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!

If you like this sort of thing, don't forget to click the "Follow" button to follow me.  You can also see what's going on with the store and my gardens on The Blue Lady facebook page. 

Destressing in the morning, growing vegetables to lower your carbon footprint, etc

Yep, I know it's been awhile since I blogged.  Life gets in the way.  But this morning is another beautiful day.  The wind has kicked up and my scarecrow is leaning sideways.  (I'm keeping him up til Thanksgiving.  Or maybe I'll put a Santa hat on him and leave him up til January.  That is, if this wind doesn't blow him into the field)  It's getting cold and the leaves are almost gone.  This morning I gave myself permission to be still.  I have a stack of my favorite magazines that I love, GRIT, Mother Earth News, Countryside and Mary Janes Farm to name a few.  Some of the articles are redundant but I can't learn enough about gardening, homesteading, natural health, etc etc etc.  I will never call myself an expert or a "master"of anything because I am always open to learning more.  If you're a master, you already know everything and aren't open to learning.  I have talked to some of these people, master gardeners and the like, and they are closed minded and elitist.  That is more ego than anything else.
     But here, I've gone off subject...  What was the subject?
Oh, yes, permission to just "be" for a few minutes.  My little kitty Zuzu sits with me in the morning like a little angel and her presence calms my soul.  I can sit and reflect, read a few pages, talk to Zuzu, you know...  It's my favorite thing about the air turning colder.

Zuzu

    Today, tomorrow, don't wait until next week, take a few minutes to reflect and listen to the wind, pet an animal, read a magazine that doesn't have a Kardashian in it.  Reflect, learn, recharge, be.  I know with the stresses I have in my life, it helps me enormously to practice this.

Green beans are SO easy to grow, people!

   After thought for the day...  As I was reading Mary Janes Farm an article jumped out at me that I want to share.  I love statistics for some reason and this article was about a study that was done on families growing a garden. The study was done in California, but it can be adapted to anyplace I suppose.  The study determined that if 50% of the families in single family homes grew vegetable gardens that supplied half of their own vegetables for the year, the carbon emissions would decrease.  Without writing the article word for word, I can't really give you the exact amount because I am bad at math, hee hee, but you get the idea.  Just think of all the things contributing to emissions having to do with those carrots you bought yesterday.  First, the seeds the farmer buys from whatever poisonous seed company it uses and sprays it with fungicide so it will germinate in poor soil conditions.  Then, the diesel tractor the farm uses to plant, spray with chemicals, and harvest that carrot.  Then it goes on a truck to the winter storage facility and gets sprayed with another chemical to keep it preserved.  Next it goes many many miles to a store where it sits for whoever knows how long.

My grapes this year.  I had so many I got sick of eating them.  And of course I made wine.

I ate a carrot from the store last night and it was bitter.  Carrots are not supposed to be bitter.  Next, you go to the grocery store in your car that uses gasoline and they put the carrot in a plastic bag for you.  I don't need to go into the journey the plastic bag went through, you get the idea.
  The way I see it, growing some of your own vegetables is a win win.  You get really clean, nutritious produce outside your back door.

Zucchini and Summer squash is another super easy thing to grow.

  (80% of the nutrient value in most produce gets lost in 10 minutes after it is picked)  And there's a little less of a carbon footprint hovering over your pretty little head.  (Did that sound like a guilt trip?)  I'm no carbon footprint angel, believe me.  I drive 40 minutes one way to work everyday.  But I try.  And I get better all the time.  Also, growing a garden in some of the area you now mow grass also helps and if you compost your kitchen scraps instead of throwing them into the landfill, etc etc etc.  Now, that seems like a very small step, but put that in a bucket full of all the other people composting and growing veggies, then we have something...
   Baby steps.  "Be the change you want to see".
Thanks for listening to my rambling.

Straw Bale Gardens August 2016 Photo Update

I know a few of you have asked about the straw bale gardens Mike and I did this year.  I thought I'd share some photos of what they looked like in August. 

You can just barely see the straw bales under all this beautiful lush growth.  There is amaranth, purple majesty millet and tomatoes in this row.

This is from the other end.  The red amaranth is in the compost from the chicken coop and I love it so I let it seed where it wants to grow and I leave it alone. 

Straw Bale Gardens July 2016 Photo Update

The bales are almost completely covered by plants now.  We water them everyday.

No rain in July  at all.  Not even the weeds grow.

Corn growing in straw.

better view of the side of the straw bales.

Ruth Stout method of sticking a potatoe on top of the ground and covering it with straw.  This is on top of straw and growing like mad!

Doing a little sewing gypsy style

Sewing Day...

On this beautifully drizzly day, I sit in my sewing room, getting ready for the fashion show at the Blue Lady on the 26th, and I'm reminded and inspired by thoughts of my grandmother.  I am surrounded by fabric, some of which was handed down from her.  Just a few quilting pieces and old yarns.

I can still remember her sewing room.  A small room off the kitchen in the back of her old farmhouse.  I remember how it smelled, and to this day I can be at an estate sale at an old house and a smell will trigger memories of my grandmother and her things. 

I have her and my mother to thank for this curse of creativity that has made it intolerable for me to have a 9-5 real job.  It's not in my DNA to sit in an office. 
But here I sit.  (My blog is usually handwritten on real honest to goodness paper before I type it into my laptop)  We're getting a summer's worth of rain, finally, all in a span of 4 days, but I love it.  Rain inspires me, comforts me and makes me reminisce.  I always have Ruby and Pearl, the dogs and usually 2 or more cats in this room with me while I sew.  Another comfort.  An old stuffed chair sits in the corner with a chenille cover, but it's empty because the kitties prefer to snuggle in a box of old lace.  Just like me. 

Baby Morgan sitting in the chenille chair because a picture of a chair just isn't that interesting.

All of it is inspiration.  It all starts in this room filled with old tins full of buttons lining the walls.  Half finished projects, old crates stuffed full of fabric on shelves.  Tons of old rag dolls I've made that I put too much love into to be able to part with and sell.  And the fabric.  Old chenille, bark cloth, crocheted lace, embroidery.  I love it all.  This is the place to create the "one of a kind".  Never believe anyone who says she designs clothing, but doesn't even sew.  Jab.
So I will create today in the rain with a cup of tea, the buzz of the sewing machine, and memories of my gramma, Emma Zoa Morgan.  So grateful.  I mean sew grateful.  :)

If we could step back, simplify and take some advice from birds... Free as a bird, you know?

Anyone who has frequented The Blue Lady is accustomed to seeing birds for sale in almost every room of the shop.  This is no accident.  Birds represent so much to me.

Birds are the proof that everything is perfect in nature and that nature takes care of all creatures.  Everything birds need is there for them.  Being a free spirit myself, I am always questioning the extra work we make for ourselves.  Birds, however, are free.

They don't need electricity, cel phones, they don't have mortgages.  People should be free this same way.  But man disconnected from nature, decided her wanted to control everything, so he created a system where we owe some one for everything.

This is not what nature intended for us. 
So, the next time you see a bird, notice it.  Think about how it would be to be that free.  More importantly, open your mind.