry to hear about your dog. I know you loved him and worked so hard to give him a good home and life. You were very proud of him when you described him to me. You are a good soul and a friend to animals. There are some of us that can't be tamed.

Darius, I am a complete computer idiot. Do you or somebody else here know how to create a continuation of this thread with a hyperlink? If so, please link us away.

Laurel

............This Thread IS CLOSED.......

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OK everyone- here's my report on my first try at hay bale gardening: boy do I love this! Just to give it a good test I planted some of my plants traditionally (till, plant, mulch, feed, weed) and some (of the same plants) in straw bales. Well, I'll be doing WAY MORE straw bales next year. It worked GREAT! In fact I still have some summer crops alive and producing in the bales (thanks to a generous covering of pine straw). They did compost down to less than half their original size, but the crops grown in the bales were much more productive than the ones in the ground and had much less insect damage as well. This past year I used the bales for the following crops: strawberries, cucumbers, collard greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts, rainbow kale, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, basils. I had some weird tomato disease run rampant in my gardens this year and kill every single tomato in the ground, but not in the bales! I can hardly believe that after several freezes I am still picking beautifully ripe strawberries and peppers from my garden. I did run a tiny irrigation line across all the bales and attach it to a timer so I never had to worry about watering-I set it to water for 1 hour every 3d day and the plants seemed very happy with that method. Thank you for this wonderful adventure and I am looking forward to this next season with more enthusiasm than usual (if that's at all possible)-HAY BALE GARDENING ROCKS!

sacmae: good post! Glad to hear about your success.

I am a new convert to the Lasagna Garden method. I had great success last year with a small effort. Also use the Earth Boxes. Right now I have two bales of straw which I had intended to use for mulching/building up my new asparagus bed. But you guys have me interested. Where do I go to get started with the straw bales? I could use these two for that!

MaggieA: here's a link to a short thread in our bale garden forum with the basics:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/854417/

Hi Kent and everyone! I'm new to DG and have found very valuable info on a number of forums including this one. I just so happen to have 2 leftover strawbales (from my neighbor who used them for fall decorating) in my yard that I now plan to grow stuff in. I'm excited to see how the bale plants compare to my lasagna beds. Thanks so much for all the great posts!
Kelly

Kelly: good to have you with us!

I've been to La Crosse a few times for conferences, and see you're not too far from there. Beautiful state.

I'm going to SD Saturday to get my wheat straw bales..Cousin thinks they will only cost me $ !.50.or $ 2.00
How many....Well just as many as my 8' box will hold..LOL Cousin Jack was a rancher there for ever .He knows everyone.

The bad part is i'm going there for a funeral..My cousin's DH.past.

Tubby

Hello everyone!

I'm in! Picking up bales first of the week! I can't wait! I have a good friend who lives in a condo with a good size cement courtyard. I was telling her about this process and she is jumping up & down to try it the little dirt flowerbeds. She would also like to grow potatoes & strawberries in addition to other veggies. We were thinking that maybe she could use a childs plastic pool (drainage holes of course) with a base of garden soil & then loose hay. What do ya'll think? Would it work?

Roseann

I think that just might wirk for your friend in the condo. Doesn't cost much to try!

Question, I'm a real Newbie to gardening so be gentle .. I have 55 gal barrels that I have cut in 1/2 some long ways and some top & bottom. im planning on planting my Veggies in the barrels but thats a lot of dirt to dig up or buy. Could I put bales in the barrels and grow this way.
We have dogs & lots of moles & other digging critters that's why im using the barrels to start with.
Thanks
Cheryl

Hi Cheryl, Welcome to the strawbale forum. I like your idea, but you are correct in thinking how much of something you will need to fill them. I am thinking that the ones lengthwise might be good for the bales just to be set in them. Are the ends cut out of these? If not, what about drainage?

