The pic above shows the first garden at Ligaya about 4 years ago.
It was at a time when we were still renting, so couldn't put down anything permanent. I was very sick at that time as well, so couldn't do any heavy or any kind of sustained physical or mental effort.
But we so wanted a garden!
I did a little reading online over a few days and discovered that there was a no dig, easy to maintain way to garden called 'Straw Bale Gardening'. The garden in the pic above is our first try. It has shade cloth around it to make it look tidy and slow down the rate at which birds stole the straw. That's also what the plastic bag is doing hanging from a stick. It was a rudimentary bird scarer...It seemed to do the job.
Few things could be simpler. Just put down some kind of weed barrier, lay a straw bale onto that, place handfuls of compost where the plants are to go and plant.
Well....not that simple. You've got to really soak the straw first. We did ours in Winter, so we left it in the rain for a week until it was thoroughly damp all the way through.
While it was getting wet, I added a couple of night's supply of urine to the bale, so that the.straw could break down easily.
The straw bale will heat up quite a lot as microbes get to work on it. It's best to wait until it cools a bit before planting into it or the plants might get their roots burnt.
The rest is just like they said it would be. Place a couple of good handfuls of potting mix or compost where you want the plants to go and plant into those.
You need to water it to keep the plants alive. As I said, ours was a Winter job, so we had enough rain to do the job for us. If you're planting in Summer, make sure the bale doesn't dry out, or the water will run straight through.
Just a note. You will notice the straw bundled so that the stalks run in one direction. If you lay the bale down so that you are planting into the cut ends of the straw you will find it easier to plant info, though the water will drain away faster. I like to say that this is the way to plant in Winter to let the excess water run through. In Summer, lay the bale so they you are planting into the stalks side on. This slows the water as it runs through.
I've seen people run plastic around the sides to keep moisture in in the warm weather or to keep some heat in in the cold. We tried shadecloth for Summer and Winter as it seemed to have the best of both worlds. It worked though, of course, you will have to adapt it to your local climate.
I forgot to mention it until @derekfreeman mentioned it in a reply to this post - there's no waste when you've finished with your straw bale garden...it's all almost broken down into compost for you. All you have to do is spread it around!
Give it a go!
This is #originalwork. The pics were taken by yours truly.
Check out how our garden grows on our blog, Ligaya.
We have a YouTube channel and a Patreon page that you might like to visit.
We're also members of the Homesteadersonline community. Click the image for the invite link to join us
Great story! Thing about straw bale gardening is that you can grow anything in them! and when they are done, its compost. I am doing quite a bit in bales this year and will probably increase that amount next year compost goes to huglekultr!
Id like to see what you're doing @derekfreeman. I should edit my post and mention using them as compost...i plain forgot! Thanks for the reminder!
:) Ill do a post soon about my garden set-up. But need to get it all done first. I am almost there just not quite. But I do have most things l=planted and some stuff is popping already.
Would you use straw bales again now that you have your own garden?
If I had a lot of space I woild. Id like to experiment with diffetent types of straw. But for now, not on our block as the place is pretty full. Onr of our neighbours is goung to give it a go so we will be hrkping tjem
will follow this from now on, since I do a little bit of gardening myself, thanks
Thank you!