Has anyone tried the straw bale garden method to grow their veggies? I have been looking online for a few months now reading as many articles as I can about this and I think I am going to give it a try.
The only thing I haven't decided on yet is the method of preparation for the bales before planting.. There are a few to choose from.
I would love to have a garden that looked like this.
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| A great face book page. So much info here My favorite place for answers. |
The first one I read about says you have to prep the bales by adding some very high Nitrogen fertilizer to the bales every few days and keep the bales moist. This makes the bales start to decompose (compost) and once they are cool on the inside to the touch and no longer hot you can plant directly into the bale. This however is if you do not want to go organic. I'm not sure yet about that.
The organic method suggests using bone meal or blood meal as the Nitrogen source. Either of these would of course be a chemical free option. The draw back to this method - I read that blood meal will attract animals, especially dogs, who will go to great lengths to dig in your bales because once watered the bales will smell like blood. That does not sound good since we have a few dogs and cats wandering the neighbourhood on occasion and I would hate to have my plants destroyed. You can't really blame an animal for following it's nature. Besides dogs, we have wolves and foxes in this area. I don't want to attract any of those.
While I was researching my compost I read that coffee grains are very high in Nitrogen and I thought maybe I could sprinkle some over my bales to get them going . I know they are supposed to keep cats away (a bonus) and there's a Timmie's close by so I could get some there. And they are natural so Organic?
The last method I found was to just put the bales out in the weather and let them decay naturally just keeping them moist. This method takes a very long time and I really want to try a couple of bales this year so not this year at least. I could get a few more bales in the fall and put them out for next year if this works here like I'm hoping.
Here's a link to an easy read article. I think this was one of the first I read.
Reasons I want to try it?
no tilling - no hoeing - no digging - easy access
takes less space - works anywhere
you don't have to have great soil
and you can grow almost anything
Plus the cost of straw bales is far less that building raised beds and filling them with a good growing medium. But you could frame in the bales and have instant raised beds to use every year. Click on the pic at the top and see how wonderful having a garden like this would be.
I've already started a few tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers so I have to plant them somewhere. I'll let you know how this turns out.
You might also like to read this article. It covers Straw bale Conditioning step by step which is how I think I will do mine. You can also read part 1 and part 3 and there is a ton of info on the whole straw bale garden thing. I loved it.
Have a great day everyone and happy gardening.
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