If you have had problems with poor soil or do not have space for a garden, then straw bale gardening will make growing your vegetables, herbs and flowers much easier. This method has been perfected by Joel Karsten whose book, “Straw Bale Gardens,” has changed the way to garden.
The straw bale is both the container and the soil, so you don’t need expensive equipment to till or maintain the ground. With only a trowel, some potting mix, fertilizer and water, the straw bale becomes your raised-bed garden. An added bonus with straw bale gardening (SBG) is that there is no weeding!
Karsten lists four steps to get started:
1. Place your straw bales on any surface. Treat your bales with high-nitrogen fertilizer to accelerate decomposition of the straw inside the bale. Water heavily for 12-18 days.
2. Plant seedlings and seeds directly into the bales. Seeds require a bed of potting soil to hold moisture atop the bale until germination. Continue watering.
3. Water, watch and wait. No weeding.
4. Harvest. After the season, bales have turned into beautiful compost for use in other garden areas.
Each step is fully explained in Karsten’s new book, “Straw Bale Gardens Complete.” For questions, see Joel Karsten’s website, strawbalegardens.com.
The straw bale garden needs to be placed in an area that gets, at least, six to eight hours of full sun. To help control weeds, place the bales on landscape fabric or cardboard and top with mulch or gravel.
To make your straw bale garden into a vertical garden, add trellises. Karsten shows how to add steel posts at each end of the bales and run a wire between the posts. You can use this trellis to create a greenhouse effect by placing plastic over the wire to protect seedlings.
We have included pictures of SBG from an article, “Create a Garden Anywhere with Straw Bales” by Melinda Myers, who is a columnist and editor for Birds and Blooms magazine. This article also points out the importance of conditioning the straw bales for 10 consecutive days with water and fertilizer. On day 10, Myers uses one cup of 10-10-10 or 3 cups of an organic fertilizer that is high in phosphorous and potassium. To make watering easier, she suggests using soaker hoses or a drip irrigation system.
Put your straw bales on your patio and watch the garden grow, and soon, you will have fresh vegetables and herbs near your kitchen. Add annual flowers and strawberries to the sides of the bales to make it beautiful and yummy. What could be easier than harvesting your potatoes by just knocking over the bale and picking them up? No digging required!
For more fun ideas about SBG, see Pinterest.
