Straw bale gardening

I'm getting the urge to expand the garden again. I've got two water troughs on standby, a new drill bit, and a patch of lawn I've killed with Round Up.

Someone asked me recently about straw bale gardening. Personally I don't do it - I have enough beds as it is. And I can more efficiently use the space in my beds than I could with a straw bale.

Doubt I could fit this many plants into the same space occupied by straw bales

But for those that are interested... the local weekly ag show had a nice segment on making straw bale gardens. And you can find the instructions here!

Straw bale garden - www.bonnieplants.com

Basically, you use a straw bale to create a self-contained compost unit-turned-garden. The key is to do the prep work (what garden doesn't need prep work?) and then plant something lends itself to container gardening, like tomatoes or peppers.

Happy alternative gardening!

Hope springs eternal, at least with radishes

Every year I try to grow radishes. Every year I get about a half-dozen that are edible and dozens of others that never develop correctly. And after picking all of the radishes I swear I will never try growing radishes again.

Guess what I did this spring?

Yup.

I'm going to try a few different things this time. For starters, I'm trying to fertilize every single week. So far so good. I'm also thinning them out this time. Normally I don't do that, but I had a bunch of seed that was getting old so I planted kind of heavy and the seedlings are rather crowded.

There's no way all of those little sprouts have a chance to develop those glorious orb roots. They really should have about two inches of space between plants. Anything that is underdeveloped (only primary leaves), roots over exposed, or growing crooked is getting yanked. After that it's a matter of choosing based on spacing.

Here's the same patch after thinning.

A good soak with the watering can and they will perk up again. But what about all the plants I yanked out? Because radishes are a root crop it's not a good idea to transplant them as it can cause problems with root development.

I feel guilty letting them go to waste. Conveniently though I have some volunteers for making these disappear.

Proud moment

Message from my novice gardener friend: