Straw Bale Gardens How to info and Tips

Straw Bale Gardens are among the many "no till" garden methods practiced by more and more people recently because of the surge of interest in growing your own vegetables.  A few of the benefits of growing on straw bales range from fewer weeds to not having to bend over as far to plant and harvest.  There are many people on the internet showing people how to do this, but all of the ones I've seen have used chemical fertilizers to prepare their bales.  Not only does this make no sense, but it also makes no sense.  And it's also senseless.  I grow my own vegetables to get away from putrid chemicals and poisons.  Putting chemicals on the soil in any form kills the worms and soil life that is supposed to be breaking down the straw to make compost and fertilize the plants you are putting in the bales.  So, here is my step by step instructions on how I did my straw bale garden last year.  At the end of this post, I'll update you on my experiences from last year.

Step one:  Procuring your bales.  Look for bales that are straw for animal bedding or hay that has gotten wet or is too old to use for feed.  People are usually willing to get rid of these for cheaper than buying bales at a store.  Around here, hay or straw can be $5 to $7 a piece.  So doing a whole garden could get crazy expensive.  We found ours last year on Craigs List for $1 a bale because it was just weeds and wild grass that was baled.  The man even delivered it to us for $10, which was reasonable considering what we paid for the bales.  I think we bought 50 bales all together.  It took 2 loads at $10 a load, so we paid $70 for 50 bales.  Worth every penny when you consider what a rototiller costs to buy or rent.  Plus, we have leftovers for this year because we didn't use all the bales and stored them under the awning for the winter.

Step two:  Arranging your bales in the garden.  I put them flat on the ground, 2 deep in long rows where I already had raised bed gardens filled with compost that had pretty much disappeared over the years.  I put newspaper or cardboard under each bale so weeds would be smothered.  This step was not needed though.  The bales smother the weeds just fine by themselves.  Plus, you want the worms and bacteria to get to the bales to help them breakdown.  Use your own judgement when arranging your bales.  I found that a row two deep is not too wide to get to when planting or harvesting.

Step 3: Soaking and getting them to decompose.  You'll want the bales to compost while you grow things in them so your plants will get fertilized as they grow.  I put a layer of chicken pen compost on top of each bales to get things started, but you don't have to do this step.  If you have time ahead of you, just water.  In a rainy season, you won't have to water as much, but to get them prepared, you must keep the bales evenly moist to allow decomposition to happen.  I started in early May last year and they were ready to plant about 3 weeks later because I added compost.  Keep the baling twine on the bales also, you want them to stay together on the ground.

Step 4:  Once you are ready to plant, there are a few things you can do.  Plant directly in the bale, or into a handful of compost stuck into the bale.  I found that already established plants did much better in the bales, but my squash and cucumbers did come up by just putting seeds into the straw and letting the seeds come up.  Another fun thing I did was plant things like beans into the sides of the bales.  Planting the sides adds extra growing footage.  I like the trailing flowers or vegetables in the sides so they fall over the side and plants on the top of the bales can go upright.

One thing I noticed about this gardening method was that I had to water everyday.  The bales dry out fairly quickly.  Of course last year we had a record number of days with absolutely no rain, and this year is the opposite.  We used a lot of the water from our rain barrels last year. But it wasn't enough.  Another problem we had was slugs.  They were so in love with the straw and they kept devouring smaller plants.  Eventually though, these mushrooms started to pop up just at the same time at night that the slugs and snails do.  I think they are ink top mushrooms or something and the slugs left my plants alone to chew on the mushrooms.  Nature has a way of taking care of stuff like that.  I don't know if the snail and slug problem was the result of the straw or not.  I did have old logs around each garden bed and that seems to attract them too.

This year, I am planting flowers on straw bales in the front yard.  I'm going to see if I can fill the top and sides and make it completely full of blooms.  The areas that we planted the bales last year have broken down, so I sort of flattened them out and I'm going to plant in the loose straw.  I took the ties off and spread around the straw.  I'm also going to use the straw this year as a mulch instead of planting the tops of the bales.

All in all, we had fun learning this whole technique.  It still is the very best way to eliminate weeds in your planting.  That worked like a charm!  Until next time, happy planting!

A line of straw bales this winter.  I had my summer squash growing here last year.  I may plant potatoes here this year.

Close up of broken down bales.  New ones are in the row behind.

New bales put down this year on the left.  Last years bales untouched and broken down. 

This bed was hay bales until I shmooshed them all up over the winter and planted nigella flower seeds.

