Planting Has Begun 06.05.17

From the left to the right around the back of the garden; we planted peas, jalapeños, lettuce, parsley, celery, spinach, radishes, chard, kale, more lettuce, carrots, chamomile, volunteer calendula.  Through the center rows I have planted broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, cabbage, more carrots, lettuce and spinach, dill, chamomile.  Off to the far right is bush beans, cucumbers, zucchini, and pumpkins.

The beds are slightly larger this year to allow for the larger crops to be in the center and the faster growing crops to the outside.  Is anyone else as garden fickle as I am??  Each year I always try some new layout and then journal the results in my garden log to refer to later.  Some things work really well and others are an epic fail.  

This year the General Manager is trying something new in the garden.  I think he secretly enjoys getting his fingers dirty in the dirt, even if he won't admit it to anyone else. . .  According to Modern Farmer straw bale gardening is great for those gardeners who are faced with the start up expense of raised beds or want an ideal growing container for vegetables.  We have this stubborn spot behind our pea trellis that just isn't big enough to plant anything - last year it grew potatoes, but it was extremely hard to keep weeded a weed magnet and the soil is very poor in this area.  Needless to say our potato harvest was low.

So, when you are dealt tricky problems in your garden, you have to be creative.  To get started he wet the bales down - more like soaked them!  Then he covered the tops with composted manure, bone meal and fertilizer.  Two weeks waiting time is necessary to start the breakdown phase of the hay and then he's going to plant the potatoes into the bales.

Bone Meal

When the harvest season ends, the bales will be soft, saggy and gray — but that’s exactly what we want. Because piling the straw together and leaving it to compost over winter, will give us a mound of beautiful compost to fill all of our pots and planters next spring.

Has anyone else tried straw bale gardening?  If so, leave me a comment and let me know if the bales were successful at growing whatever you planted in them.