I saw a videO on Straw Bale gardening on YouTube and as soon as it finished playing, I knew this was something I wanted to try. I love my container garden that Charles built for me so I could garden standing up but it's pretty expensive to set that up and I was only getting good yields from some of the plants I was growing. This was a great way to have the plants up off the ground so I can reach them, I can put the garden anywhere I want to and it's not permanent, there is no weeding and lastly and most alluring to me, it looks so cool!
The first video I watched was an interview with Joel Karsten, the father of straw bale gardening. You can watch it too... https://youtu.be/6feaKfRqbJ0. There are some videos out there talking about all the reasons NOT to try this but from what I saw, there were so many more people growing successful gardens and enlarging them year after year. Here are a couple more of my favorite YouTubers with Bale Garden examples.
52 Week Garden Survival HT ,
Brew City Gardener There are more but these guys are for real.
SOOOOOO.. I'm going to take you all on the ride with me. Feel free to comment or ask questions.
Hay bales are a little expensive around here and if this new thing works out, I'm going to try some suggestions I've gotten to find cheap or even free bales. There is no reason you can't have year old hay so maybe I can find a farmer that will give them to me!
We didn't have a truck so we loaded up my GLK Mercedes with four wheat straw bales that I bought from D&D Feed Store in Tomball, Texas. I also bought some 33/33/33 nitrogen there. It's a big bag so I can use it next year too.
After getting home with the bales Charles arranged them for me and I placed them with several layers of newspaper underneath. This certainly isn't a requirement. I just did this because earthworms love newspaper and I want them to come live in my garden.
The water faucet is right behind the bales and since I want to include an automatic watering system, I thought this was a great place. Getting sun is a problem for me in all of my yard so I'll just have to get as much traction as I can and hope all the tubs and bales get at least 6 hours a day of full sun.
I plan to have cucumbers on the back bale so Charles put up a trellis I used last year. It's always good to have a nimble helper right!
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