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We have had a lot of rain and a couple of the straw bales are bowing out in the middle. I know the best practice is to have all bales faced the long way going down my slight incline, but I wanted easy access to the bales. I shored them up with some boards and all is well.  The tomatoes are growing nicely and all the plants are setting fruit. 
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I am pleasantly surprised how easy it is to keep the straw bales watered. The plants are growing very well. This first shot was taken on May 25.  The photo below was taken June 3. The tomatoes are really taking off and beginning to flower.  I can almost hear the plants growing as I admire my garden. This shot was taken June 13.  The chard is very happy growing in the straw bales. Weeding is super easy, any small seeds that blew in pull right out.  The zucchini is setting flower buds. This is the first year I have grown zucchini and yellow summer squash.  Mushrooms sprout in the straw bales every time it rains. This means the bales are composting and sending nutrients into my plants. By evening the mushrooms have wilted and disappear by the next day.    Look at the fabulous fun trellises I found at Lowes! I like the tomato towers I have from Gardener's Supply and added these for additional support. The debate about pinching or not for the best tomato harvest goes round and round. After two years of pinching, I have decided to not pinch this year and let the suckers grow, thus introducing the need for more support. Supposedly, pinching leads to taller tomato plants with larger fruit and not pinching leads to wider plants with smaller fruits, but with my short growing season here in Minneapolis more tomatoes seems like the better idea. We all know you can not trust everything you read on the internet and I now believe the idea of pinching is for other growing zones and bad advice for me. I added a Miracle Grow Soaker System, purchased locally for about $30.00. The reviews had some complaints about leaks due to too strong of water pressure, but mine is attached to a hose fitting with a flow control and a timer. I have the pressure on super low and can soak the bales in about 20 minutes.   I planted Swiss Chard and covered it with bird netting to keep out the bunnies!  After several years of mushy, tasteless tomatoes and watching my neighbor have success with straw bale gardening, I sold my grow boxes and bought some straw. I learned that my tomatoes probably suffered from too much water as the grow boxes kept the soil soggy. Joel Karsten, a fellow gardener right here in a suburb of Minneapolis, wrote a popular book explaining the process of straw bale gardening. I bought the bales in October of 2015. The old farmer dude who loaded them into my vehicle asked what I was going to do with the bales. He laughed when I explained my plan and commented that "yes, all the best weeds grow in the straw piles." I set up the bales, following the instructions of the cut side up, not the folded end, and put stakes on the ends to secure them in place. I put paper bags under the bales to provide a biodegradable barrier from soil pathogens. There they sat all winter long.    Starting in late April, I followed the instructions in the book to condition the bales and jump-start the composting process. I bought regular lawn fertilizer and watered daily according to Joel's instructions. I have to say, my bales never got hot, but I also wasn't using warm water as recommended. I sprinkled about 1 inch of potting soil on the bales to prep for my planting. I bought my tomato plants on May 9, but kept them in my porch due to frosts through the week. When the weather finally warmed on May 16, I put the tomatoes outside during the day and brought them into the garage at night. The overnight temperatures were consistently around 60 degrees by May 20th and the tomatoes were ready to plant!  Betterboy Tomato 5-22-16  Chocolate Sprinkles Tomato 5-22-16  Sungold Tomato 5-22-16  Patio Tomato 5-22-16
 Clivia plant by kittycooks Clivia, also known as kaffir lily or bush lily, originates in the subtropical forests on the eastern cape of South Africa. The unique flowers caught the attention of English explorers traveling to foreign destinations during the 1800's rush to collect, name, and classify rare and unusual species. William J. Burchell, a British naturalist stationed in Cape Town, scientifically recorded the first specimen in 1813, calling it a “forest cyrtanthus”. Now known as Clivia nobilis, the plant grows pendulant tubular flowers in shades of scarlet with green tips. James Bowie, a plant collector commissioned by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, transported live plants back to England in 1822. There were two competing botanists, John Lindley and William Hooker, who published articles naming the new plant -- on the same day! While both names co-existed in printed materials for a while and rumors swirled on exactly how each acquired their specimen, over time John Lindley’s C. nobilis name presided. Nobilis means “noble person’s orchid”, and Clivia honors the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Charlotte Florentine Clive, who cultivated the first flowers in her conservatory across the river from Kew. C. miniata, the most commonly grown species today, was discovered in the early 1850’s in the garden province of KwaZulu-Natal. Breeders and collectors raved about the extraordinary flowers, creating fervent demand for Clivia as an easy to grow houseplant throughout Europe in Victorian times. Sir William Hooker, knighted after serving as the director of Kew Gardens, named a third species, C. gardenii, in 1856. Around 1888, the discovery of C. miniarta var. citrina, a yellow flowered variety, and C. caulescens, with red pendulous flowers, delighted serious breeders worldwide. Collectors introduced a cross of C. nobilis and C. miniata to Japan, Korea and China sometime between 1868 and 1912, and botanists there began to breed specialized hybrids sporting variegated leaves and unusually colored flowers. Third generation Clivia breeder, E.P. Zimmerman, brought Clivias to California, USA, when he immigrated from Germany in 1907.
