Straw Bale Gardening 101 - Beginner basics

Aging in Iowa magazine interviewed me some time back and here's the print version.

Just got my copy in the mail today.

The online version should be updated soon. Check it out at www.aginginiowa.com

Out of the dozen or so articles written about my bale garden in various publications, this one is the best so far.

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Update: here's the link to the online version of the article: http://www.healthyaginginiowa.com/Summer%202008.pdf

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Here's another link to a more current article of mine:

http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march09guide/Straw3.09.pdf



This message was edited Apr 16, 2009 8:25 PM

Kent, that's a very nice article. I especially like the way you described the "how" of strawbale gardening as well as the "why". Hoping you are having a great garden season, with even more produce than you wanted. Dotti

Dotti: appreciate that. Garden has done well except two varieties of tomatoes, but I have plenty still left.

Your garden always looks so nice and neat Kent even tho I've seen it before. Takes a lot of work doesn't it? Especially when you are working too.

Nice article.

Jeanette

Jeanette: The biggest work this year was putting up the deer fencing which has done a great job. The 2nd biggest was/is tying up the tomatoes which really isn't work. I always tell myself I could be hoeing, tilling, or weeding!

And, of course the watering/feeding.

Determined to try some hay/grass bales next year.

As for the Iowa article, I hope to have a PDF file I can refer you to soon. Plus, the magazine rep said they hoped to have a online archive up soon, too. This magazine is a low-budget operation it appears, but I appreciate the nice job they did.

Yes they did do a good job on it.

I also am going to try hay next year. Hopefully, if they haven't priced us out. How many bales are you using? Gets pretty pricey/

Jeanette

Jeanette: I used about 60 this hear. Probably about the same next year. Too early to tell.

Wow. I hear the hay is $10 per bale here. People can't give their horses away. I read in the paper that anything over 4 years old is up for sale. Too bad.

Jeanette

Can I stack 2 or 3 bales on top of each other - to make it tall enough that Mom can stand without stooping?

2nd Chance, You can do whatever you want to. Each of us has tried something different. Some work, some don't. I would say to what you want to do, just anchor it good so it doesn't fall on her.

Be sure you let us know what and how it did, and take and post pictures.

Jeanette

2ndchance
I have a friend who has cancer and wants to try straw bales next year. He also talked about using 2 layers of bales so that he wouldn't have to bend over so far. That would be too expensive for me, I spent $40 on 10 bales. I don't know if this would work but I would try putting legs on pallets and then put the bales on top of them. Pallets are cheap and would be great for drainage. If the legs are short and sturdy I think it could work.

Lulie, if you can, you had better get the pallets soon. The cost of things are going so high that you won't be able to get them pretty soon.

Jeanette

Lulie and 2ndChance: try some cinder blocks under the pallets to raise it up. I'd forego trying to stack bales on top of one another.

Like you said, the cost of using a bale just to raise the other bale up is costly.

Also, that lower bale will soon start to decompose and just flatten right on down or at the very least lose it's shape rather quickly with the added weight from the top bale.

How about doing it priamid style. Two on the gound side by side and one on top. That way you could even dig into the side of the bales and have some hanging plants like tomatoes and they would rest on the bottom bale instead of on the ground. Hum, I may even try that next year.

Jan??? Where have you been? Is that you?

Jeanette

Yep its me, I was without a computer for a while cause mine took a walk over the rainbow bridge but my dear friend in Redondo Beach, CA sent me her old lap top. It has taken some getting use to but never the less, I'M BAAACCKK!!!
Thanks Jeanette

So tell us how your garden did this year and what you have been doing Jan. Didn't you have a lot of goats? Wasn't that you?

Jeanette

Nope that wasn't me but it sounds like a good idea.
I went out this morning to start to clean up the bales for the winter and ended up harvesting probably the last crop of strawberries. Boy were they sweet and juicy. Yum, yum. I haven't even been paying any attention to the bales the last few weeks as I harvested the last of the sugar snap peas and removed the vines and most of the herbs have gone to seed so all that was left was the strawberries and the nastursiams. Oh how the heck to you spell nastys. I think that next year I will add a little soil to the top of the bales and I may even try the priamid stack for growing tomatoes and strawberries. I have had alot of spiders though and I need to get on top of that problem.

That's right!!! Spiders. Now I remember. You've still got em huh? Wow. I think I'd move.

Jeanette

Heheheh, well thats not a possiblity but I think that when we cut the lawn again I am going to spray something.... not sure what cause I have a furry kid that lives in the yard too and I am sure that he is tired of sharing it with the spiders too.

That's creepy. Jeanette

One thing you don't realize until you try bale gardening is that drainage won't be a problem. The challenge is keeping your bales watered. There's so much surface contact with the air, your bales will dry out much quicker than you think. If possible, I'd find a way to keep your bales on the ground, both for better moisture and also so that the roots can go into the ground if they get to the bottoms of the bale (which they well may).

