Hay Bale Square Garden Technique

In my garden adventures with hay bale ad straw bale gardening I have tried several different gardening techniques. While I like growing melons and gourds in the bales both are heavy feeder so I created a hay bale/ straw bale square garden technique to use with these crops.
photo credit: JBColorado

Use four bales, hay or straw. Each bale type has its strong points. Lay the bales out to form a square with an open section on the inside. In the inside you will want to make and place a trellis or stakes to hold up melons or gourds. Growing these crops vertically will take a lot less space. There will be a lot of weight on this trellis so it has to be well made. My trellis is 10 foot tall, made of metal and welded together.

Once the trellis or stakes are in place fill in the square with fertilizer. Top with straw or grass clipping and water well. This is your onsite fertilizer pit for these heavy feeding plants. I have found that by using this method my crops grow twice as fast and larger than ever before. And with melons I put two plastic milk jugs into the pit, upside down with the bottoms cut off and the cap off. This is my watering funnel to make sure they get enough water.
photo credit: gui.tavares

Now it’s time to prepare the bales for planting. This link will give you the bale preparation method.

Plant three plants in each bale. I plant them near the back and plant flower in the front for color and to add interest to the garden.

The only point I must stress is to make sure you have the trellis or your vertical stakes very secure! It makes a mess when they fall, and yes, this is experience talking.

You can let the melons or gourds lie on the ground and make a unique looking garden but it takes more space and insects will be harder to control. If you decide to let the produce sprawl on the ground, mulch the ground to keep the weeds down, add a few flowers and some garden art and it will make an interesting garden.

Hay bale gardening or Straw bale gardening has many positive aspects. Its worth giving it a try, particularly if you have poor soil or trouble getting a garden tilled.

Technorati Tags: creative gardening, hay bale gardening, raised bed gardening, Straw Bale Garden

A newspaper ad about a house that was being torn down has lead to a new project, starting shrubs from clippings. I went for interesting wood and any salvageable stone, banisters or windows. I must admit I found some interesting items.

Wonderful bushes that were going to be destroyed also surrounded the house. I thought about digging them up but hauling them would be a lot of work so I asked if I could clip them before the house came down.

My plan was to start small shrubs with cutting and liquid growth hormone. These shrubs will take a new to get to a useable size. I will plant some near the house and in the perennial garden area and the rest I will sell.

Yesterday I took up 15 plastic bags and went to work. There were azaleas, two varieties of rhododendrons, weeping cherry, Yew, a low evergreen pine ground cover and a shrub that I will identify later today with the use of my catalogs or local greenhouse.

I started by clipping off healthy green growth on the shrubs in sections that were six to eight inches long. I put the clipping into different bags for each type of bush. I collected 10 bags in total and figure this will start around 1000 shrubs.

Tonight I assembled my planting beds. They are made of salvaged wood and are 12 inches wide by twenty inches long and 4 inches deep. I filled them with left over sand from when the swimming pool went in. So far I have no additional money for my project. But I needed liquid growth hormone and found some at Wal-Mart on sale for $5. This will be more than enough for the project.

Tomorrow I will strip down the cutting and start on the first step for getting the cutting growing. Check back to see how this project develops. Clippings take about 3 month to develop nice sized roots so this is a late fall and early winter project.

Tags: free plants, start your own plants from cuttings

Recently I picked up everbearing strawberry plants. I hadn’t planned on growing strawberries but the price of berries keeps rising and I am concerned with the chemicals larger farms use in production. I also found them at a greenhouse auction and could not turn them down.

I have heard berries can be rather difficult to grow but I also heard if you set up the planting bed properly they are easy to grow. So we will find out.

There are many varieties of strawberries but they fall with in within three main type categories: June Bearing, Day Neutral and Everbearing. I have the everbearing variety and the plants are very healthy.

For my new garden I have decided on a round raised bed, first to be one layer than later to be a tiered garden. I rounded up some free bricks up at the neighbors and have selected a sunny area with abundant sunshine.

I also chose an area with a slight slope to help with drainage. Note: The planting area should not be a place where other crops have grown, such as eggplants, tomatoes, peppers or potatoes, because they are sources of root rot fungi that can kill strawberries.
 
I f you are selecting a new area you need to make sure the grass and weeds are dead. Since my plants need to go in the ground as soon as possible and I can’t wait two weeks for the grass to die off I am covering the area with cardboard to choke the weeds. By using bricked and a raised bed will build a fresh soil bed that has the proper fertilizer needs for strawberries.

I will add old manure, compost and leaf mold and stir well. I will also check the soil to make sure it has a pH between 5.7 and 6.3. I know that I will have to add some limestone to the mix, as my areas soil is always acidic.

Note: Make sure you buy your plants from a reputable nursery or greenhouse to ensure your plants are certified as disease-free. There is no sense bring home plants that are sure to die or produce poorly.

My plants will go in the ground tomorrow and when I plant them I will dig the hole 1.5 times larger than the plant’s roots. After I place the strawberry plant in the hole I will fill in the hole with soil to secure the plant and firm the soil in place.

Tip: If you are planting multiple strawberry plants, place them in a row, leaving about 18 inches between each plant. The rows should be 3 to 4 feet wide.

My plants will be placed 18 inches apart in the circle and this summer the center will be left open. I may possibly place flowers or a piece of garden art in the center for color and fun.

I will water the strawberry plants once they are planted and give them a boost of manure tea to help with transplant shock.

Tips:

1. It’s important to water the plants on a weekly basis with approximately 1 to 2 inches of water. This will give you juicy strawberries.
2. The most important thing to watch out for with strawberries is root rot fungi, which can be prevented with healthy soil, good drainage and sun.

To me strawberries bring back childhood memories of summers and parties. We always had fresh homemade biscuits and ice cream topped with locally grown strawberries.

Tags: growing strawberries, preparing a strawberry bed, properly prepared soil, healthy strawberry plants