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!
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!
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| A line of straw bales this winter. I had my summer squash growing here last year. I may plant potatoes here this year. |
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| Close up of broken down bales. New ones are in the row behind. |
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| New bales put down this year on the left. Last years bales untouched and broken down. |
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| This bed was hay bales until I shmooshed them all up over the winter and planted nigella flower seeds. |
going to try this! Thanks for the instructions!
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