Have any of you ever tried straw bale gardening? It is the perfect solution for someone who doesn’t have the space and/or time and money to garden traditionally. Instead of building potentially expensive raised beds or tilling up garden space, you just throw a couple of bales of straw {NOT hay, hay will sprout} out into the yard and use it as your growing medium. {It’s also a pretty perfect solution if you have soil that heavily clayed, or just seems to kill everything you try to grow.}
Straw bale gardening not only solves a space issue, but the straw will begin to break down {essentially compost}, feeding your plants and requiring almost nothing from you but water. Bales of straw are cheap at about $5 a bale around here. Plus, as an added bonus, straw bale gardens are virtually weed-free and naturally hold moisture, cutting way down on watering.
All you really need to do is condition the straw bale to expedite the break down process. Depending on how you garden {organic vs. non-organic}, you add manure/blood meal or fertilizer a couple of weeks before planting, let the straw bale heat up and begin decomposing and voila, the composted matter becomes your growth medium. Stick a couple of seeds down into the growth medium, add water, and wait for them to sprout.
I know straw bale gardening has been around for a long time {a few of my readers have sent in uh-mazing pictures of their gardens HERE and HERE}, but I didn’t really get the process until I read a book review from the NY Times on Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten. Apparently the book basically walks you through the how-to’s {which means I am going to have to read up and try it out}.
Have any of YOU tried straw bale gardening? Was it a success?
~Mavis
Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten
Tatyana says
Great gardening idea! Where do you buy straw in the Tacoma area?
Mavis Butterfield says
Any feed store should have it. Del’s, Wilco are two that come to mind.
Tatyana says
Thanks!
Diane says
My community garden used the straw bales to terrace an unused bank to create more growing space for our giving garden which
supports the local food bank. It created an additional 8 by 40 foot space in which we grew an abundance of assorted squash, collards, and broccoli. It was spectacularly successful! (and cool too ;-)). I’m thinking we will get another season out of the bales although they are quite spongy now. Love the picture above. When my current raised beds break down this is what I’ll replace them with. I love that they compost down and continue to build your soil. Please note that you can plant in the staw bales as well as the soil in the center.
Happy Memorial Day to all and special blessings to all who serve and their families who support them.
Erica says
I’m curious how this is less expensive than wooden raised bed. The photo above uses 10 bales, that’s $40 for that small garden plot. Someone once said it lasts 2 years and then is compost. How long do people’s wooden raised beds last and how much do those cost you? I wanted to build raised beds next year. But straw seems too expensive.
Cecily says
Brand new 2×12 cedar boards plus corner supports and screws will run you $75-$100 for a 4X8 raised bed.
Jenny says
I know a lady who does this and has mice in her straw like crazy. You walk through the area and you can see tons of them running in the straw. She has no weeds because the straw is too thick for the weeds to get through but I think I would rather have weeds than mice.
Gardenpat says
Mice??? Yikes!!! I guess that answers my question about whether my regular 4x 4 s built 4 high are worth the cost! I will just add compost to my beds each year and be grateful not to have to rebuild year after year!
Candice says
Straw bales out my way is $7.95 a bale. I’ll stick to grass clippings, compost, and pine straw. All free.
Tra says
I’ve had a straw bale garden for a couple years. I never had mice but oh MY did I have slugs! They LOVE the moist straw bales, take up residence inside, reproduce like rabbits, and it was really difficult to get rid of them. We tried picking them, coffee grounds, egg shells, and diatomaceous earth to no avail. In the end, we had to use Sluggo every two weeks.
The interior of the bales stays very warm. Some veggies grow well, others don’t. I’m in the D.C. area and cooler weather plants didn’t do well at all. In my garden, tomatoes and beans grew extremely well- unbelievable yields. Kale and chard did great as well as squash. Cucumbers and peppers- bell, anaheim, and jalapeno- did well but ripened really fast. Peas had terrible yields and things like carrots and radishes didn’t grow well at all. Broccoli and cabbage either went almost immediately to seed or got demolished by the slugs.
I liked the bales but I love carrots. This year, my guys built me some raised beds that I composted with the remains of the bales from last year. Win/win!
The Couch Potato says
I’m trying a variation of straw bale gardening this year on my balcony (basically sheet mulching in a container). You can read about it on my blog here
http://theadventuresofacouchpotato.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-garden-set-up.html
If it works, then next year I’ll probably try switching out a free carbon-rich material in place of straw.
OneHundredDollarsAMonth.com says
Awesome. Good luck!