Strawbale Gardening - no weeding, no hoeing, no tilling

That looks like something my Dad would do. He's creative like that. :-D

 

That is WAY cool! I've started my garden already this year (tilled, weeded, etc.), but I may give this a shot in the back of the yard! All the plants in the photos look very healthy, but is there anything that you would not recommend in a strawbale garden? Thank you!

 

mslusk: I don't know of anything from first hand experience that shouldn't do OK with bale gardening. Other bale gardeners said they tried carrots and didn't have good success, but their onions did well.

My potatoes are coming up nicely in the old straw, so we'll see how well they produce.

Corn may grow in bales, but you'll need some heavy duty stakes or some sort of trellis system to keep them upright. I may just try to seed some in a bale this year and see just what happens.

The only thing I've transplanted into the bales so far are tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, okra, and collards, all of which did excellent.

Kent

 

Bale Gardening would be a good project for FFA, 4-H, or a Science Club at school. I had a couple of retirement homes doing a small bale garden as a way of bringing some of the residents together and getting them outside, some fresh air, and something to look forward to.

I recently spoke to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Science club at Bunn Elem. School in Franklin Co. about this method. The kids were great and asked alot of good questions.

One kid asked if you could grow an apple tree in bales!

I said I don't see why not. Of course, it wouldn't be long before the tree would outgrow the bales, but I certainly think you could start in a bale.

Kent

 

1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4 ...

Anyone remember that from childhood when picking sides etc.?

Here's today's shot of my potato row. They are doing just fine since the first batch was knocked back from our last frost.

Kent

 

Strawbaleman, thanks for posting these great pictures and how-to instructions! We have terrible soil and this looks like a much better alternative to hanging tomato plants and container growing that we had talked about.

Definitely going to give this a shot - probably only about 6 bales to start with, as my time is limited and would rather start small, than go for the gold and end up killing what I plant.

Thanks a bunch! Keep them pictures coming!

 

zookeeper, glad hear you're going to try a few bales this year. Don't hold it against me if you get hooked!

Kent

 

On the left and right are 6 ft stakes. In the middle is a tobacco stick.

As you can see even the 6 ft stakes were too short for the tomatoes; I tried using some string which you can see didn't do much good and it cuts into the vines. Get some elastic stretch ties.

Take my advice and make up some sort of trellis. I know ya'll are getting tired of me saying that, but you'll be glad you did.

However, if you're growing a shorter, derterminate variety, staking may work just fine for you. It's the inderterminate varieties like Better Boy, German Johnsons, etc that really take off.

Kent

P.S. - I sucker my tomatoes, especially in the early growth stages, which means I only have 1 main vine per plant. You don't get as many tomatoes, but they are usually larger, and you'll get just as much poundage. Suckering makes it easier to tie/weave to the trellis, too.

 

A good example of tomates that are not stake. Unless you use some sort of landscape cloth or other type of barrier, grass and weeds will grow up in your vines.

Makes for a messy looking garden.

Plus the terrapins and other critters will enjoy nibbling on your tomatoes.

You can see where I've cut some of the vines with the lawnmower in trying to keep the grass down.

Also, with the vines on the ground, it makes it easier for the tomatoes to get diseased.

Kent

 

Young okra.

They look good and sturdy here, which they are, but the bales get looser over time. At this height would be a good time to get a stake in the bales to support the okra. Tobacco sticks worked fine for me here.

You'll see some of the leaves damaged by Japanese Beetles. The okra was the only plant I had to spray for bugs. Liquid Sevin did the job on the beetles.

Kent

 

Here's some early wheat sprouts coming out of a bale in one of my tomato rows. Note how alot seems to be coming out of this bale and hardly any from the bale to the left.

This is normal and no big deal.

When the farmer bales his straw there's always going to be a certain amount of wheat/oats/rye that will remain behind when the field is combined.

I'll let the sprouts get a little bigger and I'll come back with a steak knife and grab a little at a time and give my bales a "haircut".

I love a neat garden.