A fifth species, C. mirabilis, was discovered in 2002, with a sixth, C. robusta (swamp Cliva) re-categorized as a separate species in 2004. Most breeders today cross one of the pendulous species with C. miniata, creating beautiful variations that command hundreds or even thousands of dollars from serious collectors. I paid $35.00 for a blooming size C. miniata from White’s Flower Farm in 1993 and the plant has grown from a single stem to three that bloom both spring and fall with two more not yet mature. Read about how to grow Clivia miniata here. Copyright kittycooks, January 27, 2011 29 degrees References: http://www.americancliviasociety.org/articles.html http://cliviasociety.org/history_of_clivia.php http://www.cliviadecoster.com/hysbel.htm http://homepage3.nifty.com/plantsandjapan/page074.html http://www.shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/clivia.html Compost has a long and fascinating history. Did you know the earliest record of using manure for farming is found on an Akkadian clay tablet dating back to 2300 B.C.? The Bible references compost as “trampling straw into manure” in Isaiah 25:10 and in the parable about the fig tree, Luke 13:6 – 13:9.
Layers of alfalfa dated to 6000 B.C. found in southern Iran point to long-term human knowledge of the value of compost. Archeologists interpret the evidence that people kept animals based on milk in pottery shards and turned alfalfa into the soil in addition to feeding it to their livestock. William Shakespeare references compost/manure in Richard II (line 2098), Henry IV, Part II (line 2683), and this quote from Othello (line 677): “Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.” The Romans used alfalfa to “dung the land”, as written in “De Re Rustica”, a 12 book treatise on farming by Lucius Moderatus Columbella written in AD 60 – 65. George Washington committed himself to the practice of rotating crops and built a dung repository. In 1796, Washington said, “Let others rake, and scrape up all the trash, of every sort and kind about the houses, and in the holes and corners, and throw it (all I mean that will make dung) into the stercorary”. Washington subscribed to John Spurrier’s principles as outlined in “The Practical Farmer”, 1793. Sir Albert Howard published “An Agricultural Testament” in 1943 and was the first to write about the formula of one-part greens to three-parts browns, layered and turned frequently. J.I. Rodale continued Howard’s composting research and shared his views with the American public in “Organic Farming and Gardening” magazine in 1942. The first chemical fertilizer plants developed in the 1920’s. Commercial farm yields have increased dramatically and the price of fresh produce dropped. Proponents of organic gardening believe that heavily-farmed, chemically fertilized, pesticide treated soils correlate to the decline of minerals in our foods and the increase of mineral deficiency diseases over the last 50 years. Soils are depleted of trace minerals found naturally in organic material, as are the livestock that are fed fodder grown in these soils; thus the foods we eat are less nutritious that in times past. Opponents point out the higher cost of organic food production and fickleness of the average shopper. Indeed, each of us casts our vote on how we'd like our food produced every time we visit the grocery store. Read kittycook’s article on how to make Compost. Copyright kittycooks, January 9, 2011 23 degrees References: American Scientist: Alfalfa Urban Agricultural Notes: America's First Composter The spring birdsong chorus ardently fills the morning air and I immediately think of Sonic Bloom. After witnessed devastating hunger as a young soldier in Korea, Dan Carlson, of River Falls Wisconsin, began a life mission to increase crop production and feed the earth’s people. Through his research, Dan made an amazing discovery. The frequency of morning birdsongs open up the pore-like stomata on leaves, enabling them to transpire out oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide and nutrients in the morning dews. Dan developed a recording that imitates birdsongs, delivered through sound systems set up in fields and orchards. An organic blend of nutrients feeds the plants when sprayed on the open stomata and the plants thrive with reduced need for irrigation. In a world with an ever-growing population, Sonic Bloom has great potential to relieve pressure on Earth's limited water resources.
For my part, I can encourage the songbirds to visit my yard by providing shelter and food. Come into my garden and sing, little birds, help my plants grow; I humbly acknowledge how little we know about the interconnectedness of all living things. Copyright kittycooks, March 27, 2010 52 degrees |
KittycooksEnjoys life as a dog walker/petsitter, professional naturalist, author, landscape designer, teacher, and artist. Archives
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