So the straw bale grow is working...

[MiHale]

Earlier this season I found out about straw bale gardening and decided to give it a go. Had a couple of bales left over from last year so figured why not? Last year the squash beetles were very troublesome (wow, not the words I used last year) and I thought this could be a way to combat them or at least hold them at bay.

We planted densely on purpose to really test the growing capacity of a bale. So far all is going well in spite of the diminished sunshine caused by the Canadian wildfires, which cut sunshine about 30 to 40 percent overall slowing growth.


Overall view.



Butternut squash… have about 6, maybe 10 eyes weren’t too focused this morning.






Zucchini…always wanted to grow “cascading” to keep fruit straight. This is one example.



The Acorn squash is obeying gravity and growing a little elongated. A couple “volunteers” Acorn’s came up by the compost pile same seeds…growing round.

Bale:



Volunteer:
The plants



Fruit: round.