Straw Bales are planted....Everything is in!

Pepper, Leeks, Onions and Tomatillo's with a top dressing of trailing flowers! 

The bales are done with their twelve day process of conditioning.  I mostly followed Joel Karsten directions (screwed up days 3, 4, 5 and added more fertilizer than I should have) however this is a pretty forgiving process and the bales where cooking away come day 12.  

Now this whole garden is new, the raised beds, the squash arch, and even the placement of the bales.  Strangely enough winter sunlight seems to be different than summer sunlight, in other words those darn leaves on the trees changed a lot of my sunlight to shade.  Now, it also preferable to run your bales north to south, but Jim, my husband, wasn't having any of it.  So our compromise was putting the bales on the end of the raised beds running east to west.  The problem with this configuration is if I put my larger tomatoes in the bale's (which was the plan) it will shade two of my beds.  So where in the past I've done all my tomatoes in the bales and eliminated blight issue's, that was not options for these bales.  So the bales on the south side of my raised beds, which get about 8-10 hours of sun have in them; eight pepper plants, one California Wonder, two Habanero’s, two Picante, three Jalapeno’s.  There are twenty six leeks and ten red onions as well as three Verde Tomatillo plants.  The leeks and onions I purchased as sets, the Pepper's I grew indoor under my lights and the Tomatillo's are Winter Sowed.  After reading Joel Karsten book on Straw Bale Gardening I took the challenge of trying to make my bales "pretty".  So right on the edges are Red Wave Petunia's and Blue Lobelia.  I have some trailing Nasturtium that I've started by seed as well.  As stuff fill in I keep everyone updated with pictures.  The four bales on the other side get 6-10 hours of sunlight so I planted them a bit differently.  The back two bales have Johnny Seeds Gonzales Cabbage I grew from Winters Sowing.  These are mini cabbage that are about 4-6" in diameter.  So I planted them a bit closer than what Joel Karsten recommended.  Ok so instead of 4-5 I put in 10 and then mixed a dill and Calendula to act as a buffer to the four peppers and 10 onions I put in.  I finished that last bale with three Purple Tomatillo plants.  Now I didn't plant any flowers over there as there is still a lot of garden construction going on (removal of a stupid ornamental tree).

With a bad back and arthritis in my knees raised beds were essential for me.  The six 12" deep beds with the squash arch and the soil (compost) ran a total of $350.  The eight straw bales ran $4 a piece for a total of $16.  It hard to compare the two as my raised beds are 3'X8' and a straw bale is 2'X3', but I suppose if you do it by square foot, the straw bale method for a 24 square feet is $16 and for the 3'X8' raised bed without the squash arch was $50.  However you will need to buy new bales so in four years’ time it's a bit of a wash in factoring the cost.  Now which is more productive we will see.  That is if the temperature every gets above 50 degree here! 

Straw bales are here!

Yesterday my hubby (a wonderful man) went out and picked up my 8 straw bales.  I've done my tomato plants for the past 2 years in straw bales with great success!  In the community garden they served a dual purpose of being a fence as well as a growing medium.  This year Joel Karsten wrote a book on Straw Bale Gardening (here is his web site http://strawbalegardens.com/).  Now, when the book initially came out I thought the book was $20.  For me it was a bit steep given that I've already had been using method for the past 2 years.  Yet, I want to support innovation, so there was my dilemma.  Well two days ago I got on my trusty Kindle (not the Kindle Fire) the black and white old as dirt but has over 500 books on it, Kindle.  Straw Bale Gardening on Amazon was on sale there for $10.00, which I then promptly purchased!  Strange how a few dollars makes the difference?  On the same hand this book has a TON of information in it!  Something’s I didn't know, some I did, some ideas I'm going to try.  Now, I feel kind of bad, this book is well worth the $20!    

Now here is what I've learned.  It looks like Joel Karsten has a way better method of trellising than I have used over the years so I will trying that out this year.  I've already rope my hubby into construction.  In the past I've done a Florida Weave technique and have struggled with the height issues of some of my tomato plants.  Remember the bale is already 2 ft. off the ground, so a 6 foot stake only becomes a 4 ft. stake, which for some of the crazy tomatoes is about 2 ft. short.  In the past I had to put a fence around my bales (the cheep 3 ft. kind) to keep my bales from tipping over because of the size of the tomato plants.  I think I'm still going to do this just because if I grow a 6ft tomato plant it will be 8ft in the air.  Not a good situation.  Because I had to orientate my bales in an east to west direction instead of a north to south, I'll be planting low growing tomatoes cabbage, onions, basil on the south side of the garden.  On the north side I'll plant my taller tomato plants.  

  
I'll also be starting my bales earlier next year, this year this was about as soon as it could have started because of other construction issues.  But in the future I may try and get my bales out by mid-April and with a little help have them ready to plant the first of May.  This year given the weather here in Minnesnowta I'm not sure that would have been feasible, but it is worth the try next year!

 
Other ideas I got from the book;  I'm going to be planting Trailing Petunia, Trailing Nasturtium, in the bales and 4 o'clock and tall Marigold next to the bales.  All for the beautician process!   I have a garden club member who was thinking about doing the Straw Bale Gardening but her husband talked her out of it for fear of adding some weeds to their yard.  Well as you guys can plainly see, I got weeds in my grass already (remember that's hubby's job).  My goal is to show her and everyone else that this method does not add weed to your lawn.  As I also live along one of the many paths in Champlin, this is a perfect opportunity for me to show people that this is not an ugly thing in your backyard.  

Here the final issue, my back and knees.  Two years ago when I started Straw Bale Gardening, I had no issues with my back and knees.  I was looking for a cheap fence around a big garden (60'X60').  This year, I’m struggling with a herniated disc, arthritis of the knees and a weight gain from not doing anything.  This is part of the reason why my husband built me all those wonderful raised beds.  Happy wife, happy life.  Even so, I'm struggling!  My mother, who is my hero, is 79 years old and had a hip replacement last year.  She and my dad usually go up north (north of Brainerd, MN) and have always had a pretty big garden.  This year it sounds like they will be spending the majority of their time in town at their town house, to help other family members.  We've all looked at raised beds for her, and so far have not found a good option.  I'd love if she tried the Straw Bales method, but I think I'm going to have to prove it to her first.  Right now, the plan is she not going to do her own garden (a first for her) but she come over to my house about 5 miles away and sit in the back yard with me and watch me garden.  I'll enjoy have her there, but at the same time if I can figure out a way for her to have her own garden for a couple of tomato plants next year all the better!  Until then I'll be growing for the whole darn family with a smile on my face!  

So all in all, here is me eating crow!  Buy the book!  Straw Bale Gardening by Joel Karsten, here is the link http://strawbalegardens.com/.  It well worth the price even if you have done Straw Bale Gardening for the past few years.