Making Wild Thistle Juice to detox yourself and weed your garden

 I thought I'd tell you about something I love to do in Spring when the weeds start coming up all over the garden.  I'm an avid wild food forager and I love learning about new things I can eat that cost me nothing and that grow in my back yard, pesticide free. 

I've been all over the internet looking for benefits of eating this wild plant.  Of course, as with many other things that most people think of as a backyard nuisance or weed, there isn't likely to be much research done on it's usefulness. 

 However, thankfully the Native American Indians always used plants around them and there has been research done on their uses.  They used the thistles as a tea or food to treat neuralgia and overeating.  They also steamed them to shrink hemorrhoids and to treat rheumatism.  They are rich in vitamins A, B & C and contain some minerals.  Of course, I always use common sense about where plants are grown.  If they are grown in good fertile soil, they of course will have more of the good stuff in them.  If you pick your weeds in an abandoned junk yard where motor oil has spilled on the ground for 30 years.... well, you get the picture.

 Most thistles that grow around me are edible, so here is what I do with the thistles that take over my garden every spring.  If you can't beat em, eat em!

 I just take my machete and my garden gloves out to the patch where the thistles are growing.  I pull them up root and all.  If they don't cooperate, that's why the machete comes in handy...  slice them under the soil so as much of the root comes with the plant.  That way you have a better chance of the thistle to not come back.  Thistles, left to flower can release thousands of seeds in just one year.  The next year they will be all over your garden.  It is best to keep them in check.  Another reason to eat them....

 Here's my harvest of Canada Thistle. There are many different kinds of wild thistle.  Do your own research on this before eating any wild vegetation, of course.  The thistles that grow around here are sow thistle, milk thistle, canada thistle, bull thistle and many more.  These are common names for these plants, and each state or region has their own.

 I use a big bowl of some sort, but I always have more thistles than I could ever use.  You can see from the pictures my garden uses all manner of covering the ground as nature intended.  Wood chips, pine needles, leaves, straw.  Covering the ground adds benefits like nothing else. 

 The boys help me wash all the dirt off.  Most of the time I bring in catnip from the garden so they think I'm hiding catnip in between the leaves of thistle somewhere...

 The Baby inspects...  He loves running water so of course he is in any sink that is flowing.  He plays with the water and tries to bite it.  Life is so much more fun with cats.

 I use a juicer that I bought from Ebay for a fraction of what it cost new.  It was slightly used.  Probably something someone got as a gift, used it once and thought it was too much trouble.  Juicers are a bit clunky.  They take up lots of room.  They are a pain to wash.  You have to wash the bits of vegetation off the inner parts immediately or it's a nightmare to get them off.  I use a little brush that is used to clean vegetables.  That gets all the bits.  My juicer is a Jack Lelain juicer.  Sorry if I misspelled his name. I like this one because you can juice greens really easily.  Some juicers I've had in the past just spit out most greens without actually getting the juice out.  I love watching the infomercials on this juicer.  Jack was a cool guy.

Of course, if you do not have a juicer, by all means, don't omit this healthy stuff from your life!  Use your blender.  Just add a small amount of water and mix.  Then strain out the pulp.  I use cheese cloth or a jelly bag.  You can buy jelly bags anyplace you'd buy canning supplies.  They work great for all sorts of straining and you can wash and reused them. 

 I am also using some cleavers in this mix.  Cleavers are a great spring tonic for detoxifying the lymph system.  I try to change up all my vegetables to get everything during the week.  If I keep eating healthy, I can drink more wine!  It's all about give and take, you know? 

 The first drop of juice!

 Roots and all!  Don't worry, the pricklies aren't in the juice when it's finished.  If you are worried about getting those nasty needle like thingys stuck in your throat, you can strain the juice when you're finished.  Use a jelly bag or cheese cloth like a said before.  Coffee filters will do the trick, but it will take a month for all the juice to go through.  Plus, the pores in a coffee filter are too small and I'm afraid the good fiber and pupl and minerals will be strained out of your juice if used.  You want a little of the fiber left in it.

 Cali is sniffing to make sure she doesn't need this in her diet...

 And the finished product!  It's so pretty.  Tastes like wheat grass but a little wild.  You don't need much of this stuff.  It is very potent and detoxifying.  Lots of good vitamins to keep you going!  

If you don't like the taste of grass or other wild stuff, you can juice an apple with this to sweeten it up.  Or if not using a juicer, add juice to the blender instead of the water.  Whatever you have to do to get this down!  Bottoms up!

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