Changes Regarding Comments

I am new to this blogging business, so I didn't realize that the default setting was that you had to register with my blog to leave a comment.  I have now changed this so that anyone, even anonymous may leave comments.  Hopefully this will encourage more constructive criticism and enable me to answer any questions more directly.

Thanks for reading. 

What Will Fit in a Straw Bale?

I learned the hard way last year that there is only so much that can reasonably be grown in each bale of a straw bale garden.  The problem I ran into is that there seems to be much space available when planting, leading to an urge to plant more than the bales can reasonable sustain.  There are many resources on the interwebs that warn against this and offer reasonable numbers of plants per bale depending on what is being planted, most of which I would consider a bit conservative despite my over-planting issues of a year ago.  I just went way, way overboard.

So here is a list of what I plan to plant in my bales for Straw Bale Garden 2012, dependent on what crop is being planted.  Of course I don't claim to be any sort of expert on the subject, what with only a year of experience under my belt, so take these numbers with a grain of salt.  Of course numbers may vary quite a bit for some crops, so be sure to take into account the description of what size your plants will end up being.  No matter what, try not to plant bigger plants like tomatoes too close to the edge of the bale or it will become unstable when it grows large.

1. Tomatoes - The conservative number here is two plants per bale, but I think most varieties can probably fit three plants as long as the tomato bales themselves are spaced apart from each other.  In this case I would zig-zag the plants in a V-shape across the bale to space the plants as far apart as possible.  
2. Cukes/Squash/Things that grow on vines - This type of plant really is more dependent on what space you have available for the vines to ramble, but assuming this is not too much of a constraint each bale should be able to accommodate upwards of four plants.  Three might be better though if the plants are going to be wide ranging, as bigger plants will consume your bale more quickly and hurt the harvest yield.  Cukes and summer squash in particular can be trained to climb a bit so keep that in mind to save ground space.  Winter squash have huge leaves and seem to crowd-out other vines competing for the same space.  I ordered one variety of cuke this year called "Spacemaster" that I am hoping will mostly stay atop its bale.  I think anything advertised to be good for planters on your porch/deck are just right for straw bales.
3. Peas/Beans/Etc. - These can be planted very close together and I think 12-15 plants per bale are easily accommodated for most varieties.  I had 15 wax bean plants in one bale last year and they did very well.
4. Spinach/Loose Leaf Lettuce/Other Greens - I plant these in pretty thick by scattering the seeds on a prepared bale, then thin them out as they grow in.  This worked very well last year, with the thinned leaves and shoots creating the base for really wonderful salads.
5. Peppers/Eggplants - Unless they are really large plants, six in each bale should be fine.

Things I am not experienced with directly, but can make a good guess at:

• Broccoli/Cabbage/Head Lettuce - Probably six plants would work well, possibly eight.
• Corn/Sunflowers - I wouldn't try these at all, personally.  2-3 plants for each might be feasible if the ground your bales sit on is very flat.
• Root vegetables - These are not supposed to do well in bales.  I think the nature of the substrate would not allow for normal growth of things like carrots, potatoes, etc.

There are probably some types of plants I am forgetting to include, but this list should be a good starting point.  I think the best answer though, is just to realize how big your plants will be when they are fully grown, and don't be tempted by the tiny size of your seedlings to add more and more.

Happy gardening.

2012 Lineup - The Greens

So I ordered all of my seeds by mail from the 2012 Burpee catalog, and would love to use their images but they seem to have them blocked.  Instead I will attempt to add pictures of the varieties I chose from Burpee using Google to find them.  Where this is not possible a description will have to suffice. All pictures used will have a written credit with a link to their source, and if this is to a rival seed company, well, perhaps Burpee could have thought this out better.

By far my favorite bale from Straw Bale Garden 2011 was the one planted with a Mesclun blend of greens. This packet consisted of a mix of 5 different varieties of greens suitable for salad or saute.  I planted the entire packet on one prepared bale and pulled the greens for salad to thin them out as they grew.  In retrospect I would have rather had the greens separate for easier harvesting and I could have spread the seeds a little more thinly to allow for a duplicate application after the first plants went to seed; both of these observations will be incorporated in to the execution of Straw Bale Garden 2012.

The following are the greens I ordered from Burpee this year, along with a short description and notes on how they will be arranged in the garden.  Hopefully we will have a plentiful harvest as a base for many great salads in 2012.

