straw or hay bale gardening

[lazy gardener]

Yes, this is true. It is sterile, loaded with nutrients, has magic properties! Depending on who you talk to, it is reported to keep pests out of the garden.

 

[TLWR]

If I use the water from the duck pool, would that be enough to fertilize the bale or should I grab fertilizer?

 

[lazy gardener]

TLWR, I have no idea. I'm sure it will help. I think I'd use a combination. Do you not have any high nitrogen fertilizer? If you don't, you could use some unscented ammonia, or even urine. I'd opt for the latter. The recommendation to condition a single bale is to use: 1/2 cup of high nitrogen fertilizer (lawn fertilizer without any weed killer/pesticide additives) on days 1, 3, and 5. On day 7, 8, and 9, use 1/4 cup. Day 10 use 1 cup 10-10-10. Then plant on day 12. On both days that you don't add fertilizer, as well as the days that you don't, you should still wet down the bale. These instructions are from Straw Bales Complete pg. 95, by Joel Carsten. If you are using an alternate product, you'll have to find a conversion chart, or just wing it.

 

[User395221]

If you aren't already, consider worm farming. There is nothing better by way of fertilizer than worm poo/worm poo tea and the worm farm is just the place for the veges and scraps that are too manky to feed to pets.

 

[lazy gardener]

I never have too many scraps. My poor worms don't get regular feedings, but they seem happy enough.

 

[donrae]

I'm not sure if it's a bad thing, but my worm bin is sprouting all sorts of things! Carrot tops, some type of seeds I must have put in there, I'm really not sure what but I've got little seedlings going like crazy. The worms seem happy, though, they're spread throughout the bin pretty evenly and there's baby worms.

 

[shortgrass]

I have heard you can use urine for adding nitrogen. Does anyone know if this is true?

Yes, urine is a key component to making potassium nitrate, aka saltpeter

Huge benefits to making it yourself, and here's a good recipe

http://www.ehow.com/how_4474900_make-saltpeter.html

 

[Tumbling K]

got my bales soaking. this week, I will spread apart the hay, where I plan to plant, and put some compost in to help with getting the bales prepared. hoping for planting, by the end of next month.

 

[hillbillyreefer]

By "spread apart the hay" do you mean break the bales apart and spread out loose hay or move the bales around for more spacing? I wouldn't break the bales up, just put a layer of compost/peat moss on top and seed into it, make sure to keep things moist until the seedlings are well on their way. Using started bedding plants also works very well, make a small pocket in the hay push the plants roots into it and add a bit of compost over the top, done.

The last bales I used for 3 yrs and then pulled the twine and worked them into the garden.

 

[MeepBeep]

One thing to note that was touched upon on the first page in the hay vs straw thing...

Not all hay and not all straw is created equal, there can be a huge difference between hay bales and straw bales depending on what it's composed of and when it was cut...

I can get straw bales that are loaded with wheat or oat seeds or I can get straw bales that have very little seeds... Same with hay I can get a 1st cut grass hay that is pretty much all stems with no seeds or I can get a 2nd or 3rd cut premium hay like a clover/alfalfa mix or even grass that is loaded with leaves and seeds...

You really need to actually look a the hay/straw you are purchasing or else you could get a bale that will sprout like a Chia pet all on it's own when it gets wet, that kind of defeats the purpose...

I explored this type of gardening, but opted to go with containers instead due to cost, since I get the containers for free...