Straw Bale Gardening: No weeding, no hoeing, no tilling!
While surfing the internet in 2009 for info on raised beds, I came across a page describing gardening in a straw bale. I didn't pay too much attention to it at first, but over the next few days I came back across the article and started giving the idea some thought. We'd always wanted to expand our garden but have a drain field next to it that made it impossible without building raised beds. After a few more weeks of research on raised beds I started hunting for more information on straw bale gardening and stumbled upon Dave's Garden site. There was a bit of information accessible there without a membership and I took that info along with the original information I found and showed it to my husband. He thought it was one of the craziest things he'd seen, but was willing to give it a try. Our garden for 2009 had already been planted, but on June 22 we found a few bales at a local nursery for $4 each to give it a try. Once the bales were ready we planted a couple acorn squash and sugar baby watermelon plants.
Dave's Garden offers a 2-month subscription for $5 so we jumped on that and got access to the straw bale gardening forums and started reading up all the straw bale posts dating all the way back to 2006 where Kent Rogers, aka The Straw Bale Man, started spreading the word about his garden adventures in straw bales. By the Fall of 2009 in addition to our acorn squash, sugar baby watermelon and cantaloupe, we'd added a few bales of green beans, greens and had moved our Strawberry patch into bales as well. This year we've expanded our garden using bales and have approximately 115 bales planted. You can check out our current garden by following the link at the top "Blog: Garden 2010." We'll be keeping up with the garden's progress there. You can also find some great links under our "Favorite Links," above, including a link to Kent Roger's facebook page with some great info for those who've not subscribed to Dave's Garden yet. Once our two-month membership to Dave's Garden expired, we renewed it for a year. I highly recommend both Kent's facebook and Dave's Garden as great resources.
Dave's Garden offers a 2-month subscription for $5 so we jumped on that and got access to the straw bale gardening forums and started reading up all the straw bale posts dating all the way back to 2006 where Kent Rogers, aka The Straw Bale Man, started spreading the word about his garden adventures in straw bales. By the Fall of 2009 in addition to our acorn squash, sugar baby watermelon and cantaloupe, we'd added a few bales of green beans, greens and had moved our Strawberry patch into bales as well. This year we've expanded our garden using bales and have approximately 115 bales planted. You can check out our current garden by following the link at the top "Blog: Garden 2010." We'll be keeping up with the garden's progress there. You can also find some great links under our "Favorite Links," above, including a link to Kent Roger's facebook page with some great info for those who've not subscribed to Dave's Garden yet. Once our two-month membership to Dave's Garden expired, we renewed it for a year. I highly recommend both Kent's facebook and Dave's Garden as great resources.
Watermelons and green beans
Cantaulope
Acorn Sqash
How to get started with your straw bales
Here's the info on getting your bales started as was shared with us by Kent Rogers. Place your bales in the desired location string side down. The bales will be very heavy after treatment so make sure they are where you want them. If you have time, you can set your bales out for 4 weeks or so before planting and keep them moist so they start to cook and break down. If you need to prepare them quicker you can get them ready in about 10 days by using ammonium nitrate or sulphate (34-0-0). To do so:
Days 1-3: Water bales thoroughly
Days 4-6: Sprinkle each bale with 1/2 cup of ammonium nitrate or sulphate and water it in
Days 7-9: Sprinkle each bale with 1/4 cup of ammonium nitrate or sulphate and water it in
Day 10: No more ammonium but water down the bales
Day 11: check the temperatures of all the bales to make sure they are not still cooking and are below 100 degrees
Note: We found that when we tried alfalha hay bales that they cooked for a longer period of time and were much hotter. Make sure your bales have cooled before putting your plants in.
You can use a trowel, wine bottle, spatula, garden trowel, anything that will allow you to pry open a spot in the bale. If transplanting an entire plant, we do put a handful or so of potting mix in with our plants as we plant them. You can also start your seeds right in the bale and we do so by adding a bit of potting mix for them to start in.
Days 1-3: Water bales thoroughly
Days 4-6: Sprinkle each bale with 1/2 cup of ammonium nitrate or sulphate and water it in
Days 7-9: Sprinkle each bale with 1/4 cup of ammonium nitrate or sulphate and water it in
Day 10: No more ammonium but water down the bales
Day 11: check the temperatures of all the bales to make sure they are not still cooking and are below 100 degrees
Note: We found that when we tried alfalha hay bales that they cooked for a longer period of time and were much hotter. Make sure your bales have cooled before putting your plants in.
You can use a trowel, wine bottle, spatula, garden trowel, anything that will allow you to pry open a spot in the bale. If transplanting an entire plant, we do put a handful or so of potting mix in with our plants as we plant them. You can also start your seeds right in the bale and we do so by adding a bit of potting mix for them to start in.
A few of our planted bales
Green beans just coming up
Tomato and Basil
Tomato, Marigolds and Butterfly Visiting
Yes, mushrooms growing in your bales is a good indication they are breaking down nicely