Kent, Excellent article.

Thanks for sharing.

Kent,
I can't tell you how grateful I am that you got me started on the Strawbale gardening. I just completed my second year. Both years were very successful but I keep learning new things. The most wonderful bi-product of all of this is the fabulous new "soil" I get, especially after two years! I have found the following:
After one season the straw breaks down to a point where I have to put two bales together in a wire cage to get the same bulk as the originial bale. My tomatoes grew even better in the one-year old straw than the new bales (but did well in the new ones too). Probably all the nutrients added the previous year and the worm poop from the winter helped! At the end of this second year that mixed straw was almost like soil so I took it and added it to the flower gardens and other vegetable gardens. I replaced it with a new bale. I have taken all this season's bales and combined them (2 each) in my cages for next spring. I have placed all the new bales where the 2 year old straw was and in the empty one year old cages. This should save me watering time next spring.
Straw has turned out to be my new mulch. I put it on top of the bark mulch since even bark mulch gets weeds. The straw really helps keep the weeds down and breaks down so nicely. My soil is rapidly improving each year.
I also placed some of the composted straw from last year in an old laundry basket (poked holes in the bottom for drainage) and grew potatoes quite successfully. I had to watch that it didn't get too moist and cause rot.
So thanks again for starting me on a most successful gardening experiment. I still have lots to learn! Still trying to get the best organic formulas for feeding.
Jessica

Jessica, I was a newbie to bale gardening this year. Instead of Miracle Grow or something similar every week I just used a slow release organic fertilizer sprinkled on top of the bales about 2-3 weeks after planting tomatoes. It turned out great. I never fertilized again and they out-produced anything I or my neighbors had planted in soil. I too am saving the remains of this years bales to grow in next year. See my post on the test plot. My plan is to put all the decomposed remains into the enclosed row and if necessary place the new bales on top of this or just grow right in the remains with some compost thrown in.

Doug

PS: Kent do I have your permission to use the info in the article to write a short instruction paper for the local county Extension Office along with my pictures?

Reading the threads in this forum has me hooked. I have made arrangements to pick up 10-20 bales of wheat straw Saturday am.

Yesterday while at Home Depot shopping for some composted manure, I picked up a 40 lb bag of Ammonium Sulfate. Actually the Sulfate will work best for me due to the ultra high PH of what little soil we have around here in the Hill Country. It is almost like when you stick the probe of a PH meter into soil around here the needle pegs out on the high side. Our soil is mainly caliche and rock.

Any way, this is going to be fun. We'll see what happens.

Y'all keep posting all the good info about your efforts and results with this straw bale technic.

Jerry

Jerry with your soil condition I think you'll like the results using bales. Sure has made a believer out of me and I have quite good "soil"

Doug

Doug,

I also use organic fertilizers. I prep the bails with Blood Meal but use a balanced organic fertilizer like Fertrel plus rock phosphate, bone meal, gypsom with tomatoes) for the last major prep dose. After the plants are in I use a Fish Emulsion or other organic spray fertilizer. The results are pretty impressive!
Which slow release organic fertilizer do you use?
You should NOT find it necessary to put any new bales ON TOP of this year's remains. Just put the remains all together as planned until you have about the same bulk as a new one and plant in it. I wonder if adding compost is good in this case as you might be introducing problems depending on what your compost was made from. I know Kent tells us not to use our own soil in the bails but rather potting mix. Your remains should be full of nutrients and some "soil" anyway. You can add some of the organic fertilizer to it. I find that double the remains equals one new bale so you might have to use some new bails to fill in the enclosed row if you run out of remains in that row. I think you might find the plants grow even better in the remains vs the new bale! I certainly did! I will watch your post next year with interest.
Jessica

Good morning, all.

I've been off-line for awhile. I'm having a 2-story addition with a screen porch built on my house and I've been busy, busy taking care of all the details of interviewing and hiring sub-contractors, etc.

Hopefully it'll be done by Christmas! :-)

We're saving a lot of money this way, but it takes a lot of your time.

A buddy of mine said the best thing to do is hire a General Contractor, move to Florida, and come back when it's done! :-)

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Glad you liked the article. Looking forward to seeing your garden.

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Jessica, excellent post about leaving your old straw down and putting the new straw on top. Others are doing the same thing, but I haven't been doing that, and I need to start.

If you've been conditioning your soil over the past couple of years then it should be OK to use it. Hate to let that enriched soil go to waste.

Because of the potential of soil-borne diseases, I just wouldn't use any at least for the first year to chink the bales

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Doug, you have permission to use any thing I've posted.

I've greatly enjoyed reading/viewing your posts, and you've given us all some great ideas.

I really like the idea of containing the straw/hay and reusing it year after year as it decomposes, rather than starting completely fresh like I've been doing.

