Nope, I bet you do get some this year.
Hay bales - beginner stuff
Hey, all. I find I'm having a heck of a time finding straw bales and, when I do, they're pretty high ($5-$6.99 ea). Have any of you tried this concept using hay? Any appreciable differences that I should take into consideration? (I'd imagine that there'll be more weeds in the bale, but other than that . .??)
Thanks for any light you can shine on the subject. I'm going organic with this, and have already gotten several folks locally very interested in this, too.
Suzan
Suzan, why don't you go up into the right hand corner and type in the subject of your question. i.e. hay bales, and see if it tells you where in this forum to find where people discuss them.
There is a lot of good information here if you find it. Too much for any of us to try to repeat. Plus, we would probably leave things out that are important to your use of them.
Jeanette
Re: water usage . . . it seems to me that, even though you may have to water more often, you'd use LESS water to water only the actual growing medium than in watering a garden, with all the diffusion into the ground. I've also been thinking of using newspaper (buncha thicknesses) under the bales, both to slow the water leeching out and to help keep ground weeds from growing up through the bales. Does this make sense?
Yes Suzan it does. 2 years ago I did that. Not under the strawbales, but in my perennial bed. I used 12 sheets. Wet them, and then put mulch on top and water that. I haven't had any weeds except where I didn't overlap the papers. The weeds seem to find those places.
Jeanette
What if I 'built" a double stacked frame around the strawbales using treated 2 X 8's. This would in essence hold the bales together and when they decomposed I would have a 'mini' compost bin to plant in the next couple of years. Has anyone tried anything similar? This will be my first attempt at SB gardening. I have an 8' X 16' raised bed completed last year that did great but I want to plant so much more this year that I thought I would try the strawbales for my tomatoes and peppers only and do everything else in the bed. BTW, bales here are going for $3.75. Will I be the guinea pig on this idea?
Suzan: if you put those bales up against each other at the beginning, you're not going to have any weeds coming up between them, and you're definitely not going to have any weeds come up through the bales.
postmandug: try your idea and see how it works. Take some pics and post them for us. Be sure to think how you're going to support those tomatoes. 8 to 9 ft tall tomatoes need some special consideration!
Kent
Kent I had thought of using T-posts around the perimeter and stretching fence above the frame for support. As far as the "frames" go should I leave a little space between each board to allow air to circulate through the bales to help decompose faster? If I made the boards touching each others edges would the lack of air cause the straw to sour? I am going this weekend to get my bales even though I won't be ready to plant for another month in my zone. The pic is of the raised bed and the SB garden will be behind it so the sun will hit both the bed and the bales. In this case should I go twine up or down?
Suzan and Postmandug: I think we had a thread last year that could be helpful. About what to place the bales onto, and about water conservation issues etc. Ill see if I can find the thread and *bump* it to the top again. Might be something of interest in there for you.
Probably just about time that I posted a conclusion to the questions asked and answered in there anyway. I experimented with plastic sheets, newspaper, concrete and lawn.
btw Suzan, replying to your post on apple cucmbers just before inspired me to peel and eat one, then another, it was actually quite nice! I think I like them again. Thanks :-)
Lena
Do any of you straw/hay bale gardeners use rain barrels? I know I'd need to use those little bht thingies on top, to keep the skeeters away, but free water is GOOD water and, when you're gardening, ANY water is good water.
I'm really getting antsy to get my bales delivered .. . AARGH! Full blown Spring fever here in PA! Raining and in the 60s today!!
Suz
Suzan, have you started your plants yet? Where did you get your seeds, and what do you have coming up? That to me is spring. When I see my seedlings coming up. I have some nice looking tomatoes up already and still have a foot of snow on the ground.
Jeanette
Jeanette: Unfortunately, I don't have a good place to start seeds. Am reading all the old threads feverishly, and it's sounding like I can seed a lot of things directly into the bales, and then I'm going to get some plants at the local farmer's market once my bales are ready. (Would love to get some nice heirloom tomato seeds, if anyone out there has more than they need.)
I have a small herb garden with a few flower perennials in the back of my house and my house is in total shade! BUT, I have about 2 acres in the side yard in full sun, and the garden is fenced in from last year[*see link below] to keep the bunnies and the deer out.
I've put the word out at my church and gotten 2 or 3 other families interested and contributing toward the bale garden. It looks as if I'm going to do about 1/2 and 1/2, hay and straw, and see what works best. After being away from gardening for almost 12 years (due to health issues), I'm so excited to be getting back into it!
This'll show you where my garden will be! (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110334691745232359315.000448cc87fa45c7f3b07&t=h&z=18 )
Namaste- Suz
postmandug: I wouldn't worry too much about how fast the bales decompose, making cracks in the boards, etc. The bales will do what they're going to do. Design your set up as you see fit. I'm just a bales-on-the-ground kind of guy.
In any case, I still favor strings ON the ground. It was so much better for me concerning the amount of water usage and run off.
Kent
P.S. - I still want to get some old sawdust and make a narrow trough to transplant my veggies in. I think it would do very well. I just keep forgetting to go out and look for some old sawdust.