Easy garden idea

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I tried tomatoes in 15 gallon buckets and couldn't water them consistently enough ( cracks in tomatoes ) and the wind would blow them over. They got 7 feet tall. Tasted pretty good though and had plenty. My SIL tried some tomatoes hybridized for small size for pots and had pretty good luck with them on the deck. My garden went in late this year in part due to the cold, some of y tomatoes are still purple.
 
wish I could post a pic. week in on this after prep and all but the spinach have taken well. 100 % germination on beans and the cukes and squash all up.so far it's great. planted beans in checker board style per inventor of this method, 33 plant in a bale. a lot for 13 x 36 area? hope i'm still happy in a couple of weeks! thanks to OP
a few weeks later and I feel like a gardener again, everything except the spinach has gone nuts. cherry toms setting fruit like crazy with literally 200+ buds. squashes all ready to bud, bush bean 1'+, jalapeno has set fruit, great so far and it's been cool here.
 
Sounds great Doug! This thread has caught my attention and I wonder if I could get away with starting one now and expect anything this year... seems a bit late given the time from 'fresh' to ready to plant is about a month?

Any thoughts/suggestions?
 
Sounds great Doug! This thread has caught my attention and I wonder if I could get away with starting one now and expect anything this year... seems a bit late given the time from 'fresh' to ready to plant is about a month?

Any thoughts/suggestions?
figure two weeks to condition bales, I planted on day eleven. then plenty time for beans , late peas, brocc. good luck.
 
got to say this method was a complete success. we are still taking tomatoes, as we planted late stuff. italian stewed tomato Wednesday, leftover in a tomato soup. sungold cherries going on 4th month of production. second bean planting ready in about a week. biggest problem pests nothing to do with the straw. oh about 40# of butternut. thanks to bg for the OP. just update, another pint of cherries , 3plums, and 4 big boys 1:15 pm.
 
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I've been eyeing a couple of extra straw bales at work with this method in mind.
We have a garden with decent soil but I'm thinking I can toss some straw bales around in other places and plant some watermelon, squash or other space-loving plants to conserve the garden space for vertical plants.
Thanks for the feedback Doug.
 
anybody else still pickin. 4 more bigboys, 3 plum. got a butternut struggling to give one more. a bunch of sun gold cherries. time is a getting short.
 
I have zucchini that dried out, then got blight and still came back and is still offering up rewards. IMG_0242.JPG

Still picking tomatoes and I've got peppers still growing.
Butternut is mostly picked but there;s still a few stragglers.
 
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That's impressive for Mass. You've been blessed with a very mild fall. Colder wetter weather hit early this year, right after Labor Day. We ended up having the wettest Sept. on record. That brought along powerdery mildew and hints of tomato blight. We have lots of green tomatoes ripening in the greenhouse along with one Taxi tomato plant in there that is producing very nicely still. We did manage to harvest a large late crop of green beans and some late eggplants in the past couple weeks. But all that's happy now are the brassicas, chards, kale and lettuce.
 
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