Kent

Oh, you'll probably see a bunch of little mushrooms pop out of the bales, too. Again, no problem; this is normal and a good sign that the bales are decomposing nicely and providing a good environment for the plants.

Just knock the little buggars off the bales if they annoy you.

 

To give you a contrast, this is my traditional "dirt" garden that I had every year. This is my 2005 garden that I had next door at my mother's house.

This was the last time I had a "dirt" garden and the first year I started bale gardening.

I didn't have a tractor so I had to till all this up with a rotor tiller, which is alot of work.

Then you have to keep the grass out of the middles and that involves more tilling.

I hadn't "discovered" the benefits of using a trellis for tomatoes, yet. I was still using homemade wire cages, two stacked on top of each other, and stakes, which works fine in a regular garden, but it's not practical on a bale.

I may go back to a very small "dirt" garden next year if we run out of the snaps we have canned, but I doubt it.

The problem you run into is the number of bales you'll need to grow everything you want or would like to have.

There's going to be some trade-offs with us, probably.

We'll probably end up getting the snaps from a farmer's market.

I'll never plant any more butter beans. I hate picking them. We'll just buy them already shelled.

I did buy a nice, used, rear-tine Troybilt tiller yesterday in case I need a flower bed fixed, etc. A tiller always comes in handy.

So, I won't say I'll never go back to "dirt" gardening, it just won't be on the scale like you see in this photo.

Kent

 

Very interesting! We have planted 1/2 the garden already but I may grow the melons on bales this year. Thank you for sharing!
Faye

 

I found this photo of a Chinese 5 Pepper that a friend sent to me that did very well in the straw bales.

It's about as hot as a Jalapeno and turns 5 different colors. The peppers remind me of Christmas tree light bulbs.

Kent

 

I have read about one fella and his "Mobile Bale Garden".

He lived in a townhouse apartment complex and had very little yard space. What little space he had didn't get much sun.

So, he took a bale of straw and put it in a child's wagon.

He prepared the bale as usual and transplanted a few vegetable plants into the bale.

At night the wagon with the bale stayed behind his townhouse.

During the day, after everyone left for work, he took the wagon from the back of his townhouse and let it sit out in a vacant parking space, which was nice and sunny, until about 5 pm when folks started returning home from work.

He then pulled the wagon once again behind his townhouse for the night.

Pretty neat, I think.

Kent

 

Here's the mushrooms you'll probably see growing from your bales.

This is perfectly normal and is no cause for alarm.

This is a good sign that your bales are providing a nice environment for your veggies.

They'll pop up quickly and disappear almost as rapidly, especially once the sun hits them.

I'm not sure of the technical name for these mushrooms; maybe some of you will know.

Kent

 

The potatoes have really done well this past week.

I'm keeping a close eye out for potato bugs and any other pests that may need spraying.

We'll see if the straw has any advantage over pests attacking the plants.

Cukes in the background.

Kent

 

This is so fasinating, thank you for posting this idea and all the cool photos! My attempts at gardening has failed and I haven't wanted to try again until now.

I shared your idea with my husband. His response was "you'll be building a nice hotel for all the mice and snakes in our area." We already have issues with moles and have killed a few snakes in our backyard.

Have you had any problems with the bales attracting rodents/snakes?

 

Okay, You sold me.

I am going to do this.

You may know my husbands family. The Bagwell's.

 

kidsfly: tell your husband that he'll have no problems with mice or snakes. It's not the same as having nice dry bales stored up in a barn. Now that makes a nice home for critters. But your bales are out in the open and being watered and tended to just about every day. If I was a mouse or a snake, I just wouldn't want to live in a damp house all the time. Now, crickets seem to like the bales. When I water, 1 or two seem to jump out of each bale. So, if you fish, there's your bait. Plus, fishing worms seem to like living under the bales, too.

Tit4Tat: you'll love this method; it's not too late to get your bales pre-treated; if you can't score any ammonium nitrate, then just water the bales once each day for about 2 weeks.

I know an investigator with the last name Bagwell that's with WCSO. Great guy.

Kent