Spot: good price on those bales. It's beautiful here in Wake Co today and I'm ready to get things going, too!
Whenever I want a laugh, I just remind myself of the "expert" who said the only thing you can grow in wheat straw is wheat!
Folks still look at me funny whenever I talk about bale gardening.
But the map at frappr is growing. This will be the year for North American bale gardening, for sure. I'd love to get a marker on another continent.
Kent
Strawbale Gardening (part 7)
Hi,
I've read all the posts and thoroughly enjoyed reading all your great ideas. I'm a newbie gardener, but you've inspired me to try strawbale gardening. I started putting the ammonium nitrate on my 10 bales today. However, as I was watering it in, it did occur to me to wonder if the run-off is poisonous to animals. We have dogs and a couple of stray cats who are often in the yard. If this question has been asked and answered, I apologize. I didn't find it when I was reading or with a search. Any help appreciated.
Thanks, Karen in Tuscaloosa AL
Welcome Karen!! Glad to see newbies and really like it when they say they read thru all of these parts. I agree that there is a lot of good info in them. Don't know that I could read thru them again tho. LOL
I have to tell you that I live out in the sticks and have several dogs and a lot of wild animals from squirrels, birds, deer, and yes, even wild rabbits that eat around the garden and I have yet to find a dead anything out there. Especially if you are watering it good, it is being absorbed into the ground.
I don't think the ammoniam nitrate is anything like anti-freeze where the animals might go after it to dig it up or something if that is what you are worried about.
Jeanette
This is a very addictive idea. I have been reading about 2 months and, yes I bought 4 bales to try this out. The pictures are amazing!! I have been looking back through the old threads, I thought I read somewhere that I could just let them sit outside and let nature do the prep for the bales. I bought them about 6 weeks ago, I have watered them quite a bit, do I need to prep them with something anyway? I wasnt going to plant in them for another 3 weeks. If I still have to prepare the bales I will go back in the threads and find the formula.
chris
ps. everyone thinks I am nuts for doing this.
All I did to prepare my bales was to water them. I waited a few days then started "watching" for progress with the cooking thermometer. When they started to cool I planted in them. But I used grass hay bales. I think everybody else used straw.
Hi Crazy Chris!! LOL, they will quit laughing when you have some nice beautiful produce and they are buying theirs at the store or crawling around on the ground looking for theirs.
I see you are in Georgia. Zone 7b. It is kind of hard for me to tell you but have you tried putting your hand down in a bale to see if it has heated up? And, as Cajun said, try a thermometer. I think 6 weeks is quite a long time. If it were me, I would feel in a bale and see if it is warm, and also I would try to feel if it has started decomposing. Are you past your last frost date? You might laugh at me but I seriously do not know. If you are, I would think you could plant at any time if your bales are working. What are you going to plant?
Kent, help. Where are you when we need you. I think he is more to your zone than I am. I am zone 5.
Good luck Chris and I hope that someone in your area, zone, comes in to help you.
Jeanette
Jnette,
LOL, last freeze is about April 1 so I figured the bales would be cooked enough even if I didnt treat them. These are wheat straw. I will check them to see if they are warm this morning after the kids get off to school. Ok, I am a little confused, I didnt think I needed to time the bales to plant in them when they "were working". I thought they just needed to be done. I was doing it the lazy way, just letting them sit out. I was also going to use the one I had laying around from back in October that I never used for something else, can I use that? Just planting tomatoes and peppers.
crazy chris
Well, I'm in. My bales are arriving tomorrow, all 200 of them. Of course, most of them will go to the cows, but I get 50 or so of the "worst" ones. These are hay, and some have already been rained on, fine for cows to eat, but not for horses, so they're cheaper. I'll find those that look the worst (the best?) and hi-jack them to my hill top. Now I need a hint as to how much blood meal per bale. I have searched, and tried to go back thru the thread, but I'm missing the amounts. I did read the whole thread, but it took a while, and I just can;t find the blood meal directions. Is there anything else that needs to go in? I'm in zone 7b (Pelzer, SC), so I figure that early/mid April will be the time to plant stuff in my bales. Any tips welcome,I'm hoping for the best :)
Margo
catmad
Sorry, I can't help with the blood meal question. The only thing I added to my bales was a thick smear of rabbit manure. I put it on top of the bales and watered through it. Worked well for me.
Good luck and have fun!! I can't wait to get mine going. I think I am going to do 11 bales this year. Up from 8 last year. I'd do more but I don't have the room. People in town have been asking me if I was going to raise my "pretty" garden again this year. LOL
New folks: Welcome to bale gardening! Put your marker at www.frappr.com/strawbalegardeners
Margo: Big_Red wrote on 2/13/07 in Part 6 about his use of BLOOD MEAL: "I used a cup per bale every three days (twice) and then cut down to 1/2 cup every other day until the bales got good and hot." He's the only one I remember who has used BLOOD MEAL.
Chris: if the straw is getting soft you'll be OK. The nitrogen-rich additives just accelerate the process and help create a good environment for the breakdown.
Karen: no problems for wildlife on my side either with the ammonium nitrate run-off.
