Straw Bale Garden 2018

Year Five - And We're Off!!

2018 makes our fifth year of putting out a straw bale garden. Right now, we have fourteen bales conditioned and ready to go. We used locally farmed straw. Let's call our straw guy "Farmer". :) He is a very kind, middle aged gentlemen. He brought us the cleanest, sweetest, best-smelling straw you have ever seen! Seriously, after last year's fiasco with the corn husks and cobs in the straw we purchased at the local TSC, I was desperate to get some truly quality straw. Farmer delivered! <3 

We will be seeing him again this week, here in two to three days. Hubs is buying me an additional eight bales of straw for Mother's Day! I cannot even quantify the levels of excitement I feel right now! <3 <3 <3 

He has also chopped down the now-large pine tree which was such a small thing when we moved in nearly eight years ago. My yard suddenly looks a bit larger! 

Anyway, I know that I am rambling, so let me get down to the point of this blog. We have too many plants! lol Hubs thinks it is a big deal that I will even admit to that! lol I will be listing the things we are growing here in this post. But first, allow me to explain myself. I do not like to thin plants. It makes me sad to cut off potential life. (Yes, I am a "tree hugger"... That is a good thing! Shut up!) 

I prayed over each of my wee little sprouts, and gave every plant I possibly could a sixth of a tray to live in. They did very well! In fact, they did too well! haha I ended up having around 200 sprouts, seedlings, and plant starts by a week ago. I had so many that I began to sell them using FB marketplace. haha You have never seen such a silly little sale! Even so, some of my plants made their way into three different homes. 

Alright, down to business. These are the plants I am growing this year. Some will be grown in bales, others in buckets, and a couple are in the ground. (Shhh!)

VEGETABLES

Zucchini 

Romaine Lettuce (green)
Romaine Lettuce (red)

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
New Zealand Spinach

Red Acre Cabbage

California Sweet Wonder Pepper (multi-colored bell peppers)

Emerald Green Bell Pepper

Spaghetti Squash

Butternut Squash

Bush Beans

Muncher Cucumber
Tendergreen Cucumber
Broccoli

Radishes

Detroit Dark Red Beets

Scarlet Nantes Carrots
Danvers Half Long Carrots
Potatoes

Radishes

FRUITS

Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe

Congo Watermelon

Strawberries

FLOWERS

Morning Glories
Lilacs
Red Roses
White Roses

TOMATOES

(I am listing these separately because I am growing so many different kinds!)

Sunrise Bumblebee (a red/yellow striped cherry tomato of moderate size)

*Sun Sugar (best guess... small yellow/orange cherry)

*Small Yellow Pear 

*Honey Delight Hybrid (large 2" light yellow globes)

*Chocolate Cherry (an acidic cherry variety which grows to be almost brown with green)

*Red Cherry (regular old humdrum cherry tomato)

Brandywine Cherry (I am so excited to try these! I purchased this plant at the farmer's market.)

*Unknown Small Red Paste (best guess... shaped like small jalapeno peppers)

*Gold Nugget (best guess... small, orange cherry)

*Plumito (Best guess... small, dark red... shaped like bell pepper with a point at the bottom)

Black Cherry (purchased one plant at the farmer's market)

Blue Beauty (purchased one plant at the FM and can't wait to try!)

Hillbilly Potato Leaf (purchased two plants at FM... large red/yellow fruit)

Beefsteak 

Brandywine (pinkish fruit the size of a slice of bread... my favorite flavor)

Big Rainbow (another large red/yellow fruit)

Steakhouse (the largest tomato ever bred... fruit up to 3lbs! We shall see!)

Abe Lincoln (a regular red heirloom)

Yellow Mortgage Lifter (bought one plant from FM

The tomatoes with an * by them are kind of an odd story. I bought a medley of tomatoes twice from two different groceries. Both times, I liked the cherry tomato flavors, so I harvested seeds from one of each kind. I dried them out for a week, maybe a little more, and then planted those seeds in pods with the other seeds I had bought. They germinated! haha So, several of the plants I have grown on my own are literally from cherry tomato medleys out of a supermarket. ;)

So, there you have it! Everything that either is or will be in our garden this year. I cannot wait to see how everything comes out! We have been working tirelessly already since March 23rd to bring all of this about. We are very pleased with what we've done. <3