Straw Bale Gardening: Difference between revisions
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[https://www.finegardening.com/article/straw-bale-gardening-part-i?srsltid=AfmBOorULjj1C9ijEZnha98SqHRx5JkBbLA6WBcj7GObQyY5FOCPz7K0 by Greg Holdsworth] | [https://www.finegardening.com/article/straw-bale-gardening-part-i?srsltid=AfmBOorULjj1C9ijEZnha98SqHRx5JkBbLA6WBcj7GObQyY5FOCPz7K0 by Greg Holdsworth] | ||
“Conditioning” the bales is basically the process of getting the inside of the bales to start composting. This process takes approximately 10 to 12 days. Since I was just experimenting, I didn’t worry about how long it would take, as long as the conditioning was done correctly. If I were doing this at the beginning of the growing season, I would count backwards from the last average frost date, or when I was planning my first plantings, to ensure that the bales were ready. The inside of the bale will not feel and look composted at this stage. The idea is to get the bale composted far enough that the bacteria is activated, and making nitrogen and other nutrients available. | “Conditioning” the bales is basically the process of getting the inside of the bales to start composting. This process takes approximately 10 to 12 days. Since I was just experimenting, I didn’t worry about how long it would take, as long as the conditioning was done correctly. If I were doing this at the beginning of the growing season, I would count backwards from the last average frost date, or when I was planning my first plantings, to ensure that the bales were ready. The inside of the bale will not feel and look composted at this stage. The idea is to get the bale composted far enough that the bacteria is activated, and making nitrogen and other nutrients available. | ||
=====Straw bale gardening?===== | |||
[https://www.quiltingboard.com/general-chit-chat-non-quilting-talk-f7/straw-bale-gardening-t264383.html?styleid=4 by Quilting Board] | |||
I tried it one year. One thing I found was that the bales shrank a ***lot*** over the course of the season, and the shrinkage was uneven. I think it would help to have some kind of containment for the bales, such as wood sides. The other thing I found is that they need a lot of watering. I wished I had laid out a soaker hose over the top of the bales, connected to the faucet with an automatic timer. As I recall, watering with a hose often resulted with a lot of the water dribbling down and away from the plants; slow, frequent watering would have been better for the plants and also conserved on water usage. Also, I'm no expert, but I think it would have helped to have spread out at least a one-inch or two-inch layer of soil over the hay bales. If you are going to garden in the same place year after year, I think this would combine with the broken-down hay to form a nice base for a raised bed. | |||
