For weeks the neighbors have driven by my house wondering just what on earth I am doing in my backyard. They stop right in the middle of the street to have a good look. One of my immediate neighbors had a guest that asked about it, and when they were told I was gardening, the guest said, “you can’t grow anything in straw bales.”
Well, ta-da, looks like you can. I am!
I really didn’t doubt that it could be done; the straw bale gardens I found online looked rich and full and busting open with produce. I just wasn’t sure how I’d do at it.
So far, so good. The hardest part seems to be getting used to “feeding” it all properly without burning it up. I haven’t fed it at all in weeks, actually. I’ll work on that this week.
I need some rabbit poo. I am better at judging that than compound fertilizers. Horse and cow manures have too many grains in them if it hasn’t been composted to burn them up. Investing in a couple of bunnies is on the list but I haven’t gotten there just yet.
So yeah, you noticed the hoops?
Well, they aren’t really hoops. They are just cattle panels bowed between a few T posts. Got the idea a few months ago when we were at Ruth’s place and she was showing me her arbors the kids put in. I was just thinking that picking the fruits of my labor from beneath a shaded canopy for anything I can grow vertically would be easier and awfully convenient. Maybe with that much shade I can get in a few cooler temp loving crops below any canopy, in the actual dirt; a row against each bale with a walkway down the middle.
And there’s a bonus as you see. The panels are heavy duty enough to hold up several of my hanging plants which gives me a bazillion more ideas to work with.
This is some of what I have so far…
There are also three clumps of Sugar Baby watermelons between a couple of the bales. One Beefsteak tomato in the ground. Two bell peppers in a bale, and a bale with radishes. I read somewhere that radishes don’t do well in bales, but we will see.
I’d still like to drop in a couple more green peppers, or red, and maybe some banana peppers as well. Zucchini too, but darn it, I can’t remember what the unmarked pack of seeds was that I planted.
Guess what ever it is will be a lovely surprise.
Catch you up later.