Straw Bale Gardens. Who have them going???

[Crabby-Chicken]

I have been having a lot of fun with them. They seem to be growing well and have no problems with them. I may not want to water them a lot during the summer, but will have to deal with that! <br><br> The straw bale row is on the right side. 8 bales total.

 

[Valerie]

Oh wow, Kim...yours look much better than mine......

I have only seeded lettuce in one and sweet peas in one of the others.....then went to Salem for a few days & forgot to have Ken water them for me....so we will see what happens..........

I have a few more bales that are nice & mature so thought I might put some starts in them.........we shall see.

 

[weebiscuit]

I've heard several other people are doing them. I don't know much about them, so I have to ask, do you use the bales for planting the following year, or till them into the garden, or what?

 

[Bess Kelly]

I've set mine in place but, not planted a thing yet. Hope to do that within next few days...

?

Kim, yours appear to have dirt--or something dark-- on top. What/how did you plant? Closer pic? I thought that you dug into them and placed starts but, maybe you put soil on top and used seed? Could see that as a need for tiny seeds...lettuce, radish, etc. I'm looking at tomato, peppers, etc. Which would work with the separate a spot and insert plant.

Never actually set bales before but have used a raised bed with straw layers for some plants. Kinda the same idea but this is true "no till"

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

I am hoping to have enough of them left next year to reuse them then they will be compost and I will start over.

Bess after curing them, some I planted in with compost, ( making a hole, then adding a start, then compost. Some I cut out about 2"s of the straw and added compost in to plant seeds. I wanted to see what worked. I also took some nasturicium seeds and planted on the sides , poking them in, so they will trail out of the sides. Don't know if it will work! Just fun to try.

Keep me posted guys!

 

[Miniv]

We have a couple of straw bales planted with pumpkin plants as an experiment. Larry carved out holes for each plant and put in plenty of rich soil. We are also fertilizing them with some liquid fertilizer as we water. If this works we may do more straw bale gardening next year.

The rest of our vegie garden is a standard one with the soil being composted from our great horsey source.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Valerie and MA can't wait to hear how they go! It is fun to check them out. My pumpkins, sweet peas and nastursium from seeds are all up now. So we'll see how they like it!!!I put out starts of zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, basil, strawberries, thyme, rosemary and cucumber in too.

 

[weebiscuit]

Valerie and MA can't wait to hear how they go! It is fun to check them out. My pumpkins, sweet peas and nastursium from seeds are all up now. So we'll see how they like it!!!I put out starts of zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, basil, strawberries, thyme, rosemary and cucumber in too.

I googled them and read a bit about them. Why are some of you doing them? Is it because of poor soil, or not wanting to till the ground or worry about weeds?

I thought it would be fun to put one of them on each side of the barn door, which is mostly gravelly, and just fill the entire thing with wave petunias or something like that which would really cover the bale. I think I'll try one next year!

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

We do have very rocky soil. And I am greedy. I have two big raised beds, but filled them! So until I can buy one or two more I thought I would try this. Keeps me out of trouble!