Straw Bale Garden 2015 - July Update

We have finally reached the current update on our little garden for the year! I am very excited about this one, so please bear with me! :) 

By July 4th, we had been having rain seemingly non-stop for weeks. You can see this reflected in the un-mown state of my yard. Yikes! You can also see that the abundance of rain had brought my garden into booming good health. 

Left to right: watermelon, green beans, cucumber, two types of tomatoes, and carrots. 

Notice that my cucumber did not take the hint and grow up the wire. They opted to grow down, sideways, and then up along the Abe Lincoln tomatoes instead. 

The watermelon began to grow down the bale too. One lonely vine grew upward along the pole and the wire.

Here is our wayward cucumber vine trailing up into my tomato plants. He's got quite a good grip on them, so we're just going to have to allow this accident to keep on happening and see what happens. ;) 

I finally looked up the tomatoes we grew from seeds taken out of tomatoes we purchased at the store to find out what kind they are. They are Campari tomatoes; larger than a cherry but smaller than a slicing tomato.

The green beans continued to flower and grow. They are Tenderette green beans. The flavor is crisp and clean. I would almost say they taste a little bit sweet, as well. 

We are harvesting these guys a small handful at a time. So far I've washed them well, snapped the ends off, and eaten them with onion dip completely raw. Yum! :)

The Campari tomatoes began to show up. I have not counted them yet, but I would guess we've got a fair amount.

This year I have taken the time to look into the plants and pinch out suckers. The plants themselves so far are tall and thin. The leaves, flowers, and fruits all seem very healthy. Again, these pics are all from July 4th so far. 

I did not check closely enough to realize that this picture is blurry or I would have re-taken it. This is an Heirloom tomato. We do not have too many of these growing so far. I am guessing that might have something to do with the cucumber plant invading their space and grabbing onto them with intrusive tendrils. Do you happen to know? 

Our carrots grew taller every day. The greens would bend and fold in rainstorms, but that did not seem to stop them from reaching for the sky.

Cucumbers began to show up on the vine. We have had slow progress with them. There were only two as of July 4th. This might have to do with the too-close proximity of the plants. 

In this second year of straw bale gardening, I have become more convinced than ever that we need to do more bales next year. One type of plant per bale seems imperative. 

Strawberries have been sprouting in fours, but ripening one or two at a time. This little guy ended up being a nice, dark red color. The flavor was rich and sweet. We may not have many, but these are some of the best tasting strawberries we've grown so far. I just wish that they would grow larger. 

Here is the most exciting part! Female watermelon finally began to appear! Each little ovary was the cause of much enthusiasm as we scrambled to catch them flowering for pollination. 

Much to our chagrin, a good four or six of them never seemed to flower! I am sure they did, mind you. It did not matter what time we checked on them. They were always closed! Even as early as seven in the morning!

The above ovary dropped off, but this little lady to the right FINALLY caught us a break! She bloomed wide open on July 8th and we got to pollinate her with a stamen from another plant. We have very high hopes for this little miss, let me tell you! These are the Allsweet watermelon variety, and should grow long and large.

Also on the eighth, we brought in a small harvest of goodies from the garden and got picture proof! haha

Giraffe was way too excited to wait and even little Koala was begging for 'koo-kummers', so we had to cut off a few of these little guys. 

We brought in four under-sized Muncher Cucumbers in all, that day. Sure, they were not any larger than a pickle from the regular-sized pickle jar. One or two were also a light green in color. Even at that, they tasted absolutely delicious! 

These are our touchon carrots. That  same day we noticed this. The carrots were sticking up out of the bales. Impatience bore fruit, and we picked them. I told Giraffe to bring any that were visibly orange and so she did. She brought in all of them but one! I am not even kidding! lol

Giraffe loves taking pictures as much as I do, so you'll notice her hands in many of them. This wee carrot was one she deemed her favorite! :) 

Per usual for the last month or so, it was raining that day. That did not bother Giraffe, though. She'd been waiting weeks for this moment and a light drizzle was not going to get in her way! :) I should have put on a coat and hood myself, but I was a bit lost in the moment. Veggies for everyone! :)

You cannot tell how deep this bucket is from the picture, but the carrot greens were easily a foot long. I think this is why what we found at the end of them was so shocking...

This, to be exact. My first-time-planting-carrots skills missed the mark! I seeded them into those pods that you get from the garden store in the little indoor greenhouse kit for starting your seeds. I sprinkled several into each pod, never doubting that the growing carrots would break through the mesh as they grew.

I think it is pretty clear that they did not break through the mesh. lol What they did do, however, is grow tangled around one another within the pod!

Instead of four to six inch carrots, we got a mangled mess of alternately very fat or very thin baby carrots. lol We had a good laugh over that! I seeded the bale again the same day - no pods in sight. Perhaps those will grow nice and deep! :)

For size comparison, I took another picture. This carrot was a bit longer than others but had a shorter set of greens. Go figure! 