I'm also going to try the slow-release fertilizer next year, tool

I'm still looking for some old sawdust to see how some plants would do in that.

Kent,
Quoted:
"Jessica, excellent post about leaving your old straw down and putting the new straw on top. Others are doing the same thing, but I haven't been doing that, and I need to start."

Just to clarify. I don't put the new bales on top of any old straw. I combine the first year old straw to make the equivalent of one new bale. Usually two old bales makes one new used bale. Two year old straw is removed completely since it is basically "soil" by the end of the second season and put in flower or vegetable beds. I place a new bale in all the empty cages. All my bales are surrounded with wire creating cages so I can tie up my crops or keep crops like zucchini in check. Otherwise they fall onto the ground. Some cages are 5-6 ft. tall on 3 sides and 2 -3 ft. on the front side. These I use for tomatoes. Others are 2-3 ft all the way around. The cages are then perfect for filling with the one year straw remains at the end of the season.
No enriched soil goes to waste here but I only wondered if it was a good idea to add one's own compost to the bales remains. My compost never really gets that hot even though it breaks down, so it could still contain diseases from possibly infected crops remains. I agree I should not chink the bales with it. But maybe it wouldn't be such a problem with the one year remains since after a year they could have picked up soil born diseases anyway! I use the compost in my regular soil to which I add 2 year old straw remains and no problems!
So now I am curious, Kent. Since you don't put new bales on top of the old straw (which I think is a waste of the good straw remains if one does!) then what have you been doing with your straw remains? Planting in them or using them as mulch?
By the way, how does one create the "quoted" section with the blue line around it in these postings?
Good luck with your building project. It sounds like quite an undertaking!
Jessica

gardadore,

Great idea about the cage. I have some extra cattle panels I thought would make a good cage to hold bales. It could be cut and welded to form three rigid sides with a removable side for access.

In the past (for many years) for my tomatoes, I have used 2 16' panels running parallel about 18" apart which are supported by 3 t-post each. As the tomatoes grow taller, cross pieces of re-bar (or anything you have handy) are inserted between the panels to support the tomato vines. In Spring, I remove the panels to allow for the tiller to work the soil. This system has work well for me.

Also, with a cage, tin, plastic, plywood or whatever could be attached around the cage to improve moisture retention in the bales.

Has anyone else used cages or encased their bales to retain moisture?

TXrockgarden see my thread on Stawbale Test Plot. I did one row enclosed and one not as a test this year.

Doug

I've been putting my old straw on a general mulch pile

Here's the link to the instructions on putting using a quote box: http://davesgarden.com/faq/forums/

It's the 4th line down.

Doug, I really like your enclosed part using the pressure treated wood.I need to figure out how to enclose mine more solidly. I'm not very handy with wood, saws, and nails!! My caged bales are all over the property as opposed to being in rows. The most I have put together are 4 so maybe there I could put some kind of covering around the cages, possibly plastic. I used cardboard this year on two bales to shield seedlings from the direct sun. It worked well but looked a bit bedraggled at the end of the season - however, it can go in the compost or on the ground as a walking path covered with straw.
Texasrockgarden,
Your extra cattle panels sound ideal. I think others have used them as well. Also couldn't you place some bales on your tilled soil and still use your tomato panels? Then you could see if the tomatoes do better in the bales or the soil as an experiment! I think you will really love the bale gardening.
So Kent, you pretty much use your old straw as I do. I just add it directly to the beds rather than to a specific mulch pile. Thanks for the quote link!
Another great use I am finding for my new straw is creating walking paths in the veggie garden. I used to put down cardboard, plastic weed cloth on top and wood chips on top but the chips seemed to attract seeds as well. It is much easier to weed thick layers of straw on top of the cloth and it looks nice. After a year or two I have new mulching "soil" for the regular beds
Jessica.

I don't know about where you guys are, but I am seeing that the straw is pretty cheap right now here. Probably going into winter the farmers don't especially want to store it. But come spring after storing it all winter they are going to want a lot more for it.

Right now hay is so expensive that people are practically giving their horses away. Also, see some cattle are running fairly cheap. People just can't afford to feed them.

Jeanette

Jeanette, straw is going for $3.00 a bale here and hay is $5.00. I saved the three bales I used for Halloween decorations and covered them up so I can use them in the Spring.

Doug

postmandug, I just read your Stawbale Test Plot thread. It's a great thread. I will definitely enclose my bales.

Just wondering though what difference it will make by having the bales lay flat on the strings vs positioning the bales with the strings off the ground? Have any comparisons for these two methods been made by anybody?

Yes Kent has said if you have the strings off the ground you tend to lose more water through the bales that way so I think everyone is now laying them with the strings on the ground.

Doug

Texas, they act as straws only they don't suck it back up. Just lets the water run thru. Jeanette

Here's a current article for beginners that puts it all on one page:

http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march09guide/Straw3.09.pdf