Here is a photo of the beginning of my straw bale bed. I've already started the nitrogen treatment of the straw. I will do that for a couple of weeks and then let the bales sit until mid March and hopefully begin decomposing in the center.
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/IMG_2688.jpg[/img]
This is a photo of my garden as it looks today. It kinda resembles Guantanamo Bay prison when nothing is growing. Since I am primarily a vertical gardener, it looks pretty good when everything is covered with veggies. I erected the eight foot tall tomato trellises for the spring garden to keep the tall tomato plants from sprawling all over the place in the fall.
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/IMG_2685.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/IMG_2687.jpg[/img]
Ted
-
The Bearded Farmer
- Senior Member
- Posts: 105
- Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:23 am
- Location: Laureldale, PA zone 6/7
Thank You! I don't know about cool, but it looks pretty ugly to me when everything is bare. I looks good when everything is growing and producing. I always post a lot of photos of the garden when it is producing. I don't try to show the garden as much as I try to show the produce. I usually try to grow some unusual things along with the normal produce. I usually post photos of those things.The Bearded Farmer wrote:That is one of the coolest smaller gardens I've seen in a while. You should start a thread and keep everyone updated on the progress.
If you are interested, you can go to my photobucket albums page and look at some of my past gardens. It has changed a lot with new beds and stuff over the years.
https://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/
Ted
Jal,
It is meant to keep only one critter out. My big Labrador likes to harvest his own veggies. Now he has to stay out of the garden and just bark at me.
Last year we had eight of those white outs. So far this year, none. No telling what the next couple of months will bring. I was in the garden earlier today and I still have some grasshoppers jumping around. We have had a few freezes below 20 degrees F. I thought that was supposed to kill the grasshoppers.
Oh well, live and learn.
Ted
It is meant to keep only one critter out. My big Labrador likes to harvest his own veggies. Now he has to stay out of the garden and just bark at me.
Last year we had eight of those white outs. So far this year, none. No telling what the next couple of months will bring. I was in the garden earlier today and I still have some grasshoppers jumping around. We have had a few freezes below 20 degrees F. I thought that was supposed to kill the grasshoppers.
Oh well, live and learn.
Ted
-
DoubleDogFarm
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 6113
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
Ted,
To me your place looks like a play ground.
Over here the Monkey bars, and here the Swings. etc.. I actually like it, well done.
Looks like you decided to use plastic on your bale experiment or is it weed barrier? I'm thinking the bottom of the bales will become soggy. Didn't you say you wanted the worms to infiltrate? I thought that was a great idea.
Here is a picture of my ugly garden. Second round this year. Can I say I hate this shtuff.
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/DSC03066.jpg[/img]
Eric
To me your place looks like a play ground.
Over here the Monkey bars, and here the Swings. etc.. I actually like it, well done. Looks like you decided to use plastic on your bale experiment or is it weed barrier? I'm thinking the bottom of the bales will become soggy. Didn't you say you wanted the worms to infiltrate? I thought that was a great idea.
Here is a picture of my ugly garden. Second round this year. Can I say I hate this shtuff.
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/DSC03066.jpg[/img]
Eric
Ted,
I think they just hibernate. Years ago, I had a job delivering beer and hanging up lights and signs (for PBR). Loaded up the fan one winter day, took off on a trip. Looked the rear view mirror and saw several wasps flying around. They had nested in the cardboard and when the van warmed up, they woke up.
Saw something similar a couple of years later. Wasps had built a nest under an eaves. We had a huge snowfall and the temps plummeted into the negative area. But it was a very sunny day and the sun hit the snow at a perfect angle to reflect it to the nest, warming it up. The wasps woke up and decided it must have been spring, so they left the nest. Once they were outside the "heat zone" and into the -5 temp, they hit the ground and either froze or went back to sleep!
Mike
I think they just hibernate. Years ago, I had a job delivering beer and hanging up lights and signs (for PBR). Loaded up the fan one winter day, took off on a trip. Looked the rear view mirror and saw several wasps flying around. They had nested in the cardboard and when the van warmed up, they woke up.
Saw something similar a couple of years later. Wasps had built a nest under an eaves. We had a huge snowfall and the temps plummeted into the negative area. But it was a very sunny day and the sun hit the snow at a perfect angle to reflect it to the nest, warming it up. The wasps woke up and decided it must have been spring, so they left the nest. Once they were outside the "heat zone" and into the -5 temp, they hit the ground and either froze or went back to sleep!
Mike
Thanks Eric!
I love the look of your garden under a blanket of snow. It looks peaceful and resting. All you need to enhance the photo is a cabin in the background with smoke from the fireplace rising into the gray sky. It would make me want to wrap a quilt around me and sit reading a book and sipping my coffee.
I haven't made my mind up on the plastic. I installed it while I am doing the nitrogen treatment. I don't want all the nitrogen running out the bottom before it does it's job. I have a couple of months before the bales will be planted and I will probably remove the plastic at that time. I wouldn't expect the worms to migrate into the bales until the soil temp increases. Right now they are staying about 6" below the soil surface.
Wordwiz,
Every day the temp exceeds 70 degrees, the wasps and house flies come out. I know the wasps hibernate in little nooks and crannies waiting for warm weather. The house flies just emerge from the maggots in cow manure and horse manure in the pastures around me. When it freezes again, they die. Grasshoppers may hibernate, but normally they are killed by cold weather. They usually lay their eggs in the soil in the fall and the next generation emerges when the soil temp warms up in the spring. I think we just need an extended freeze to kill all of them. So far, we have only had freezing temps for a few hours during a few days. Two or three days of freezing weather should do the job. I hope!
Ted
I love the look of your garden under a blanket of snow. It looks peaceful and resting. All you need to enhance the photo is a cabin in the background with smoke from the fireplace rising into the gray sky. It would make me want to wrap a quilt around me and sit reading a book and sipping my coffee.
I haven't made my mind up on the plastic. I installed it while I am doing the nitrogen treatment. I don't want all the nitrogen running out the bottom before it does it's job. I have a couple of months before the bales will be planted and I will probably remove the plastic at that time. I wouldn't expect the worms to migrate into the bales until the soil temp increases. Right now they are staying about 6" below the soil surface.
Wordwiz,
Every day the temp exceeds 70 degrees, the wasps and house flies come out. I know the wasps hibernate in little nooks and crannies waiting for warm weather. The house flies just emerge from the maggots in cow manure and horse manure in the pastures around me. When it freezes again, they die. Grasshoppers may hibernate, but normally they are killed by cold weather. They usually lay their eggs in the soil in the fall and the next generation emerges when the soil temp warms up in the spring. I think we just need an extended freeze to kill all of them. So far, we have only had freezing temps for a few hours during a few days. Two or three days of freezing weather should do the job. I hope!
Ted