Straw Bale Gardening Update

Here's an update to follow my last post about our straw bale garden.

Yes, there were problems - beginning with the four footed antlered kind.

We now have a motion activated sprinkler that goes off when these guys walk by.  We haven't seen them in a month or so.

Then there was near death.  For a while there, I was afraid it was going to be a terrible failure.  The squash and pumpkin seeds sprouted, coming in all green and pretty, and then the leaves turned yellow.  The tomato plants got yellow and stunted and did nothing.   The peppers pretty much gave up life.  I didn't know quite what to do.
 
I decided that maybe the straw wasn't composting well enough to give any nutrients to the plants.  We had a very wet, very cool spring and the straw was not warm to the touch inside as I had been told it would be.  I'm sure it wasn't ready to accept plants yet.

So I got some really good plant food - water soluble made for tomatoes and vegetables (Miracle Grow just grows vegetation now, it doesn't encourage fruiting or rooting) and I went to town, giving a good dose at least weekly, sometimes more often.

Here are pictures on July 4th:

 The tomatoes are not as big as the ones in my garden, but the "Fourth of July" plant on the right gave us our first red tomato a week after it's promised date.

 Still just a bit yellow, but they came through all right and doing very well now.

 We discovered that the sideways on the hill bales needed support.  They are kind of flopping over, but the plants don't seem to mind.  The plastic cover is there to give it something to lean on.

See the sad peppers on the end there?  They won't do anything this year.  Peppers that get a bad start are pretty much done.  But the zucchini in the foreground is producing just fine.

Here are pictures from July 10.  I'm happy to say that the pumpkins are continuing to do well.

And I hope we soon have more ripe tomatoes!