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

A Morning At The Farmers Market

We have lived in town now for about four years, but only just today made it out to the local farmers market. I am delighted!! It has been a beautiful day, though it started out quite crisp. :) 

We loaded up Koala in her stroller, dressed warmly in clothing and coat, and covered over with a blanket. She was quiet the entire time, squinting against the sunshine and the overall morning-ness of it. (She's my little moon child, late to bed and late to rise.) Even when we bought her a handmade plush pillow, her face didn't betray any signs of interest. lol Silly child. <3 

Giraffe on the other hand is my sun child, and was not only awake, but chipper and chatty as ever. :) She was talking a mile-a-minute by the time we pulled into the parking lot, and once we walked over to the first stand began a constant stream of "Oh Mom, LOOK! They have..." lol 

The first "Oh LOOK!" was honey. Rich, sweet, raw, locally harvested honey. :) We bought four taster sticks, which sold the product. We ended up buying their largest container, a hefty two pounds. Needless to say, we'll be just fine on this gooey sweet liquid for a while! 

Next came tomatoes, both cherry and heirloom, and a bag of fresh spinach. Following that was a soft pillow and a little coat for our dog. There were plants, too, which we hope will thrive in our straw bale garden. My intention was to purchase whatever came closest to our preferences, so now we have tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and best yet - celery! I was delighted to see the celery starts for sale. I'm going to be praying these babies to fruition, let me tell you!

While Hubs lugged my various plants back to the car Giraffe, Koala, and I moseyed along browsing. Giraffe was a constant stream of chatter and, while I was eyeing up some locally made barbecue sauce, drifted to the next booth (only a few feet in front of the stroller and in plain sight with no strangers eyeballing her) and discovered 'brownies'. "Oh Mom! They have brownies! Look, Mom, did you see the brownies? Mom, would you like some brownies?" Laughing merrily in my spirit, I handed her a five and let her buy them. It turns out they were not brownies, but cake. hehe I just love my girl! :) 

Daddy returned and sampled then purchased some barbecue sauce. I was pleased about that, because (though I am not a fan of bbq) he really does like the stuff, and I wanted something to come home with us that was just for him. 

We got back to Matt (our vehicle - Giraffe named him) and loaded up. I couldn't hold everything, but I did take a picture of some of our haul on the ride home. :) Doesn't it just look delicious?!

That was only the start of the day - the morning. :) To be perfectly honest, we ate up all of the yellow cherry tomatoes and went back to buy more (the red ones pictured) that return trip is also where we picked up the cherry tomato plant. You can see by the little box from the pet store that there is more of our day to be told. ;)