Straw bale gardening? (1 Viewer)

&that's kinda why i just asked
- it was either something that's been going on forever and i just had no idea
- or it was some new hipster thing that i didn't need to bother with

essentially it seems like it's just what it says - growing vegetables right inside the straw bale - you can put them anywhere so it is useful in non-traditional places (balconies, et al)
basically you work the straw for 2 weeks with a watering/fertilizer regimen then transplant the seedlings
very little weeding
holds moisture

i just stumbled on it, but i'm really thinking about doing it this season
 
We have a neighbor who does this, and they do it out on the boulevard between the sidewalk and the street. On the one hand, yeah - it works great, because they have the best looking roses on the block.

But on the other hand, it's an eyesore. Some of us put a lot of time and effort into growing really nice gardens in the front of our houses, because it makes the neighborhood look so nice. And then you have these doofuses piling bales of straw out by the sidewalk, and they fall apart and mess up the street and the sidewalk and look like hell.

But that's not a knock on straw bale gardening. That's a knock on those dumb neighbors. Even though the 2-foot wide boulevard is not the best place to pile bales of straw, the important thing for the purposes of your question is that it really does seem to work well for their flowers. It's the question of form versus function. Yeah, it may not be all that pretty if you put it out in a nice flower garden, but if you want to get the best and the biggest flowers and vegetables in your backyard, hell yeah. Go for it.

I kind of noticed this way back when i was a kid. If we left a hay bale sitting out behind the barn or something and forgot about it, the next year I'd notice that the plants that were growing out of that hay bale were twice as big and healthy as the plants that were growing in the ground next to it. I mentioned that once to my uncle Wilbur (yeah, I really had an Uncle Wilbur), and he said it wasn't any thang. Said all his life growing up on a farm, everybody knew all about how well that worked.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized people were starting to do it on purpose, and turn it into a gardening method. I think the medium is a perfect balance between good drainage and good moisture retention, and liberates a lot of nitrogen as the straw decomposes. Makes a lot of sense if you thin about it; I just never would of thought of it.

Hey, if you want, I'll ask my crazy neighbors for some tips, like if they replace the straw every year or whatever. I suspect they don't, but if you want I'll pump 'em for information and pass it on. Or, you know, what about watering and all that. Cuz i don't know how that all works. But I can ask. People in Kentucky are neighborly. If I just wander over and knock on their door they'll probably offer me a bunch of heroin or crack or whatever, so it'll be worth my while.
 
We have a neighbor who does this, and they do it out on the boulevard between the sidewalk and the street. On the one hand, yeah - it works great, because they have the best looking roses on the block.

But on the other hand, it's an eyesore. Some of us put a lot of time and effort into growing really nice gardens in the front of our houses, because it makes the neighborhood look so nice. And then you have these doofuses piling bales of straw out by the sidewalk, and they fall apart and mess up the street and the sidewalk and look like hell.

But that's not a knock on straw bale gardening. That's a knock on those dumb neighbors. Even though the 2-foot wide boulevard is not the best place to pile bales of straw, the important thing for the purposes of your question is that it really does seem to work well for their flowers. It's the question of form versus function. Yeah, it may not be all that pretty if you put it out in a nice flower garden, but if you want to get the best and the biggest flowers and vegetables in your backyard, hell yeah. Go for it.

I kind of noticed this way back when i was a kid. If we left a hay bale sitting out behind the barn or something and forgot about it, the next year I'd notice that the plants that were growing out of that hay bale were twice as big and healthy as the plants that were growing in the ground next to it. I mentioned that once to my uncle Wilbur (yeah, I really had an Uncle Wilbur), and he said it wasn't any thang. Said all his life growing up on a farm, everybody knew all about how well that worked.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized people were starting to do it on purpose, and turn it into a gardening method. I think the medium is a perfect balance between good drainage and good moisture retention, and liberates a lot of nitrogen as the straw decomposes. Makes a lot of sense if you thin about it; I just never would of thought of it.

Hey, if you want, I'll ask my crazy neighbors for some tips, like if they replace the straw every year or whatever. I suspect they don't, but if you want I'll pump 'em for information and pass it on. Or, you know, what about watering and all that. Cuz i don't know how that all works. But I can ask. People in Kentucky are neighborly. If I just wander over and knock on their door they'll probably offer me a bunch of heroin or crack or whatever, so it'll be worth my while.

cool
1. i thought you were in colorado?
2. don't bother asking - it will only reinforce their effort to life hack your neighborhood
3. for me, we moved into a rental a few months back and i really didn't want to resurrect someone else's backyard yet again - also the hay bales wouldn't be an eyesore (my neighbor has chickens even)

thanks
 
I'm totally Bogarting this for my Pinterest Board "I want to cheat at gardening"
 
Ok i just spoke to my friend that has gardened like this for several years. She says its very low maintaince if done correctly. Put a barrier beneth the bails so weeds dont grow up through it. There is a two week preeping fase for the straw, and you can find that on line. The straw holds moisture for the plants and the decomposing of the straw is a great mulch. It heats up easy and stimulates growth. She has a watering system in place , and a trailace system.
The negative.
Not very attractive, and buy straw directly from farmers so you know what your getting, if invaded by weeds or grass its a hard faught battle.
 
We just finished building two new beds 100sqft. We are trying a new system (for us) called square foot gardening. Started our seeds in the green house yesterday. Its over two hundreds seed not counting the potatoes we will be planting. Ill post pictures to stow how it progresses.
 
Ok i just spoke to my friend that has gardened like this for several years. She says its very low maintaince if done correctly. Put a barrier beneth the bails so weeds dont grow up through it. There is a two week preeping fase for the straw, and you can find that on line. The straw holds moisture for the plants and the decomposing of the straw is a great mulch. It heats up easy and stimulates growth. She has a watering system in place , and a trailace system.
The negative.
Not very attractive, and buy straw directly from farmers so you know what your getting, if invaded by weeds or grass its a hard faught battle.

thanks, i think i'm going to go for it
wish i would have heard about this before halloween - wonder what pumpkin patch people do with all their hay bales??
 
Very attractive. :eek:

0-85.jpg
 
My kid and I built an elevated garden a few years back and I had a bunch of hay bales at a job site left over from silt fencing so I decided to fill the garden with the bales in order to not have to put a whole dump truck full of top soil in the garden.

I had no idea that hay was so helpful. I used about a foot of top soil mixed with mushroom compost and planted a whole bunch of stuff.

It was the most successful garden we've ever done so this year I'm going to do it again at the new house. I just took out several trees to allow sun to get to a piece of our side yard and with just the hay and a bit of work we are planning to do a 30 x 50 vegetable garden. We ordered seeds last week and will be germinating in peat cups as soon as they get here so planting in 2-3 weeks.
 

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