Strawbale Gardening - no weeding, no hoeing, no tilling

Cukes. I've got to decide soon before the cukes run over the sides whether I'm going to use newspapers around the bales or landscaping cloth to keep the grass from growing up in the vines.

Kent

 

Just started

Hello,

We have treated our bales just like your instructions said.....and just put okra, zucchini, and green peppers in them yesterday. We are anxious to see how well they do. We had to use the blood meal since we could not locate the 34-0-0 fertilizer. I want to hear how everyone else's bales are going as time progresses along!

 

Hey Strawbaleman!

Just checking in.... the garden is doing great! thanks for all your help! We have found a couple of things we didnt expect, so it may help someone else. Our bales are on a little bit of a hill and now that stuff is coming in and due to the water, they are sagging downhill. We had to shore up some of the bales. Also the squash plants have grown so large they are falling off the bales and I am afraid they are going to break. You warned us...the tomatoes are growing up and up and up! Not many tomatos yet but BIG fast growing plants, plenty of blooms...gonna have to come up with a staking method soon. The cukes are growing over, today we put in some metal baskets and are going to see if they will wind around in them. We lost all but one watermelon plant but the cantolopes are doing great. Peppers are looking good too but no fruit yet. Check out the pictures if you want at
http://picasaweb.google.com/32panel
and click on the garden.. the slideshow is neat!
Thanks again!
Eddie:-D

 

A suggestion for anyone using the "bought" metal cages. If you feel like you want to continue this year after year, go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy a rolled of welded wire fabric and make your own. Make them a little smaller than the bale width and then you can put in stakes in the ground and tie the cages to them. Takes a bit of work, but the holes in the welde wire are bigger than the other wire roll you buy, easier for getting your hands into the plant. We've had them for about 4 years now that my dad made. Put about about 15 of them yesterday (in the regular garden). We've already put 6 of them on the test bales for this year. We will probably add some (bales) next year.

 

Eddie: your garden is looking good; nice photos. I've had my squash in the past slide off the side of the bales, but they never broke off.

CrzyForBaseball: good tip on making some cages. Cages are good if you don't have alot of tomatoes because I used some homemade ones for years when I was dirt farming, and yes, they'll last a long time.

But, with bale gardening, you'll probably have to stake the cages on two sides since the bales tend to shrink up and don't provide much of a base after a few weeks.

With my 3rd year in bales, a trellis works best for me.

Kent

 

The following is an excerpt of an email from Chris, a fellow bale gardener, who is not a member of 4042, but gave me his permission to post some of his photos. He's got a great looking garden; very neat and orderly, and colorful. Here's some info on Chris and his garden. - Kent

I do not live in NC, but in Western Kentucky, near the Lakes (small town of Calvert City), and close to Paducah Kentucky.

The tomatoes that I have planted are all heirloom, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

I have added marigolds, and recently planted nasturtium seeds (which are coming up). This is what I have planted other than a varity of heirloom.

Also okra, 2 types of squash, eggplants, peppers (bells, hot, sweet, etc), dill, 2 types of cucumbers.

There is an infrastructure of poles (Lowes) to handle the tomatoes. Most are of the beefsteak varity. The grouping of the bales catches about 6 to 7 hours of sun, in my shady yard. The soil here is clay and rock, so this method is great, other than my water bill. I am wishing for a well now. Hahahahh

Chris

 

Photo #2 of 4 from Chris' bale garden. - Kent

 

Photo #3 of 4 of Chris' bale garden. - Kent

 

Photo #4 of 4 of Chris' bale garden. - Kent

 

Here's my trombocino, a type of zucchini, that a friend sent me. It's doing well. The post is 8 ft. tall. I love the way it runs/climbs. This is the first year I've ever planted this.

Kent

 

Better Boy tomatoes are happy. I'm suckering all of my tomatoes this year.

Kent

 

Red potatoes I dug up this morning. This filled a 5 gallon bucket. Not a speck of dirt on them.

I'm very pleased with the way the potatoes did in the old straw from last year.

So even if you can't use the bale for other crops the following year, you can grow some great potatoes.

Guess what's on the menu tonight!!

Kent

 

Those look delicious! You and the wife want some company? :mrgreen:

 

Here's probably our oldest bale gardener, Mr. Troy Kennedy, from Winston-Salem, NC.

Mr. Kennedy is 93 and enjoying bale gardening for the first time.

Kent

P.S. - I got up all of my potatoes today. I got 2, 6-gallon bucket fulls.

And ready2cmyKing, stop by anytime. Those new potatoes make GREAT french fries!

 

Current pic of my trombocino going across my trellis over my tomatoes. The post is 8 ft. high. The vine must be about 12 ft by now. I'm having a blast watching this thing grow.

Kent

 

Trombocino up close.

Kent

 

Here's 2 trombocino. You can pick them from very small to as large as you want. They're like other squash/zucchini. I'm going to find out soon how they taste.

Kent

 

Cukes in the foreground and regular zucchini in the back are really producing. The peppers on the side are doing great. I need to stake the peppers; they're starting to lean.

My wife is busy, busy making more sweet pickle, zucchini bread, and a great zucchini and artichoke casserole.

Kent

 

My supper for tonight!

German Johnson tomatoes make some of the best tomato sandwiches you'll ever eat.

Kent

 

My tomatoes so far. The German Johnsons are in the middle. Left row is all Better Boys. The rest are different types of beefsteaks and heirlooms.

Kent