Arugula

Rocket Arugula

Picture Credit: ZW Horticultural Co, Ltd

This was the star of last year's garden as part of a Musclun blend I planted in one bale.  The peppery flavor is amazing and makes any salad "pop" though it loses a lot of flavor when cooked.  I used it to make a pesto with pasta as well.  I am hoping that by planting both bales 1&2 with just arugula that I will have an overabundance in the kitchen.

Salad Fresh Cutting Mix


I'm not going to try to find pictures of all of the components that make up this Mesclun blend of greens.  It sounds like it will be pretty close to the same thing I planted last year with the addition of the endive.  The description from Burpee is as follows:

For this feast of summer greens, we chose our absolute favorite varieties.  Mix them up for delicious, fresh adventures in salad.  Includes piquant arugula, tangy and nutty endive and radicchio, crisp and sweet red and bright green lettuces, and sharp and spicy mustard.

The mix will no doubt include the same Rocket arugula as described above and I hope to use these leaves to round-out garden salads.  Being stingy with this seed packet might give me something to plant later when space becomes available as well.  This will be in bales 3&4 to start with at least.

Tendergreen Mustard

Tendergreen Mustard

Picture Credit: backdoorgardener.com

This is the exact image from the Burpee catalog.  Their description is as follows:

HEIRLOOM.  One of the mildest mustards, the leaves are smooth and make a fine spinach substitute, especially in the fall.  Seeds germinate and grow quickly in late summer heat, and mature to tender sweetness in cool weather.

I plan to use this late in the season to replant the bales that had other greens earlier in the year.  We love spinach around here, using it in salads and the Dutch favorite "aardappels an spinace" where it is boiled and mashed with potatoes.  Not having a suitable late-season fill in crop last year was a major shortcoming that I plan to rectify in 2012 and this will fill in gaps in the garden come late summer.

Burpee's Microgreens

Random shot of Microgreens

Picture Credit: About.com Gardening 

This is something that I find very intriguing.  I'll turn to About.com for a great description:

Remember when sprouts were all the rage?  Well here's something just as nutritious and you don't have to change the water every day.  Microgreens.
I'd been noticing microgreens getting a lot of attention recently.  Microgreens are the tiny shoots of various greens, herbs,edible flowers and leafy vegetables.  The Cook's Microgreens Mix pictured here contains beets, broccoli, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage and radish.  You sow them every 5 - 10 days and snip them off when they reach an inch or two high.

I can't wait to find out what kind of flavors this will add to a salad, not to mention the micro-nutrient boost promised by such a mix of fine edibles.  This will probably only last through May in bales 9&10, so other crops have been planned for later in the season.

"Spring" Raab

"Spring" Raab

Picture Credit: Gaea's Gate Produce

This is a crop that maybe stretches the definition of a "green" but since it doesn't fit nicely under any other catagory, here it is.  I was first exposed to this broccoli-like produce as a member of a CSA where it was grown.  It has a wonderful broccoli flavor, with little flowering heads in bunches of leaves.  The whole top part of the plant is edible, leaves and all, and I prefer it wilted in olive oil and balsamic vinegar with toasted almonds.  Yum!

Sauteed Raab

Picture Credit: finecooking.com

In future posts I will describe what other crops I have planned for the garden.  Now I must go prepare dinner because this post made me hungry!

Straw Bale Garden 2011 - Mid-Season Growth

Straw Bale Garden 2011 didn't turn out as well as it could have, but it still exceeded my expectations by a lot.  Without making this post too wordy, here are some shots of the garden as it looked in early July.  This was in many ways the peak of the garden.  The first planting of spring greens had run its course and had been pulled out after going to seed.  Many peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant were almost ready to pick. Wax beans were proliferating and were a centerpiece of 2-3 meals a week.  The squash vines were threatening to take over.  

After this point the garden started to overgrow in many ways, but at this moment of the summer the garden was truly everything I had hoped it could be.

Peppers

The long green peppers really weren't what was advertised as they were supposed to be long, red Thai chilies.  They were still very tasty and beautiful on the plant.  The little peppers in the foreground would turn bright red and were wonderfully hot.  Just a couple of those would heat up a stir-fry righteously. Peeking in at the back you can make out a wax bean nearing ripeness.

Tomatoes

Before they began to choke each other out, many of the first tomatoes turned out very well.  The Black Cherry tomatoes were dominant eventually.  Luckily they were delicious.

