I have never heard of this and am woundering what the advantage is to this method.
Why straw bails?
Oh eggdr, there are so MANY advantages! Most basically, our motto is;
"No weeding, no hoeing, no tilling!!!"
And less bugs, better control, and healthy plants. As one who veers from the norm somewhat ( I use hay instead of straw) I can add less fertilizing, and less watering. I do need to give them haircuts to control the "grass", however.
There's a thread about halfway down the Strawbale home page that refers to finding basic information (which I don't know how to include) which will help a great deal.
Please join us!
Yeah- what Catmad said! Plus you're only watering/fertilizing the actual space that your plants are in (instead of an endless expanse of garden soil. And in addition, if you have issues on your property (i.e.: I have a very wet garden area that I was unable to till until way too late to do a garden), you can still have a bale garden. I agree with catmad- I use hay. Tried both and decided to go with the hay for a few reasons: it offers nutrition (less fertilizing needed), and holds moisture much better plus, at the end of the season - POOF! it's gone! The plants actually consume the bales. It's so cool.
I have serious physical challenges and had to give up gardening for years until I found Bale Gardening. It's GREAT!
Here's a pic of one of my squash plants from this morning:
I am new to gardening and learned about strawbales on DG. My husband and I liked the idea that it's like a raised bed. So we gave it a try. We had a fun summer growing tomatoes, squash, watermelons. Had a hard time with peppers, but that had to do with other factors. We're still harvesting brussel sprouts! It's worth a try.