I think for the others I would concentrate on soil gardening like a raised bed. There again think drainage first. Then try to come up with something that will fill up the bottoms. The roots of your plants, other than root vegetables and tomatoes, should not need more than 5 or 6 inches of soil at the most. PLEASE DO NOT use the styrofoam peanuts that you see some of the people using. I tried that many years ago long before I heard, or read, anything about them and believe me you will regret it when you go to empty the container. I forgot what I had done and had those things all over the yard. Also, you cannot put them in the compost.

Now, I have often wondered about these darned plastic bottles that everything comes in. I have never tried them, but it seems that they would be much easier to get rid of when you are done with them. Soda, water, almost everything. Just don't use anything that would be harmful to your plants or that would be poison if you are planting edibles.

If you use bottles, think about whether or not to put lids on them, I would imagine you would turn them upside down? But, maybe you would want to fill them with water and put the lids on them so they won't crush? LOL, I have never used them and my imagination is kind of running wild.

I think maybe you might want to go into the container forum and see if you can't find someone who has used them and get some suggestions and info from them.

Other than that, happy gardening, and you know, pictures are required. We all want to see what and how you are doing because you see, we all get ideas from each other.

Jeanette

Jeanette,
We are drilling holes in the bottoms of the barrels We were doing that any way even with dirt in them they need to drain. The ones that are cut long ways have both ends in them .. The ones cut in half top to bottom only one 1/2 has an end in it . We were thinking maybe rocks in the bottoms of some. The lengthwise should hold a bale very nicely.

Do Strawberries do well in bales?
thanks
Cheryl

Rocks in the bottom of the soil raised bed? That will be heavy.

I have never grown strawberries.

Jeanette

yes but so is 1/2 a barrels full of dirt I filled one last year for tomatoes My husband didnt like where I had set it and move it just a few feet ... it almost didn't happen:)
The filled bottles would be very heavy also.
Not much over in the container forum of much help with this ..
Not planning on moving them so I might put hay in the bottom and then dirt .

I think your hay would break down and decompose over the summer and your plants would end up in the bottom, or the middle, of your barrel. See, that is what strawbale gardening is all about. Getting the straw or hay to decompose so the roots can grow good in it. i.e. it is compost.

Well, maybe the empty bottles, lids on, wouldn't crush as much as it seems with just 6 inches or so of soil on top. Maybe that wouldn't be as heavy as we are thinking. Especially if you used a lightweight soil mix, say something with peat and peralite mixed in?

Here is an example: In my garbage compacter in my kitchen, my bottles, like the 2 liter coke bottles, weren't crushing and they were taking up too much room. My DH told me to take the lids off so the air could be pushed out. I did that and it works.

Ok, in thinking about that, maybe that is the answer. bottles with the lids on.

I wish some of the other bale gardeners would jump in here with their ideas. Come on Kent, Russ, where are you???? Suzan, you have a good imagination.

Jeanette



This message was edited Mar 15, 2009 9:47 AM

This is my first time. My bales are ready and my tomato plants are about 12-18" tall in 4" pots. I want to plant them 8-12" deep in the bale.

What are the tricks for cutting a 4" hole that deep in the bale? ....butcher knife, post hole digger???

Jerry

Now this may have been a joke, but in one of Dougs threads he mentioned his brown long neck bottle of a certain beverage not mentioned(LOL!), as his tool of choice for digging hole in bales. Sooooooooo, Im going to try a cheapo Wine Bottle!

Jerry, I guess the answer is, anyway you can. I don't mean to be facetious, however it depends on how much your bales have decomposed. The more, the easier. I tried a lot of things including pruners, knives, etc.

You would be surprised at what I ended up with, and I was lucky. We were at a yard sale and my DH came out to the car with a tool he thought I might like. It was a compost stirer. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he paid a dollar for it. (I will insert here that they cost about $25 new) It works sooooooo good. I can put the roots of my plants down to the bottom of the bale. HOWEVER, it may be that that is because my bales were just right for that tool at the time. Maybe this year when I go to use it the bales won't be decomposed just right for it. We'll see.

Eufaula, I am afraid that Doug may have meant whatever was in that bottle. I don't know, I would ask him to expand on his "tool of choice".

Jeanette