They did taste absolutely fabulous, by the way. Crisp and sweet, they were an absolutely perfect snack! :)

This baby girl makes me sooo happy! I can barely even tell you! She is one of two that we hand pollinated when we FINALLY caught them flowering! You can see that she's a wee little bit thicker/rounder in the middle than previous females have been. I'm hoping and praying that this is a good sign. Grow baby, grow!!! :)

This little lady (the same one pictured farther up this same blog post) also looks like the pollination has taken! She's a little fatty, isn't she? 

We have collectively pinned our hopes and dreams for hand-grown watermelon on these two pittle gals. :) Lord willing they will continue to lengthen and fatten up so that we might have sweet, sweet watermelon this summer! 

This picture was taken this morning, so we are caught up on our gardening adventures for now. Have I mentioned that we are freak-out excited?!?!?!?! hahaha

Straw Bale Garden Update/June 2015

June 5th through June 30th

I know that this is a late update, but hopefully it will also be a short update. Maybe that will help make up for it? :) 

By the time June 10th rolled around, our seedlings had firmly taken hold in the straw bales. 

We would go out into the garden every morning we possibly could. Giraffe liked to pick the long, slender, slippery mushrooms that came up in the night. 

You might think of fungus as a bad sign, but in reality it is a sign that the straw bales are well conditioned and ready to grow. Yay! :) 

You can see the joy she takes in talking to and tending the little plants. :) Here she is communing with the tomatoes. 

On the left side of this straw bale are our heirloom Abe Lincoln tomatoes. Hopefully, they will be large and juicy when they are fully grown. 

On the right side are the tomatoes we picked up at the grocery store and liked so much we seeded and planted. 

A week later on the 17th we had finally set up poles and started to run wire between them to support our growing plants. Admittedly we should have done this much sooner in the process. Next year it will be done immediately so the plants know where to grow.

The only plants outside of the wire/pole framework are the carrots. They do not need the support, so we did not provide it. 

 June 20th saw even more wires and more plant growth. It was also in the middle of a particularly rainy patch. In fact, the last half of June was so rainy that the month began to climb the record list. I believe it ended up being the 7th rainiest month in our state history. The garden benefitted greatly, as you can tell. We had the soaker hose out where it needed to be, but truthfully did not really end up needing to use it. :)

Around this time, Giraffe began to notice wee strawberries growing in the planter. :) This is always one of her favorite times of the year. She squeaks and squeals over each new berry, exclaiming about how pretty and precious they are. Funny... I think the same things about her! :)

The cucumber plants began to flower. These are staminate male flowers. They show up before the carpellate females. This is so their pollen attracts bees (etc). 

By the time the females arrive, the cucumber plants are on the daily route of several pollinators - increasing the success rate of pollination and fruit production.

This year we have only noticed a single honeybee in our yard. Last year we had just four. This year only one, and he nearly drowned in the pool. Thankfully we saved him in time. We have plenty of wasps, but they honey bees are disappearing. Why do I mention it? 

This is tragic proof of the mass die-off that has been taking place.

Honey bees are vital to the pollination and success of plant growth, from flowers to home gardens like ours, to massive fields of America's life-sustaining crops. Companies like Monsanto are messing with the foods you consume every day. Their GMO's and pesticides are highly suspected to be behind the mass die-off that the honey bee colonies are facing. 

Look it up, friends. This is a real problem. It is not just dangerous to honeybees, it is dangerous to us. Food brought to you by the same companies who created Agent Orange. Look it up. Learn, research, and then find out what you can do to help stop this tragedy. If Obi Wan (hubs) and the HOA were okay with it, Giraffe and I would start bee keeping tomorrow.

June 20th saw the flowering and growth of our green beans, as well. I planted too many of these too close together. Oddly enough, they don't seem to mind the proximity of their neighbors and are doing very well. 

June 22nd was the last time I took photos for the month. I briefly lost my camera after that, thanks to Koala. :) I have only this final photo to share.

Tomato flowers, like other plants, contain pollen. Other plants carry their pollen on the outside of stamen growing one each inside of male flowers. Tomatoes have anthers instead of stamen: hollow tubes which have pollen inside. These anthers require vibration in order to release the pollen, which then sticks to the stigma. From there, the pollen grains grow tubes to the seeds and fertilize them. It is a fascinating process! 

Usually, the vibration of bees is enough to accomplish this. Even the soft brush of the wind can accomplish this (although not to great effect). The more seeds that are fertilized, the more fleshy the fruit. Humans have taken to providing vibration in a variety of ways to ensure good fruit production. One might 'spank' the tomatoes (as you can see Giraffe doing here) to provide vibration in the stems. You could also hold a vibrating toothbrush against the stems, or tape a pencil lightly against them. Mind you, this is never done hard enough to damage any part of the plant at any time. 

There you have it! :) We have caught up on updating the 2015 straw bale garden effort for the month of June! :)