STRAW BALE GARDENING
Well folks we its a new year and its fine time to start planning that garden for 2011. Today we are gonna look over straw bale gardening. I am looking at adding the straw bale or SB gardening method to my gardening approach this year. For one I think they look attractive, plus they seem to be less work than working the soil. Its a great idea for those interested in setting up that first garden this year.
Using a SB garden is like creating an instant raised bed. I love raised beds because they make gardening a little easier. The beds sit higher off the ground, so its less work to bend over. You can also build a raised bed over bad soil, or have a bed over something like concrete. Using the bales, you get free nutrients as the bale compost over time. You can have a good composted raised bed after a year or two if you build something around the bales to make a constant raised bed.
Hay vs. Straw.
I find Hay is easier to find. I can look on craigslist and see all types of hay listed, and in my area it sells $2-4 a square bale. I’ve bought straw at a local store for $6 a bale, but figure I could ask around craigslist to find it cheaper.
Straw is the stalks of cut cereals, like wheat. Most of the seeds have already been harvested off of the stalk. You will get the occasional wheat growth, but its easy to pull these up. Straw is usually used as bedding for animals. Its no different than dried leaves, or newspaper as a compost material.
Hay is grass that has been cut and is used as animal feed. It will usually contain seeds of the grasses. It is high in nutrients, as it is a green compost material, but with all the grass seeds it can be a pain keeping the unwanted weeds out.
Getting Started
When getting your bales you’ll want to give them some time to cook. Basically this means to compost them some. If you plant too early, your plants will be cooked and die, so start your bales a few weeks or months early. Getting older bales from farmers is great.
1. Put the bales where you want your garden. Leave the bales in 1 piece, don’t take the twine or wire off. Lay them down so that the wire is horizontally across the sides of the bale, and you can see the straw vertical.
2. Water your bales for 5-7 days. Some people say to add nitrogen fertilizers at this time to straw bales. Being organic you may want to look at blood meal or fish emulsions. Even adding compost to the tops of the bales would help get some good bacteria growth inside the bales. This cause the heat. If using hay, you may want to add a plastic cover to help over heat and kill the seeds.
3. After 10 or more days, the bales should be cooled down enough for you to plant. Make holes, add a little compost and drop in your transplants. If growing things from seeds, add a layer of compost to the top of the bale.
Final Thoughts and video links.
I like the idea and look of these gardens. Here is a link to a google search.
Here are a few youtube videos’
Feb 16, 2011 @ 18:17:58
Now that a new and interesting method of growing a garden.
I will be getting a few bails of old grass hay for use as litter, nest material for chickens and rabbits and bedding for my 2 barbados sheep soon.
I will give this a test run this year planting a few herbs in /on a bail of grass hay.
Thanks for a new {to me} gardening idea.
Feb 17, 2011 @ 12:21:15
Hi: Just read your article about using straw or hay. Go with the straw, ot os ,ich better. I tried it several years ago, but did not feed the plants any and they just grew tall with no fruit. Keep us posted .
Feb 18, 2011 @ 04:13:41
Keep checking back, more gardening methods are coming up. When I first saw the straw bale method a few years ago, I think I had seen something where people had these in greenhouses and feed them much like a hydroponics system. I’ve heard of similar systems using saw dust as the medium. I think with plenty of compost added to the mix, or compost tea when watering can help give the plant plenty of the other nutrient needs.