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Straw Bale Gardening

Started by thifasmom, January 20, 2009, 01:22:06

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thifasmom

Right heres a new one for you guys, stumbled across this on you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgXnR5XEvmg&feature=channel_page

so did a quick search and came across loads of info on this way of gardening seems to be another way they do things in the US of A.

here are a couple links what do you all think.


http://www.gardeningtipsnideas.com/2007/05/straw_bale_gardening.html

http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/strawbales.htm

http://www.gomestic.com/Gardening/Growing-Your-Veggies-in-a-Straw-Bale.89604

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/straw-bale-gardening.html

i agree that it would certainly be a great no dig form of gardening, especially in areas of difficult soil conditions and for gardeners who may have mobility difficulties.

there are a couple of draw backs like keeping the bales suitably damp and regular feeding to promote healty plant growth. but there are good pros as well, anyway i'm off to bed, let me know what you all think.

edited: just came across this link in the telegraph dated aug 08, so some of you might have heard about it before :-\.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/3349686/Gardening-blood,-sweat-and-HLM.html

edited again :-[ :): another cool link:

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/straw_bale_garden.htm

right i am definately going to bed will research this some more in the morning, night night A4A :).

thifasmom


littlebabybird

if nothing else thankyou for choosing tonight's reading material
lbb

thifasmom

Quote from: littlebabybird on January 20, 2009, 02:15:18
if nothing else thankyou for choosing tonight's reading material
lbb

;D no probs, glad to oblige. as i signed out i noticed that you signed on. i then went to bed but couldn't fall off to sleep because of all the straw bale ideas swimming through my head, so i woke up OH to get something else to do to help me fall asleep. worked really well too ;).

nilly71

I think it looks a mess (only looked at the last link) and the rats/mice would have a field day in all that straw. It would take up so much room as well.

Neil

Ishard

I did a similar thing to this on one plot I have although I also lined up the bales into squares and planted in the middle of the square too. These make really cheap raised beds.

When the straw has rotted too much to hold its shape it then gets spread on my other more conventional plot, so its a win win all round.  ;D

thifasmom

Ishard what did you grow in it and was your set up similar to the last link i posted?

I'm thinking of trying it in my greenhouse (i have no soil in the greenhouse) for melons and okra as those are the only things i plan to grow in there this year and when those crops are finished i could follow with winter salad crops. if i do try it, i will be encasing the bales in plastic to retain water and nutrients. if it works successfully i would compost the bales in spring 2010 and start a fresh.

if the bales work out to be to big, it has given me another idea, which is to mix my stock pile of spent rabbit bedding (made of sawdust and droppings) half and half with compost to create a nutrient rich water retentive growing medium to grow the same two crops. any thoughts on this? the rabbit bedding was collected last summer and has been in sealed black compost bags since then. i also have a compost bin full of the stuff from the same time.

Tee Gee


thifasmom

Quote from: Tee Gee on January 20, 2009, 10:54:45
Here is another bit of reading material on the subject; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Growing%20on%20straw/Growing%20on%20straw.htm

Is there nothing you haven't come across Tee Gee:D ;). what do you think of my other idea....

Quote from: thifasmom on January 20, 2009, 10:49:49
if the bales work out to be to big, it has given me another idea, which is to mix my stock pile of spent rabbit bedding (made of sawdust and droppings) half and half with compost to create a nutrient rich water retentive growing medium to grow the same two crops. any thoughts on this? the rabbit bedding was collected last summer and has been in sealed black compost bags since then. i also have a compost bin full of the stuff from the same time.

ceres

Anyone thinking of this, make sure you get straw (from a cereal source) and not hay.  Hay could have been sprayed with aminopyralid.  Cereal crops can't, although they may have been sprayed with other herbicides, they're not known to have the devastating effects of aminopyralid.  And because cereal is a food crop, the testing of any herbicides used will have been more rigourous in respect of human health.

Tee Gee

Quoteif the bales work out to be to big, it has given me another idea, which is to mix my stock pile of spent rabbit bedding (made of sawdust and droppings) half and half with compost to create a nutrient rich water retentive growing medium to grow the same two crops. any thoughts on this? the rabbit bedding was collected last summer and has been in sealed black compost bags since then. i also have a compost bin full of the stuff from the same time.

With all due respect what you are describing is a compost heap, and yes you can grow stuff on a compost heap but growing on bales is a totally different concept.

The shape and size of the bales are part and parcel of the concept, and the fact that you feed them with nitrogen takes care of the rotting process without starving the plant/s as can happen on a compost heat where rotting activators have not been used.

I hope this answers your question TG

thifasmom

Quote from: Tee Gee on January 20, 2009, 11:53:01
Quoteif the bales work out to be to big, it has given me another idea, which is to mix my stock pile of spent rabbit bedding (made of sawdust and droppings) half and half with compost to create a nutrient rich water retentive growing medium to grow the same two crops. any thoughts on this? the rabbit bedding was collected last summer and has been in sealed black compost bags since then. i also have a compost bin full of the stuff from the same time.

With all due respect what you are describing is a compost heap, and yes you can grow stuff on a compost heap but growing on bales is a totally different concept.

The shape and size of the bales are part and parcel of the concept, and the fact that you feed them with nitrogen takes care of the rotting process without starving the plant/s as can happen on a compost heat where rotting activators have not been used.

I hope this answers your question TG

yes i understand that these are two different methods, the straw bale idea simply reminded me that i had some surplus bedding rotting down (i was told give it approx 2 yrs due to it being sawdust based) and i was just wondering if by mixing it with some compost if it would be an ok medium to grow in. meaning do you think the wood from the sawdust would leach out too much nitrogen from the rabbit droppings and compost to the detriment of the plant, or do you think i might be able to get away with it ;). sorry if i was not clear enough before.

Tee Gee

Quotewondering if by mixing it with some compost if it would be an ok medium to grow in.

Sorry about that I was at cross purposes with you.

The answer is yes but a lot depends upon how you use it and for what!

I do similar when I grow by the 'ring culture' method or in containers.

I put a layer of farm yard manure in the case below I used horse muck in the bottom third of the ring....you could use the mix you described.

For topping up I riddle my home made compost (ex the dalek) with multipurpose compost add some general fertiliser.

I find this very good for tomatoes because the have a dual root system i.e. feeder roots at the top and water seeking roots at the bottom so this arrangement works well for me.






thifasmom

hmmmm!!! now I'm spoilt for choice :), not sure which method to try now :-\. i might give both methods a go. melons and okras are both greedy plants. the only thing is my greenhouse isn't large but i should be able to fit at least to bales plus some buckets for the bedding mix trials, maybe I'll do three plants in buckets and three in bales per crop and according to which does better will determine how i will do it in the future.

thanks Tee Gee for being patient with me :D.

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