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I’ve talked in the past about starting garden beds with straw bales, but I thought I’d revisit it for the Prepper series, since someone mentioned it in the comments last time. Disclaimer: I’ve never read the books on straw bale gardening. I did start with this website for instructions: https://www.diynatural.com/straw-bale-gardening/
I have used bales of wheat straw, and also mixed grass hay bales. The wheat bales I know were not organic.
I don’t know about the hay. Getting the bales ready to plant is the same for either hay or straw.
I use straw/hay bales to increase my garden size, since my soil is clay, and needs lots of organic matter to make it good for growing veggies. I’ve found that if I use bale garden beds to start new areas, in a year or two the bales have decomposed and the soil under them is great to use. My beds are slightly raised beds, not tilled.
First, put cardboard or heavy paper down where you want your garden, as many layers as you want. If you want them framed, most bales are 3 feet wide, and about 2 feet long, so make your beds 3 feet wide and an even number of feet long, so the bales fit well. Framing your beds isn’t necessary, but I like it. It really helps later on, to keep all the organic matter in the beds. A frame made with 2x6 boards, two deep, will cover a bale to the top.
If you want, you can put cardboard around your bales too, if your area is very dry. Bale gardens take a lot of water, and wrapping them in cardboard or paper helps. Don’t wrap them in plastic though. They will mold and it will kill the plant roots later. If you are bale gardening on someplace like a deck, you can make a frame from wood for a single bale that almost encloses the bale, as long as it can breath. Castors can let it be moved, but be sure to build your bale holder to be strong. Put your bales on their sides, with the cut ends up. Strings will go around the sides. Place all your bales where you want them while they are dry. Wet bales weigh up to 150 lbs and are smelly and awful to move by hand.
Once your bales are in place, you have some choices about how you proceed, depending on how much time you have. If you are placing your bales a 3 or 4 months before you are planting them, just wet them down once they are in place, and as long as they get rained or snowed on a few times, then nature can do her thing to them.
If you have only 2 months or less, then wet your bales down, soaking them completely, and then put some fast dissolving fertilizer on them. You can use fresh chicken poop, or urea fertilizer crystals from the garden store, or any high nitrogen fertilizer. You can even pee in a bucket, dilute that with water and use that. Your objective is to start your bales to rot. They will heat up and cool in about 2 to 3 weeks if you keep them damp, and keep adding fertilizer every few days, and watering it into the bales well. There are instructions on the internet on a specific time table for when to water and when to put on fertilizer, but I’ve found just keeping it damp, and putting on chicken poop every few days does just as well as the rigid time table.
--**Just a note. Some instructions recommend Milorganite as a fertilizer for bale gardens. You can use that, but be aware that it is human poop waste. That isn’t terrible, since poop waste is useful, I suppose, but it is from Milwaukee’s sewers. People flush not just poop, but also medications and left over chemicals, and all that is likely to be in Milorganite. Just something to think about before you purchase. **
If you have only a couple weeks before you want to plant your bale garden, then you are going to have to water and fertilize those bales daily. Pull apart the bale enough to work your hand in there, and feel if it is heating. Once it has heated and cooled, you can plant your bales.
When your bales are ready to plant, they will have started to rot. They will be looser than they were new, and it will be easy to pull out clumps, or push aside the stems to make holes. Mushrooms may grow too. I either knock them over, or ignore them. It just means the hay is rotting.
Make a hole for your plants, and try to make the hole deep, at least 1/3 of the bale deep. Put a little long acting fertilizer in the bottom of the hole, then fill the hole with potting soil, and press it firm, then water it to dampen the soil. Put your starter plant or seeds into the potting soil, just like you are planting in a little pot. You’ll have to gently water each little planting area, probably up to three times a day for the first few weeks. Then water the whole bale daily after that. Once the bale really starts to decompose, it will get spongy, and retain water and you can water less often, but until then, bale gardens are water hogs, and if you don’t keep up, the plants can die in a day from lack of moisture. You may also have to fertilize your plants if they start looking lighter green or slightly yellow, or don’t grow quickly. Remember, the only food they have is what you give them until the bale decomposes enough to create food for them, so be generous with a good quick release fertilizer and water.
Once the plants really take off, their roots will go deeply into the bale, and maybe even into the bottom, and puddle there between the cardboard and the bale. That is OK, and you will be happy to have plenty of layers of cardboard to rot for the roots to explore. The cardboard (or paper) will have absorbed some of the fertilizer that washed through, and also feed the plants. Don’t be surprised if the roots even work through to the soil below.
You can also make bale beds by using the bales as a frame for a ‘well’ type bed. In the fall, arrange the bales like walls, with space inside. Fill the space with compost or manure, piling the middle up high, as high as possible, and let it all rot. In the spring, pull out part of the ‘wall’ of straw bales to make a keyhole to get into the center, and plant both the center and the bales. It looks messy, but it grows a lot of food in a small space.
I’ve found that, for me, tomatoes and pepper grow best in straw bales, but others have had good luck with peas, melons, and other plants. Just avoid top heavy plants, like corn. They fall over as the bale rots.
I have not found a big difference between straw or hay, but there are some minor differences. Straw lasts longer. At the end of the season, you will still have most of a bale left, and can smoosh it together and plant in it again. A good reason to have simple wooden frames for your beds is to keep that straw in place for planting. Hay bales will be mostly gone at the end of the season, but under the bales will be nicer soil than was there before.
Both types of bales take lots of water, but straw takes more. Hay rots more quickly, so it gets sponge-like faster, and retains more water that first year.
Hay has more seeds in it. Straw has some, so on both bales you’ll be pulling out tufts of weeds. It is easier than pulling weeds in soil, by far, but you will be pulling many more on the hay bale. But don’t let that discourage you from using hay.
What have you done, or set aside for your preps? I’d love to hear, and we learn from sharing, so comment below!
In the comments, let us know your plans for being more prepared, and the measures you have taken to get there. Anything about getting yourself to a place where, in an emergency, you can care for yourself, your family, and your community is great to talk about.
If you would like to do a story for DK Preppers, I try to have a discussion on Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evenings. The stories can be about your experiences, or just a topic to discuss. Let me know if you are interested.