All: I debated on posting this, but here it is - an article in Carolina Country magazine about my bale garden. They got such a good respose from an article they ran last year, they wanted to do an update. The editor was gracious enough to let me put a plug in for DG.
http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march07guide/strawbales07.html
I'm getting a steady stream of emails from folks who are reading about bale gardening for the first time.
As soon as the article ran, a paper in Spartanburg, SC, wanted permission to use it, too.
I encourage all of you to call your local paper and see if they'll do a story on your bale garden. It's a good way to get the word out to those who don't visit DG.
I never would have tried bale gardening if I hadn't seen a small news article about a little old lady in Alabama and her bale garden.
Kent
Chris, where did you get your bales? :)
Susan
Congrats, Kent! Both on the article encouraging bale gardening and also on getting in a plug for DG!
Maybe we'll be seeing some new members soon!
Shoe
And how much $ were they? LOL Enquiring local minds want to know!
I just priced straw bales here at Southern States, $4. Y'all must have them or a similar feed supply locally.
Ha! I just ordered 100 bales of wheat straw at $2 each plus $10 for delivery tomorrow. Jealous?
Yeppers. I could get a better price too if I wanted more than 10-15 bales here. Sigh.
darius, there HAS to be some old farmer with 10 ruined bales lying around. I'd just drive down back roads or ask at the local cafe or something.
Kent, Congrats on an article that will be inspiring for many people or maybe shame on you for infecting the outside world with such an addictive idea. Also a great plug for DG!! Uh-oh my bales kinda feel like stiff straw in the middle still. I only watered it for about a week when I first bought them 6 weeks ago. What do ya think? Also I grew my own tomatoes this year and they are just babies,(about 4-5" tall, but they are scrawny things. thicker than a toothpick not as thick as a pencil) not thick trunks like the nursery ones. Do you think they will be ok in the bales?
Susan and eco, I bought the wheat bales at Home Depot for about $4 ea.
chris
How long on average should I water each bale to give it a good soak? I'm spraying the bales down one at a time and it takes forever. I don't necessarily mind it, gives me time to think. What I'm thinking is I may be over watering though. Kent mentioned over watering might have leached nutrients from his bales. I just started ammonium nitrate on my bales today. I cut down the watering on each bale to the time it takes the ammonium nitrate to completely dissolve. It's already mid 70's in central Mississippi with nights not getting below 50. I should be planting in 11 days. Thanks for any advice on the watering issue.
Kent congratulations on being published and great reading.
I wish I could find straw bales for less than $5.00.
Donna
dbarbrady,
Not sure about ammonium nitrate as I used blood meal as a catalyst but I watered mine every day just until the water started to run out of the bottom of the bales. Hope this helps!
Red
I think I have the find of the day. A friend of ours has a stack of about 40 grass hay bales that were baled before they dried and they have mould spots in them. He said I am welcome to the entire stack free of charge!!!
Now I have to figure out where to put them all. LOL
Gosh, take a day or 2 off and look what you guys have been doing!!! Wonderful Kent! Keep up the good work.
Can't believe Cajun got free bales!
Each one of you are getting better and better. But FREE???? That's great. I cannot believe you guys, I still have a foot of snow covering everything!! But I saw geese flying North. That's encouraging.
Think I am going to cover the hoophouse with plastic. That should help warm things up.
I hope all of you newbies are putting your mark on the map!! It is looking really good.
Jeanette
oh dear Kent.. I was so concerned about Chris in GA getting bales that I just didn't see the article! Now I did! Great job! Wonderful! :)
Susan
Hi Jnette - Thank you for the info on the ammonium nitrate. I know nothing about the stuff, so I'm glad to hear it's not a problem with the wildlife -- even though I , too, live in the sticks, our yard is fenced, so the wildlife in the yard is the tame kind. Between the compost and the AN I've bought, my 21-year-old grandson keeps talking about his grandma's bomb-building material. LOL. :-)
I'm jealous of all you folks getting such good deals on your bales -- here it runs from 4.11/bale at HD or Lowe's, and two other places at 4.50/bale and 5.00/bale. Sheesh! This is for straw - not hay.
Karen
Kent, great article - congrats! I'm dying to know how the potatoes work out in the old bales. Had thought just to let them go ahead and compost up, but potatoes, then to compost would be a great in-between step. I have very little yard debris for compost and don't use kitchen scraps. We have a woods area behind us and just throw the scraps over the fence. Don't know what eats it -- but it is gone the next morning. Deer, possums, raccoons? What do armadillos eat?
Has anyone used coffee grounds on the bales for extra nutrients? I keep reading in other forums about using them -- and since they are free . . .
Karen
Chris: continue to keep your bales damp for about a week; your tomatoes will get stronger and then transplant into the bales; you may want to consider putting some potting mix into the crack and then transplant the tomatoes into the mix.
Which reminds me, for those who are just trying bales for the first time, you have to get in the mindset that watering the bales is going to be different than in dirt farming.
You can't let "new" bales go days between watering, especially at the beginning, even during the preparation stage.
Later on in the season as the bales are decomposing nicely, they absorb more water, and are a little more forgiving if you don't water daily.
It shouldn't take that long to water.
