How Does Your Garden Grow? August 6, 2009

 

If you have been following along at all, you know that this year I decided to do some unconventional gardening, and plant on straw bales.  A family friend tried it for the first time last year and she loved it; since I was short on prep time and didn’t have a great space readily available, I decided to give it a go.  

 

I had a…let’s say peculiar start, with these strange mushrooms growing, but they simmered down after a bit and things were going along smoothly… until the last few days.  I had these HUGE beautiful zucchini and squash plants, and it seemed that overnight they rotted away.  I have never really had a garden before, so I am guessing that either they got root rot from all the rain we have been having (because they were all rotten on the bottom where they went into the hay) , or it has something to do with the slugs that I keep finding.  

 

At this point, I have plucked one cucumber, one zucchini, and I have a few eggplants and a zillion tomatoes growing. Tonight when we got home, the children and I went to take a peek like we do every day, and we finally have some grape tomatoes turning orange.  The only problem I have not is that the babies seem to find it greatly entertaining to pick my not-yet-ripe fruits from the vine… this could turn into a problem.

 

Since I am leaving for the Philippines in October and will not be back for 2 years, I am just taking this go around as a learning experience and taking some ideas and lessons from it to use the next time around.  

 

This is what I have to say about gardening on straw so far:

• It was insanely easy to get everything set up and get the garden going
• With the exception of the mushrooms, I have had virtually no weeds
• While my bales are now disintegrating, I have learned that 1-next time I will put some kind of support around the outside so I can get another year out of them, and 2-I will have some amazing compost for my pile at the end of this season

 

I would definitely try this again in a heartbeat with a little more research and pre-planning.

Here are some recent pics, enjoy!

Garden Update June 17, 2009

Generally speaking, my straw bale gardening seems to be coming along quite nicely, with the exception of the pest problem that I have… well that, and maybe mushrooms.  I just reminded myself that the day before yesterday I went to check on our bales and discovered that there is an overwhelming growth of mushrooms popping out everywhere!  I have decided to place blame for this on the Miracle Grow Organic Soil that I put on top of the bales.  Some of the information I had found online indicated you don’t need to do anything other than water the plants, but I decided that  I would follow the path of our family friend who had turned me on to the idea of bale gardening in the first place, and just put a little smidgen of dirt on top; it seemed like the natural thing to do.  So now I am reminded that since the sun is showing itself today, I have some weeding of mushrooms to do when I get home this evening.

 

Now back to the pests… I seem to have attracted aphids that have taken quite a liking to my little veggies.  I have been trying to research what options I have for ‘organic’ pest control, and I have decided to try a mix of Dr. Bronner’s Peppetmint soap and water in a spray bottle.  I’ll mix that up tonight and let you know how that one goes.

 

Something else that you may find of interest on the gardening subject is this:

As I was poking around this morning in the blog world, I came across Premeditated Leftovers, which I found to be a pretty good read.  One thing of great interest that I wish I had seen a few weeks ago before my big trip to Home Depot for yard tools and such, is this great video on making your own composter for less than $30!  What great ideas!

 

For your viewing pleasure, I will try to get some pictures of our progress, and sqautters, posted very soon!

We All Need A Little Marjory June 2, 2009

Did you ever watch Fraggle Rock?  Do you remember Marjory the ‘trash heap’?  I don’t know why I always recognized her as being a compost pile, and not just a trash heap, but for some reason, I have always remembered Marjory fondly, and she gave me a greater respect for Jim Henson; he was great for more than The Muppets.

 

I’ve written before about my love of being green.  I treid to start a compost pile in the backyard when I was in high school, but the neighbors weren’t very appreciative; the husband asked me to clean it up because the wife’s home day care children were attracted to it.  Being that we lived in a duplex at that time and we shared the back yard, I complied with his wishes.

 

That was well over 15 years ago, and while I had often thought of starting another pile, I didn’t really ever have a good place for one.  I generally rented non-single family places that weren’t very conducive to compost piles.

 

Last year while we were looking for a place to call our own, our town was offering compost bins that had been featured on Oprah, FOR ONLY $15!  I can’t even begin to descibe to you the excitement that I had when I heard this.  I promptly got on the waiting list and could not wait until I had a place to set it up!

 

Now that I have been using it for almost a year, I have decided that I would prefer to compost the old fashioned way (sans bin).  While the bin is somewhat compact and can be a little more pleasant to the eye, I have had quite the trouble keeping the animals out of it, and because it is so tall, it is hard to give it a thorough turning.  I stopped at Home Depot over the weekend and picked up some plastic poultry netting and poles so that I can get a pen of sorts set up and see how that works out for me.

 

I decided to post the bin on freecycle, and I have been overwhelmed at the number of responses that I have had!  I think I may send an email to the town to find out if they have any plans of doing another program like they did last year.  At any rate, I am just amazed at the number of people who have piles that they want to get into bins, or people who want to start a pile.  After doing some research, I found that if you do it properly, there really is no benefit to having a bin other than it may look a little neater.  This is not a problem for me as I had the bin behind the garage and I plan on keeping the new pile there as well.

 

At any rate, I was wondering if any of you have had experience with composting, and what your thoughts/preferences are.  For those of you who have considered it but have never acted, here are some great websites I found that may give you the motivation you need to get started, it really is easy!

Create Your Own Compost Pile

Composting for the Homeowner 

Garden Guide to Composting