Straw bale planter?

[drewskimac]

Ah - Thankyou, Lazy! I actually kind of want to try this now lol... had no desire before reading your information.

 

[lazy gardener]

it was a lot of fun and we grew a lot of vegetables. only problem was what to do with 20 bales of hay after the growing season was over . that's a lot of rotted straw to get rid of .

I had a 4 bale bed last summer. In the fall, I dismantled it, and used the partially composted hay to mulch my garlic bed. The season before, i used the hay to build up my HK mound. Never too much composted/compostable/mulching material here. Yeah, it's a pain to move it sometimes, but I never have enough, and never have to wonder where to put it!!!

 

[drewskimac]

I had a 4 bale bed last summer. In the fall, I dismantled it, and used the partially composted hay to mulch my garlic bed. The season before, i used the hay to build up my HK mound. Never too much composted/compostable/mulching material here. Yeah, it's a pain to move it sometimes, but I never have enough, and never have to wonder where to put it!!!

Would you happen to have a picture of straw bale garden? I would love to see it.

 

[lazy gardener]

Would you happen to have a picture of straw bale garden? I would love to see it.

See post #8. Lots of pics.

 

[drewskimac]

See post #8. Lots of pics.

I actually specifically wanted to see yours, because you're a fountain of knowledge LOL, but google will suffice

 

[lazy gardener]

You are talking to a techno idiot. I'm sure I have pics of the last one. I took pics at various stages of development. Don't think I could find them on computer if my life depended on it. Nor could I figure out how to down load them. They may still be in the camera, which is... somewhere! I planted: sweet potato. (did not grow well) regular potato. Grew an awesome crop. Dahlia, rosemary, marigold: all did very well. In seasons past, I've grown cucumber, tomato, and zucchini. the cukes and tomato did great, zucc, not so much, IIRC. Have also grown carrot: total bust, which is typical of most of my carrot ventures.

 

[lazy gardener]

Basil and lettuce crops were also awesome.

 

[JurassicBawk]

I did a straw bale garden the last 2 years, but will not be doing it this year. I have 2 acres that a former landscaper owned, and he let dwarf bamboo take over the whole area around the greenhouse. It seems impossible to kill so I was covering it with cardboard, weed block, old rugs, etc to be able to build up a raised bed garden, and the strawbale method seemed the easiest at the time so I didn't have to build beds and fill them with dirt.

I built a cattle panel arch for tomatoes and put 4 bales on each of the inside rows and one row of 4 bales on the outside row the first year, and last year just did the 8 inside the arch because I build a concrete block bed on the outside of the arch. My tomatoes and pole beans that I put in the bales did great both years, but last year I had difficulty finding bales and then realized when I got home with them that they were "baled wrong." Meaning that to have the strings off the ground and around the outside of the bale, the straw on top was then long ways instead of the end pieces sticking up. So the tomatoes did great until the bales drooped a few months later and literally pulled away from the plants, taking the roots with them. So if you do this, BE SURE that your straw bales are correct.

This year I've found a company that will deliver me a cubic yard of compost cheaper than I can buy bales or bagged dirt, so I've been mixing the leftover composted straw piles with the new compost in fabric grow bags to use on the arch.

This is when I originally set up the arch in early 2016. It's 3 12' cattle panels with 8 8' t-posts. I'm 5'10" and can walk under it with no problem, and it's about 6 foot wide so plenty of room for bales and a pathway to access everything.

This is probably late May 2017. These are the crappy bales that eventually collapsed, and you can see how grassy they were as well. I added solar torches (3 on each side) to be able to tell how much sun each end was getting. And my husband added a PVC irrigation system for me, which is very helpful when having to condition the bales initially.

Below is probably early July 2017. You can just barely make out the arch on the middle left, (the concrete block bed runs on the outside of it,) but you can see the tomato plants sticking out the top. I have Velcro support tape and just tape the plants to the wire as they grow, so some plants would go all the way across the arch and back to the other side. Then you just walk under the arch and pick what you want. I'm still expanding the garden this year and cutting/tilling some of the bamboo to make room to plant corn. The area behind the greenhouse is the beehive yard, so I may get a few bales and put over there with pollinator seeds in them since that won't require supports and the bees would appreciate it.

 

[Relleoms]

Awesome info! I used straw bales to create a windbreak for my coop & have been wondering what to do with them now that I *think, hope, pray* winter is moving on. My husband’s going to be so excited to hear my plan . Thanks all!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

@JurrassicBawk awesome garden pics. Thanks for sharing.