I had 55 bales and it took about 15 minutes. About 1-2 gallons per bale is plenty.
Kent
Thanks Kent. Ive been a dirt gardener all my life. but I wanted to give the strawbales a try. The no hoe
no weed sounds great. Deffinatly new. I may be your oldest first timer. lol Turned 70 yesterday.
found about 40 old straw bales still in barn probably 20 years old. plus a lot of loose straw. I may have to clean his hay loft. heh heh heh
I and another friend are planning on doing this together.
I placed most of the info into a saved file. so it will be easier to find.
We will have to wait a while to get the bales as the snow drifts are still to high to get to the barn.
Most of the drifts have schrunk by about 3 feet in the last 3 days. if we have a few more days that get up to fifty we should be ok. then just wait for the ground to dry a little. then we can get to the barn Whooo Hooo.
Wow Cajun, you indeed have the best find! See folks, it never hurts to ask. The farmers might think you are a little looney but thats ok, you just might save yourself some cash and be using something that would otherwise be left to rot without growing beautifull produce.
I'm sure anyone on this thread could find cheap bales. You just have to ask around. It took me awhile to find this guy bu he was so happy to sell some bales because his main customer, who usually took 3,000 bales for some racetrack, vanished on him this year.
That's why he delivered for only $10!
Why you're just a spring chick Rondbponder!!! How old is the guy helper? This strawbale farming is the best thing that came along for us seniors, disabled, etc.No weeds, no bending, no getting down on the ground looking for cucumbers, or beans, or whatever like an easter egg hunt.
Last year I put my cucumbers and cherry tomatoes on a cattle panel trellis but planted in bales.. This year I am going to not only do that again but add beans, peas, small melons, and sweet peas and trailing nasturtiums for color to my bale/trellises.
Jeanette
You are right Jeanette, I am almost 81 so I'm sure I have you both beat agewise, and this is the first time for me to try bale planting. Windy and cold here today. I am going out to the gh so to plant some more seeds.
DonnaS
randbponder: welcome aboard! We didn't get any measurable snow fall this year in Wake Co, NC. First time that's happened in a long time.
There seems to be a shortage of wheat straw bales around my area. I called my supplier from last year and he's singing the blues about not getting a good crop. Will be June before he has any more straw.
He referred me to another guy a county away who does ALOT of straw and he couldn't/wouldn't let me have any. Says his regular customers (all landscaper types) want all he has. There is a building boom in this area of NC and they can't get the straw fast enough.
Home Depot wants $4.11/bale no matter how much you get. I'm not going that route.
No luck so far in getting those good deals I'm reading about. Hardly anyone grows straw any more around here.
So, I ended up with 66 bales of oat straw from one of my church members who had some stored back. Not sure if I'll use that much. We'll see.
Here's my daughter and the oat straw. For safety purposes I told her she couldn't stand up while going down the highway.
Kent
Hey Kent; I imagine if it's fun shes great help.
Two of my girls do most of their own work on their cars. one at age 10 was running the tire machine for me. the youngest changed a water pump on a 65 ford at 8 with only minor instructions. When she asked if there was anything else to do. I thought she was only half done. but not only did she have it off and the gasket cleaned off but the pump was back on. I shouldn't have asked her if she had every thing tight. Her responce was you can check it if you want to dad. Well ok I guess you may as well put the coolant in. LOL She sure stumped me there. Of course I had to come up with suitable rewards. Yes all three turned out to be great adults and yes they are all grand mothers now. Hmmmm I'm still young at heart.
She's a cutie Kent. And quite a load you've got on there. I'm almost afraid to try to get any straw. I paid $4.50 last year. And that was hauling it 50 miles. I jjust called that place and he said $6!! I about croaked. I said HOW MUCH??? And he says "well that's 3 string". That still seems high to me.
Donna, that is out of Moses Lake but in Idaho to buy it. How far are you from Colville or Kettle Falls? We were over there just yesterday and I never thought to find out what they have it for. I just can't remember how far away you are from everything. I can't remember how much you said it was in Oroville.
Yup Donna, you've got me beat too agewise. But that's ok. Better than the alternative. LOL
Jeanette
rand: great story about your girls. My dad had a red 64 Ford convertible. It was beautiful. Wished I had it now!
All: just kidding about letting my girl ride on top!
I thought I'd get scolded but at least no one did it publicly! :-)
KR
Kent, You don't mean the trailer was moving with her up there!! No way! If so, I don't know what they put in that water in NC. LOL Jeanette
Jeanette: I didn't word my last sentence clearly. I was trying to be funny and it fell flat. Water here is fine. :-)
KR
I got the joke, Kent!
I'm trying to figure out a good arrangement with my 100 bales, which I want to use to make a giant U (with more garden going inside it) ... side-by-side bales all the way around with a 2nd layer in the middle of those. Is that clear? I don't want to mess with cattle panels or anything & will plant melons & tomatoes in the top & let them sprawl downward.
summerkid: you've probably got all the angles covered, but 2 quick comments:
unless you put some sort of barrier down, anything running is going to have grass & weeds growing up in the vines; also consider where your water is going to drain; take some pics and let us see
Kent