Planting Squash in Hay Bales

I had some struggles last year with the hay bale gardens.  This picture below shows mouse melons in August, a time when they should have been 3 feet tall and filled with mini melon squash.  Instead they did not get bigger than a few inches!

Mousemelons in August

I believe most of the issues were simply with the climate ...I generally plant squash (summer or winter) in bales and they generally like warmer weather which we had none of.  It might also have been that they were straw and I did not use much fertilizer so they may have not had enough nutrition.

Zucchini in hay bale July 2013

This year I have new bales of timothy hay. 

Timothy hay bales

But those straw bales, since the plants did not grow well and therefore didn't break the bale down much, are still standing strong.  So I'll give them another try.  Yesterday I planted 8 sugar pumpkins, 2 into each bale in this rectangular spot. The middle is filled with dirt and will have some type of flower (last year nasturtiums, maybe marigolds this year). 

And I have several more old straw bales still standing from last year.  Good thing as I have LOTS of squash seedlings to get planted this week!

Harvest Monday: May 4, 2015

This is my first harvest of the year (small as it is) and also the first time I've ever harvested asparagus.  The asparagus beds were planted in spring 2013.  Eight crowns went into a dug garden on the south slope of my property and 4 crowns went into a raised bed (all Mary Washington variety).

I regret that I didn't spend a bit more time preparing the beds as they are already crowded with weeds and grass growing back up.  Then again, the asparagus patch at my old place was just growing up through the grass for about a decade and it was still productive and tasty.  As this is only year 3 of the patch, I don't plan to pick too much and I'll make sure to leave at least 2 or 3 spears on each plant to grow into ferns.

clockwise from top: radish leaves, kale, tsoi sim

The rest of my harvest was a result of thinning out my plants.  I did a ridiculously poor job of seeding this year and the radishes, kale and tsoi sim are totally crowded.

tsoi sim in greenhouse bed

So I thinned the plants and made a nice little salad out of what I pulled (the main photo above).  I had no idea radish leaves were edible until Michelle mentioned using them in salads or sandwiches.  I'm not sure about eating them when they are fully mature as the leaves have a funny texture but I will give them a try - and at this tender age, they were very nice!

This is also the first year that I'm weighing up my harvests.  I'm still trying to figure out the best way for me to track my harvests, but here's what I have so far (in grams).  I've only got the free version of excel so I'll have to play around with it a bit more to get the right view for monitoring my progress.

Plant and Variety Grams Kale: Nero Di Toscana 16 Tsoi-Sim 15 Radish:  Easter Egg 13 Asparagus: Mary Washington 51

May 2 - Here and There in the Yard

I seem to be very unfocused today and not accomplishing too much.  I just wander around staring at things; staring at all the things that I need to do but not doing anything!  Like the pile of soil I had delivered a couple of days ago ... 10 yards worth of soil to replenish the garden space I have and to add a couple more beds throughout the summer.

I have managed to do a few things lately.  Like moving the herbs into one of the flower gardens in the front yard.  I just wanted more space for greens in my veggie garden so all the herbs are being moved.  Actually, I started some new sage and thyme from seed this year so I might just chuck out the old plants as they are getting quite woody.   The sage, thyme plus the rosemary seedlings have all been put into their new home.  These chives were moved over from the old space and I just got this parsley in last night (with a hollyhock coming up between the two).

And I've transplanted a few raspberry canes to this new fenced area.  These plants have produced almost no berries in the past couple of years so I'm really going to baby them this year.

And I've been plenty busy in the greenhouse!

Peppers

Tomatoes

And a little birdie has been busy building a nest in my shed ... sigh, why can't I have birds that build nests in trees like other people? 

But this is what I'm mostly avoiding - I need to get this garden turned over and prepped.  I do have part of it done and already planted with onion sets but there is a lot more to do here.

So I guess I'd better get back out there and just do it!