Bale Gardening

[Deleted]

Jack said...

What I do is, lay a few straw bales in a row on top of the garden. Sprickle a good quantity of high nitroge manure or fertilizer along the top on them then water that in and keep them damp. They will heat up as the decomposition takes place, which is aided by the nitrogen. As soon and the straw cools down enough to plant into, you can put either plants or seeds straight in. With seeds you will need to rub them into it a bit so they get covered.

Then all you have to do is make sure the straw never drys out. With spuds, you will need to get a bar to make a hole to plant them as far down as possinble. You will find there is no weeding, very little pests or disease and the root crops like spuds or carrots come out nice and clean as well. I likes of carrots will probaly be as sweet as you have ever tasted and the biggest problem with them is they could be so crisp they will shatter when you try slicing them.

I have gotten up to three crops out of a row of straw bales like this, then just get the strings out and scatter the ready made compost over you clay garden and it builds that up as well.

This is a great Idea Jack!

[Deleted]

I'm gonna try that next year..........thanks Jack and X.

[lilsparrow]

Wow! That sounds like a winner!

[jack]

Gidday

Well very soon now I will be starting a new garden by my tank stand and will be posting photo's as I go. When growing carrots this way the biggest problem is when you try to cut them with a knife they are so crisp that sometimes they actually shatter.

Root crops come out clean as, just a rinse then in the pot, or the mouth, whichever.

[Songbird]

Soooo.... the seeds never actually go into ground??

[crazy1]

Yup Song, I belive thats what he's sayin. The bale works as the growing medium. As it decomposes with the aid of the manure or other high nitrogen suppliment. It becomes compost.

[mckenzygirl]

So do you pull the bales apart?

[crazy1]

From what I understand you don't pull em apart till they're all compoted. You just put the plant or seed into the side of the bale which is on the top in this situation.

[Songbird]

Have any of you ever actually tried this??

[crazy1]

UMMM no. I just heard about it. But next spring I'm gonna give it a try. Jack said he's gonna do it again and post us some pics of the process. His growing season is about to start.

[jack]

Gidday

Yep old Crazy is right on.

*The bales are left intact, the most of the composting is done over the first few days when it will heat up and probably cook anything that shouldn't ort to be there. Then when it's cooled down plant.

With seeds, like carrots or parsnips you need to rub them into the top so that they get covered but plants just use a dibble to poke a hole and put em in. I've had a couple of seasons of growing before I have pulled them to pieces to help build up our clay into soil which it is slowly becoming.

I don't have any photo's so you will have to wait and I will post some as I go.

I am going to plant some outdoor tomatoes in them this year against my tank stand because we get a fairly short growing season but will put a few carrots under them to show ewes.

[lilsparrow]

I see a couple of places around here that have some 'mater plants in 'em. I don't know the pholks though and have never stopped in to introduce myself, however...I'm anxious to see yer pix there jack! Hurry up and get that growing season started down there, won't you?!

[Songbird]

yes! Looking 4 ward!!

[jack]

Gidday

Dap, if I could hurray that damned season up I would.

Here is a brief history of straw bale gardening as I understand it. I first heard of it in the 1980's when I was promoting Sabbatical Fallow at our National Agriculture Fieldays. Some young Jewish people from Israel were fascinated with the Sabbatical Fallow that I was doing and my reasons for doing it, and that's another long story too.

Well these younge people told me about straw bale gardening and showed me some literature about how and why it was done in Israel. When the new nation of Israel was first established in 1949, there was almost no agriculture industry there at all, only large tracts of desert. They had thousands of people flocking into the country and no way of feeding them so had to figure out a way to kick start the production of food.

Out in desert or arid areas where that could get some water, they lay the bales of straw down in rows, on a plastic film. The plastic was to conserve the precious supply of water to stop it just soaking down into the dry soils. It also meant that they could plant in the same area every year without breaking their Sabbatical Fallow traditions whereby the soil had to be rested every seventh year, as the plants weren't actually growing in the soil but on the top of the plastic, killing two birds with one stone.

At the time I heard this, I was living in the North Island where there is very little or no grain grown so that the availability and price of bales of straw meant that it was just something to remember. However I have since found that extremely good results can be got from bales of lucerne or what you call alfala I believe.

So now, in the meantime, you will just have to wait for our spring before I can actually show you what I do.

[Deleted]

Jack!
Karmas for Jack Please!!

[crazy1]

Done Bro.

[Deleted]

Me sandbox days are over!!

[chickenfarmer]

This sounds like a great alternative........

Down here to extend our growing season into January, we put bales of straw together in a square and cover em up with old junkyard windows... To make a cold frame so to speak, I have never even in my wildest dreams thought about growing in them.

You say by putting them on plastic sheeting that it conseves water also... That my friend might be my answer to the hot summer sun that we expierience down here in the south.

Karma for Jack for sure.......

[crazy1]

You could wrap the plastic into the twine and it would have its own container so to speak. This is soundin better and better.

[jack]

Gidday

Don't wrap them in plastic because they still have to breath.

[crazy1]

I ment just the bottom 1/6 of the bale. Would this still cause a problem?

[lilsparrow]

So, tell me, should these bales be FRESH??? Or can they be bales left from the previous haying season? 'Cuz we're gonna be gettin' into the latter half of the growing season before we get fresh bales, aren't we? And yes, I agrree with the rest of you~ to jack!! Exalted, dude!

[jack]

Gidday

Awe shucks, I am getting a bit embarrassed now.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with using last years bales. But just bare in mind if you are using hay, unless it is lucerne or alfalfa there will be thousands of seeds in there and unless you can get the decomposition temperature up high enough they will be all weeds. Your alfalfa bales will probably cost a bit more but they will ba as good as any too.

[crazy1]

That's very true jack. I'm gonna use straw for mine. You can get them now(for oat straw) or in a few if you wanted to use wheat straw. I'm just gonna set em in their place and let them compost till spring. Gotta put em in place tough, or you'll never be able to move them.

[jack]

Gidday

Hey Crazy, even with straight straw you still can get seeds as sometimes ou get grains of the stuff mixed in when they have been missed with the heading. You still have to get that heat up with a quick composting so need to use that high nitrogen fert of manure.

My last attemp I didn't achieve sufficient heat and got more barley than carrots. That is probable why even with the extra expense the lucerne or alfafa can work out better.

[crazy1]

Thanks Jack. I was gonna add the manure in the early spring to startthe composting. I use straw bales all through my garden and let them sit like that for the fall and winter. They are pretty rotted by the time I use them, never really have trouble with anything growing _{grain wise} in them.

[mckenzygirl]

Yeppers exalted Jack fer sure !
This is so interesting!

I'm thinking I might give it a go next fall fer a few veggies.

Can't wait to see some pics Jack!

[mary]

Great info Jack, can't wait to try it , I had straw this year if only I had known of this, I sure would of tried it,I put it as mulch around my potatoes and tomatoes.Will watch for the pictures.Thank you!

[crazy1]

Jack, jst wondering how the bales are doing. Do you have anything growing in them yet?

[jack]

Gidday

Hey Crazy, I just got tomatoes in it. They are some I grew from seed and I didn't put enough seeds in so had to plant a few runts as well. That together with the fact that we have had one hellava cold spring and start to out summer they are not doing very good and are very uneven at the mo.