Texas Gardening: Hot August Blooms & Garden Views, 1 by quilter_gal

quilter_gal wrote:
Bananna18, that's right. People do different things with them so there are a lot of different methods - there's not much you can do wrong with them, actually.

The idea is to age some bales of hay or straw and stick plants in them - after that, the variations are pretty much endless.

No digging, no weeding, no tilling, no stooping or kneeling.

newtons, if you look at the large version of the picture I posted, you can see the four bales sitting on the ground. I wasn't sure that I'd aged my bales well enough, so I bought a bunch of dishpans at Dollar Tree and cut about half of the bottoms away. I set those on the bales, filled them with potting soil and then planted seed in them. It can be tricky to start seeds in the bare bales, so this way I didn't have to worry about that. Plus it raised the plants up higher for even less stooping, it shaded the hay to keep the roots cool and as the soil settled, it gave me room for top-dressing with Black Kow or fertilizer granules, and for flooding with water on very hot days.

There's a strawbale gardening forum right here on DG. :) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/strawbale/all/

Stephanie, I would be tickled pink! Is there anything I could give you in return? I posted a have list on the trade thread, but if you're looking for other things, let me know and I'll find you one. :)

DNP, your chocolate bunny is pretty early - those usually come out at Easter, don't they? ;)

Have a great day!
Elizabeth