Garden: Taking Stock

So I went into gardening this year viewing the whole thing as an experiment, trying five different ways of gardening so I could compare the results: the straw bale method, the raised bed method, the hydroponic method, the small containers on the garage wall (so off the ground) watered by a solar panel system, and the giant fabric bags on the ground method.  So far, the results are mixed.  I'll mention two now and get to the others in the next few days.

Fabric bags for potatos, sweet and regular.  

I followed the directions for growing sweet potato slips to the letter and we also had dozens of potatos that had grown eyes that I cut up, let dry a bit and then planted. I also filled the bags exactly right: straw, loose soil, straw and loose soil only about 5" deep and as the tato greenery got bigger I topped up the bag until the bags were full.  I tried two different sizes, the sweet potatos in three 25 gallon bags and the regular tatos in five 15 gallon bags.  Here is the sum total of the sweet potatos: 

I think I showed a picture a few weeks ago of all the red and russet potatos that grew.  There were about 30 or so, all around 1" diameter, though otherwise perfectly shaped and tasty--just not worth the real estate they took up.  Generally, I've seen a lot of people online saying that they couldn't grow potatos in our area of the country--it just wasn't hot enough for enough days.  Also, on the cooler days, it was usually clouded over.

So I think I am bored with potatos of all kinds, and will not do that again.  I am seeing a lot of damage done to the tomatos (someone is eating exactly 1/3 of every large green tomato I see growing) and I had the brilliant idea of growing THOSE in the fabric bags on the balcony, where it is piping hot all summer long and the ground hogs cannot possibly get to them.  Plus, with the amazing solar panel watering system, I can ignore them for weeks on end. (I cannot rave about solar powered watering systems enough.)

Fabric bags:  in short, I think they are ok (they certainly make dumping the bags out and reusing the soil again easy) so I will give them one more shot.  If a balcony-load of fabric bags gives us no tomatos next summer, then the fabric bags are going to goodwill next Fall.

Straw bales in the front yard:

This photo was taken yesterday when it was sunny for about 5 minutes.  (It's completely clouded over today.)  In March, when I was trying to plan out a relatively easy way to start up a garden, I strongly suspected that the soil in the front yard would be polluted.  It's nearly impossible to grow anything in it except the hardiest weeds.  I know that copper and arsenic prevent plants from growing healthily and when we got our soil tested, those were the metals that showed up at alarmingly high levels.  So, it was either raised beds or straw bales.  The idea with the straw bales is that they are WAY cheaper than raised beds (they cost about $5 each whereas raised beds cost about $40 each (and then you have to buy the soil, too) and, if you want to build them (given current tarrifs on all lumber that comes from Canada--so, all lumber sold in the US), the cost would be simply impossible.  So I went with straw bales.  Besides being inexpensive, they also completely rot down over winter so you end up amending your soil--which I really wanted to do.  So I made two rows (I think 5 bales on each side) and put up the trellis (inexpensive cattle fencing--in general, if you buy from a hardware or DIY store, the prices are outrageous but if you buy stuff from a farm supply, the prices are really low).  Then you just put fertilizer on the bales until they start to compost, water regularly and let the seedlings do their thing.  It is a very hands-off system, which I wanted, as I don't like being in the front yard as it is noisy and hot.

Well, you can see the tomatos and basil, but everything is very runty--especially compared to the tomatos (same kinds) in the back yard, which are three times the size of these.  And everything is delayed a month or so: in the back yard, tomatos are big and just starting to turn orange.  In the front yard, it is mostly blossoms still.  I can't explain it, but there you go: the plants are lush and strong and there is not a sign of pest problems (ground hogs don't like the front yard either, it seems).   But I am not going to do this again.  I think in Fall I'll just cover the whole area with a tarp, let it "cook" over winter and next year try growing "cut flowers" (annuals that bloom by the billions of you cut off the flowers as they bloom to urge more flowers to grow). I doubt cut flowers need perfect soil.  We shall see.  I think pollinators may dare use the front yard if there are a lot of flowers there. (Though maybe not--I never see bees or butterflies in the front yard--I don't even see birds there).  

You can just see the bit of black tarp in the upper left side where I have covered over about half the front yard that is mostly shaded.  It gets sun from about 11 am until 3 or so and then the trees shade it.  So I'm going to be trying to grow dry/shade things there next year.  Hostas are super easy to grow here and we never get slugs or snails (don't know why, but I have probably seen four or five tiny ones in all the years I have lived here but I think our possums (of which we have a LOT) eat them. Also, we have a skunk family that moves into our garage in the winter (I don't know where they live in the summer--probably camp in bushes) and I skunks eat snails, too. If only ground hogs were that USEFUL.