Green Deer Tongue Lettuce 

This lettuce variety was very good at first but became bitter rather quickly.  Going forward I am skipping lettuce in favor of other greens like arugula, mustard, and spinach.

Kellogg's Breakfast Beefsteak 

This was the tomato that I waited forever to ripen, and then by the time it did the bugs had gotten to it a bit.  This variety is an orange heirloom and has nothing to do with the cereal company.

View from the property line.  Thor the dog looking on.

To the left you see Musque de Provence pumpkin squash.  To the right is Honey Boat squash.  The smaller leafed vine in the middle is Mighty Mite cantaloupe melon.

Zoe the dog rests in the shade under the tomato jungle

This shot illustrates how overgrown the tomatoes had already gotten before they were even ripe.  Having the dogs inside the fence, plus Stu the cat roaming around, really helped keep the rabbits away.

Musque de Provence squash

We eventually harvested 6 of these, most of them huge (like 2' across).  The flesh is wonderful and I still have a freezer full of processed pumpkin in ziplock bags.

Honey Boat squash

These were a real treat, though we only managed to harvest around a half-dozen of them.  They had a sweeter flesh than a Butternut or Acorn variety.  Many squash either never made it to ripening or went unnoticed and rotten on the vine unfortunately.

Japanese Eggplant

I had a co-worker who took these off my hands after I decided that I just don't like eggplant.  At least most didn't go to waste, though some were eaten by some sort of insect.

Hopefully I will be able to make the 2012 edition more efficient after all I learned last year.  It would be nice to can some tomatoes at least.

Straw Bale Garden 2011 - Planting

I found these pictures that I forgot that I had taken of Straw Bale Garden 2011 just after planting. Descriptions of each follow each picture, click the shots to enlarge.  Note the soaker-hose held in place by bricks, which worked well.  There are also metal staple-like stakes holding it periodically that are harder to see.  The grass you see sprouting from the bales is actually wheat straw and was easily plucked out where needed.

Above is planted squash pumpkin and honey boat squash along with tomatoes and a lone cucumber plant I believe (it didn't survive).  The pumpkin squash from this bale took over half the backyard eventually.

Next bale over shows the doomed cucumber plant along with more tomatoes.  I planted too many tomatoes too close together and they kind of overgrew and choked each other out later in the summer. They all produced well for a while though.

More squash and/or cucumbers.  These didn't do well as they were badly shaded by the tomatoes that grew all over the fence.

Final bale along the back fence.  More tomatoes and squash or cucumbers.  Again, shading took its toll on the vines here.  The tomatoes actually would have been fine had I left them at what you see here, but it looked so sparse that I added seedlings from the nursery to fill in the perceived gaps - Big Mistake!

Corner bale had black cherry tomatoes that did very well from being on the end and summer squash that grew twisted and yielded one viable fruit.  There are also pumpkin and honey boat squash in here that went crazy, taking over the entire area up to the neighbor's property.

Eggplant bale - only two plants ended up surviving, the rest were eaten by something, possibly slugs or maybe a brave rabbit (Disco Stu was constantly on the prowl).

Wax beans in desperate need of fertilizer.  The slugs loved eating these too, but they actually rebounded quite nicely to yield many meals worth of beans all summer.

Peppers from Home Depot.  One mislabeled as a hot chile (really long, green, and not hot at all), the other correctly labeled as ornamental thai hot peppers that were excellent and very hot indeed.

Mesclun salad blend just starting to sprout.  These worked great as I plucked them regularly to thin them and got some great salads out of this bale.  Replanted the bale later with seeds I got at a flea market that were a year old and barely sprouted anything.  Remember: always go with new seeds if you didn't store them yourself.

Final bale with a couple of squash plants that did ok (farthest uphill, this bale was difficult to keep wet). Also a six-pack of what Home Depot had labeled as bell peppers but ended up being cherry hot peppers. Lesson learned: NEVER TRUST THE LABELS AT HOME DEPOT!!!

How did this get in here?  No, we would never brainwash a baby...

Yes, this is Vivienne at 6 months old in Daddy's old Michigan hoodie.  It only fit for about a week but I wanted you to see that I save it still Mom and Dad.  Go Blue!

