Straw Bale Garden

The bale (or in my case, 4 bales) is the garden bed.

Before:

My reason for using straw bales in this area of my yard was because when I began digging the area for the garden bed I was not able to dig down more than an inch before I hit gravel. I wasn't about to take on another labor intensive task. (Hauling dirt and building a chicken coop was enough hard work for me I wasn't about to dig through gravel and I'm sure Tom would have been less than thrilled if I recruited him for another project.) But the lawn was such a waste of potential edible space so I started checking into building more raised beds. That was getting pricey. Then I remembered learning about an easy, inexpensive alternative to dirt garden beds during a edible gardening class I took through Edible Yard Works. So began my Straw Bale Garden.

First, I started my seeds pumpkins, squash, zucchini and melons -and much more- indoors. Then I bought some bales, set them in place, covered them with chicken poop straight from the coop, and watered the bales every day for about a week. Then when my veggie starts were hardened off and ready to plant out side, I dug out some of the straw a couple inches deep and threw a hand full of compost and planted my start right in the hole and filled it in with another hand full of compost.

The straw bales need to be watered more frequently because they are very porous so they seem to dry out more quickly than the rest of the garden. I think that probably also means that they aren't holding the nutrients as well as soil so I've fertilized once already with E.B. Stone's Fish Emulsion which seems to have given them a good boost and I already got, zucchini, squash and tons of pumpkins well on their way.

One Month Ago

Today

Note: You must use straw bales -NOT hay.