Straw Bale Garden Part V: Growing Vegetables

...e bales are growing. I got a late start on planting–I put in the tomatoes, squash and basil in mid May/Early June–just in time for the cloudy, cool weather we have here in early summer. Check out the difference between the tomato I planted in a bale on the left, compared with a tomato in one of my raised beds. The tomato in the bale is doing a lot better. The bales are home to organisms that support healthy vegetables: mushrooms and worms. When I...

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Straw Bale Garden: What I Learned

...I learned from the experiment: Plants that suck up a lot of nitrogen, like squash, do well in a straw bale garden. My tomatoes flourished but, due to the high nitrogen, made more leaves than fruit. I’m not saying you shouldn’t plant tomatoes in straw bales–results will be better than in poor soil, but it’s hard to regulate the amount of nitrogen when prepping bales. Stake the bales. They will fall over eventually. I knew this but was too lazy to a...

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2013 in Review Part II

...s of life. And I got my Ham license–KK6HUF. December I harvest one big-ass squash out of the straw bale garden we planted in the spring. In the ongoing post-modern funhouse of mirrors that is the interwebs, reader Molly informs me that Home Depot put our straw bale garden on their Pinterest page. Maybe I’ll get a free orange bucket, a unhappy flat of petunias or an ugly set of patio furniture as a kickback. That big-ass squash is a reminder of how...

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110 A Report from the 2017 National Heirloom Expo

...me the chance to talk to some really interesting folks including: Hawaiian squash farmer Anna Peach of Squash and Awe Farm. Ashley Madrone who represents Mycopia Mushrooms and Bay Area Green Tours. Peter Gilmore, executive chef of Quay and Bennelong in the Sydney Opera House. Here’s Chef Gilmore at work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OxA_W90Spo If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an e...

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How To Stop Powdery Mildew

My winter squash has what Mud Baron once described as “jock itch for plants:” powdery mildew. I’ve tried all kinds of notions and potions in the past, but this year I decided to see what the science says about powdery mildew. Our climate where I live in Los Angeles is, unfortunately, ideal for producing this vexing fungus. IPM Let’s begin with some condensed advice from UC Davis’ Integrated Pest Management page: Preventative measures: grow resist...

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