Tutorial: Straw Bale Gardening I - Getting Started

Nick dotes on his seedlings

The first step in creating a straw bale garden should be performed by early February at the latest: Making the decision on whether to start from seed or from seedlings purchased from a nursery.  If you read my seed post you will know that I sit right on the fence on this topic.  There is a certain pride with growing your own from seed, and a larger variety of vegetables to choose from.  On the other hand, growing from seed requires a large-ish time investment, and unless you are a professional you probably won't end up with seedlings that look half as nice as what the nursery is offering.  If you choose to go the nursery started route you can afford to go straight to the garden design and set-up.  If you want to grow from seed I recommend ordering either online or from seed catalogs as I have had poor luck with seeds bought in nurseries and other stores.



Getting the actual garden starts with choosing a spot and obtaining/placing the bales.  Choose the spot for your garden wisely.  Observe closely what areas get at least 8 hours of continuous sunlight.  Don't forget that it may be winter when you are making these observations, and the path of the sun will probably change quite a bit north come late-spring and summer when the growing goes on.  This can make a big difference in the hours of sunlight an area receives.  Also realize that any overhanging trees, or tall neighboring trees, will have leaves on them, giving more shade than you might realize.  I note these cautions from experience, as Straw-Bale Garden 2011 might have been more successful had I placed it better.

Hauling the bales into position

Next find a local farmer with some straw bales for sale.  Any kind will do I think; I used wheat straw last year.  I heeded the cautions of many online "experts" and did not look towards hay.  I think that I agree with the assessment that the hay would just sprout a lot more seed and need more maintenance, though it would no doubt also offer more natural composting fertilizer to the plants.

Anyways, find bales to buy.  I used Craigslist to find a local selling some for $2.50 apiece in 2011 which was a very good price.  I managed to fit 10 bales total in my SUV, brought them home and proceeded to place them and begin the conditioning process.  Be sure to place the bales right where you want them as they will be too heavy to move once they are wet.

Lucas working in the garden, spreading soil on top of the bales

The bales can be placed on their sides (string down) or with the straw sticking up and down (string around). If you lay them on their sides they should retain water better, though the string will rot on the underside unless it is made of some type of plastic.  Up and down aligns all of the straws to draw water straight down and through but keeps the bales in better shape.  I put mine up and down and to overcome the water problem we watered soil and composted manure down into the bales as we prepped them.

Finis

Lucas giving the bales a good soaking

This gardening stuff is fun!

Our cat, "Disco Stu" comes to investigate

Prepared bale

Bales prepared for seeds

If you follow our set-up procedure, when you are done you should have something like this (left).  It takes several applications of soil and soakings to achieve this as the soil will continue to disappear down into the bale.  After soil remains on top continue to water the bales for 2-3 weeks, enough to keep them nice and wet.  Some say that this is enough to start the composting process by itself. but I recommend treating each bale with a healthy dose of high-nitrogen fertilizer at around 3 weeks to jump-start the process.  I used blood meal last year and it seemed to do fine.  Inorganic fertilizer might work even better.  Then just keep the bales wet some more and you should be able to detect a rise in their core temperatures using a meat thermometer.  Note when the bales peak and begin to cool, then one more week and they should be ready to plant in.  Throughout this don't let them dry out.

If you plan to plant seeds directly, you will need to add a 1-2" layer of soil on top to sow the seeds in (see right).  I did this for salad greens, just sprinkling them on top and it really worked well.  Later I tried some melon seeds which I just covered with a bit of soil and they all germinated fine too.  Planting seedlings is as easy as choosing a suitable instrument and carving holes to accommodate the seedlings with root ball and planting the seedlings directly in the holes.

Extra Recommendations:

1. Set up a soaker-hose system for watering before you plant.  Wrap the hose in whatever manner achieves good coverage and stake it down.  It will be much harder to do this after planting, trust me.
2. Invest in a timer for your soaker-hose.  The water bill can get out of hand if you forget to turn it off (again, trust me) though it doesn't hurt the garden any.
3. I used slow-release Miracle-Gro pellet fertilizer made for house plants on the top of my bales last year after tiring of fertilizing with a watering can.  They seemed to work great.

So there you have it.  Put in a little effort up front and you can have a self-sustaining garden for the entire summer.  I know this post is titled "Getting Started", but there isn't much more you need to do after getting the plants in the bales beyond normal maintenance.  Weeds didn't become an issue last year until late in the season, and then the pulled out without any real effort.  Watch out for slugs, bugs, mold, rot, signs of under-fertilization or burning, and most importantly - keep the garden watered.  Then sit back and have your mind blown by what can grow from a bale of straw.

