Straw Bale Gardening: Start to Finish
Straw bales (not hay bales) are a great place to plant vegetables. Here’s my start-to-finish results! The straw is an easy, loose place for the plants to spread out their roots. Also, up on the straw bale there is essentially ZERO weeds to pick. (Note: do NOT use a “hay” bale: unlike straw, the hay has lots of seeds and you will have wheat/oats/grass/etc. growing as weeds in your garden!). Straw bales have some benefits like “raised bed” gardening.
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@rachelsdimensions: I replaced the straw bales after one season since they were starting to fall apart (the inside was like soil, not straw, and it’s great to spread as topsoil or toss into the compost). Also, I had a new incoming batch of straw bales when neighbors were getting rid of Halloween straw bale displays every autumn. But you could probably get a 2nd season from bales that you tie up with good twine (or fishing line?) to keep them together better.
@OrganicGarden123 Ah ok, thankyou!!!
so it’s now spring and i’m hearing about this for 1st time…..is it too late to start a bale? can the seasoning or whatever u do for preparation be accelerated?
@fufugal: You could try it out and see if it works without seasoning/preparing the bale. Another YouTube guy named lexingtonlib has some videos about his method of using chemical treatments on the bale (not my style, but probably a faster, albeit less natural, way to prepare the bale). My guess is that it would work ok without the artificial chemicals if you put a bit more topsoil/compost on top before you plant. Let me/us know how it goes! Enjoy.
Thanx for the reply. I guess I’ll read up more. I’m not wanting to experiment to much. I look for the easiest ways when it comes to gardening.
Seems like the cost of the bales out weighs the cost to amend the soil under them. Looks like more could be planted in the same area than 6 plants. Thanks for the video. I enjoy seeing other thoughts.
@notsniw123light: Well, the bales were free so there was no cost. My neighbors were throwing them out after they were done with using them for autumn decorations. And the main way that I amended them was a bit of dirt on top and pouring my urine on them over the winter. So free + free = free. I couldn’t grow veggies on the soil underneath since it had been a chemically treated lawn the prior year. I also grew on a bale that was on concrete. Overall, I enjoyed trying it out. Happy gardening!
I am going to try planting my tomatoes in straw bales this week.
@GulfCoastJaguarundi: Two tips: 1) use straw bales that have been rotted/composted inside over the winter. 2) probably no more than 1-2 tomato plants per straw bale. Enjoy! Let me know how it goes.
It’s a great idea, but broad-leaved herbicides are regularly sprayed on the grasses used for straw. I stopped using it for mulch because I felt like it was poisoning my veggies. I suggest finding organic straw, unless it doesn’t matter to you.
Have you received any feedback from anyone trying to use straw bales to garden in the desert, Arizona specifically? If so, what was their experience? If used in the desert would we just let them “rot” during the summer instead of the winter? Thanks!
Thanks. I actually have some straw bales I can try this with.
10/10! Dr. Andrew Weil linked to this on his fb, very impressed! <3
@InnerSmile72: Wow…. if that is so… that is way cool (and I’ve never been cool before, so i’ll enjoy my one day/week of vicarious fame!)
@Khumbu06: Good tip about the organic straw. I hadn’t thought much about that. Thanks for the tip.
@jonralston: I would guess that straw bales would work as well in the desert as anywhere else…. try it and let us know. I assume that the main difference would be that in such a dry hot climate you would need to water more than I do… but then that would also be true with plants you grow in the ground there also. Try it and Enjoy!
I will deffinately give this a go!
I would do the same but I would remove the bails plant my tomatos deep in the ground & wait till they are a few inch taller than the straw bails then cut all the leaves & shoots leaving the top few inch & slide the bail over them then fill wil compost.
An extra tip if anyones interested…..Flax bales also work for this. They tend to hold moisture a little better, so it may be a good application for someone who doesn’t want to water as much. I would suggest letting them sit for two seasons instead of one though. Up here we use them to insulate the ground over septic fields in the winter. After a couple years, you can get new ones, and plant in the old. Great video, thanks!!
You can use loose straw as a mulch around your plants that grow normally in the ground. This retains moisture and suppresses weeds. Great video.
Beautiful, I don’t think it would work well in some climates, but still great idea.
I’ll look for straw bales at a feed store. Good “how-to” advice here.
How about in the wintery climate of Canada. We got a lot of snow and I wonder if these bails would be able to stay together and decompose properly under 5-6 months of snow
@IrishBeerGuy In your cold Canadian winter, straw bales may take longer to compost themselves, so they may not be ready for planting in until the following year. But I don’t really know. Perhaps you or another Canadian can give it a try to do the composting over just one winter, plant in it, and see how it works out, then post and let us know…. Happy Gardening.
Straw is the residue from grain crops. Grain crops are indeed dessicated with herbicide immediately prior to harvest so the crop dries quickly and uniformly for harvest with the combine. I would highly recommend that you don’t eat the produce from these bales. It’s a great idea though using organic bales! Great job.
@Brant1A Thanks for the inside scoop. The straw bales were a great way for me to start gardening, and we did indeed eat the produce that we grew in them. I understand your cautionary comments about the bales probably having been harvested from a chemically (herbicide) treated source. Perhaps the bales would be best for non-edible crops like birdhouse gourds, etc.. The next year I build raised beds. Thanks again for your comments/insights. Happy gardening (or in your case Happy ‘Farming’!).