Next up: Pictures of Straw Bale Garden 2011 in full swing, so stay tuned.

Cheers.

A Little Background

My Wonderful Family

(Note: This is actually my first post for the blog, but it ended up on top after I finished playing/learning with draft mode.  Can't figure out how to move it back down -  here it stays.)

This is a log of my experience growing a garden in my backyard. Let me state this up front: THIS IS NOT IN MY NATURE. I am not a gardener. I don’t like getting down and dirty digging in the earth. I abhor weeding of any kind. I work 5 days a week as an analytical chemist, have almost an hour commute each direction, am the proud father of two delightful children ages 5 and 1, and my wife works insane hours as a medical resident.

In short: I don’t have time for this.

But I am a foodie and I love to cook almost as much as I love to eat. I have subscriptions to not one, but two cooking magazines which I read for the articles while barely ever having time to try out the recipes. Yet I try to cook most days out of the week, to feed both myself and my family filled with extremely picky eaters (except the youngest, bless her heart she seems to actually take after Dad). I frequent farmers’ markets for quality ingredients grown close to home for the simple reason that the quality is so much better than what you find in the giant supermarkets.

Let’s be clear though. I am not some naturalist, nor hippie/granola type. I do not worry overly much about organic this or heirloom that, though I do understand and appreciate the difference in quality, taste, and nutritional value that properly sourced food can provide. I love to harvest. The picking/cooking/eating is the part I am in this for, and I am not against using slow-release fertilizer pellets to ensure that the harvest will be bountiful. If you are looking for pure-organic gardening instruction there are plenty of other sources available on the interwebs.

I grew up with my mother’s garden providing a small bounty of fresh foods every summer, a garden that I had to help maintain (read: weed) regularly. That same wonderful woman also found time to cook great food for a family of 5 literally every night while working full-time as a high school teacher. What I remembered about her garden though was that it seemed like a lot of work for relatively little reward. Whether it was the limited space, time, soil quality, gardening experience, or no doubt a combination of all of these things – let’s just say that I can’t recall harvesting much beyond the tomatoes (which were plentiful and delicious and dutifully canned every fall for a winter’s worth of homemade spaghetti sauce - yum).

So growing up, backyard gardening seemed like a bad idea. That was my firm opinion until I met my wife, and more importantly, my in-laws. Gardening

View Of Fleuren House From Back Garden

doesn’t even begin to describe what my in-laws do; it is more a form of art. Just the trek from their house, past the barn (advantage: country living), and through their meticulously placed flower and shrubbery to the vegetable garden was a whole new experience for this city kid. Then being able to take a basket with and literally harvest dinner was life-altering. The resulting dinner was not fancy, but was none-the-less outstanding as the freshness of the food jumped and danced on the palette. I wanted this in my backyard too, but I am far too lazy to do what they do (read again: weed) like they do. It just seemed like I would never have what I wanted: Fresh vegetables picked and carried directly to my kitchen for immediate consumption without weeding, getting dirty, and the constant attention gardening requires.

Then last winter I finally caved. I wanted my own garden so bad that I began looking into raised-bed gardening. I am also cheap though, so I was busy trying to figure out what inexpensive material I could line my raised-beds with when I stumbled upon the answer to my ultimate dilemma: Straw Bales.

Prepared Bales (Soil Optional)

It turned out that some people on the interwebs insisted that using a frame of straw bales to surround a raised bed of garden soil was inexpensive and worked very well. Intrigued by this I entered it into Youtube and what I saw literally blew my mind. People were planting right into bales of straw with great results. Best of all, this kind of gardening required no soil, could be fully automated (with a little ingenuity), and best of all: almost no weeding. It seemed too good to be true, so I tried it. The results were eye-opening to say the least.

Straw Bale Garden 2012 Layout

After a ridiculous effort, finally I have managed to post this image depicting the planned layout for Straw Bale Garden 2012. This schematic will be referred back to often when describing the goings-on in the garden as it takes shape and (hopefully) flourishes. Note that despite my best efforts, the upper portion was cut off. You'll just have to imagine that there is space above the 26-30 bale compost areas, around 3-4' before the yard is engulfed by a poison ivy-ridden hedge. Oh yeah, and up is north.

This marks the last time I try to convert an Excel file into a usable image to upload to this space. No details, but seriously - what a nightmare.