In my garden adventures with hay bale ad straw bale gardening I have tried several different gardening techniques. While I like growing melons and gourds in the bales both are heavy feeder so I created a hay bale/ straw bale square garden technique to use with these crops.
photo credit: JBColorado

Use four bales, hay or straw. Each bale type has its strong points. Lay the bales out to form a square with an open section on the inside. In the inside you will want to make and place a trellis or stakes to hold up melons or gourds. Growing these crops vertically will take a lot less space. There will be a lot of weight on this trellis so it has to be well made. My trellis is 10 foot tall, made of metal and welded together.

Once the trellis or stakes are in place fill in the square with fertilizer. Top with straw or grass clipping and water well. This is your onsite fertilizer pit for these heavy feeding plants. I have found that by using this method my crops grow twice as fast and larger than ever before. And with melons I put two plastic milk jugs into the pit, upside down with the bottoms cut off and the cap off. This is my watering funnel to make sure they get enough water.
photo credit: gui.tavares

Now it’s time to prepare the bales for planting. This link will give you the bale preparation method.

Plant three plants in each bale. I plant them near the back and plant flower in the front for color and to add interest to the garden.

The only point I must stress is to make sure you have the trellis or your vertical stakes very secure! It makes a mess when they fall, and yes, this is experience talking.

You can let the melons or gourds lie on the ground and make a unique looking garden but it takes more space and insects will be harder to control. If you decide to let the produce sprawl on the ground, mulch the ground to keep the weeds down, add a few flowers and some garden art and it will make an interesting garden.

Hay bale gardening or Straw bale gardening has many positive aspects. Its worth giving it a try, particularly if you have poor soil or trouble getting a garden tilled.

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© Denise for The Gardener's Rake, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: creative gardening, hay bale gardening, raised bed gardening, Straw Bale Garden

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photo credit: Valerie Everett

I prefer straw bales as they contain less seed and last longer but straw is more expensive so my choice for the garden depends on the best buy I can get or which crop I am growing. For squash plants and gourds I use hay bales. For my tomatoes and peppers I use straw.

Hay Bale Gardening method

So, if your soil is poor or you want to use the raised bed method but are short on soil,  you may want to consider growing your crops in hay. First get bales that still have the string tightly around the bale. This gives you control in moving the bale.

And if you know where you want your garden position the bales. The bales get heavy when wet so you will simplify preparing the garden if you select your garden area when you purchase the bales. If possible let your bales set outside during the winter. This gets the bales wet throughout.

If you are just getting your bales, give the bales a thorough soaking, and let them begin to break down before you plant your vegetables. If the weather is warm, soak them several times during the day for four days.

On the fifth day, apply your choice of liquid fertilizer to the top of each bale. I use liquid compost I have made. Manure tea works well too. Repeat this for three or four more days depending on the crop you will grow. (Gourds and heavy feeders get four days on added fertilizer) When you are done soaking the bales allow one or two days for the bales to set.

Next apply a 50-50 mix of topsoil and manure on the top of each bail or your own compost soil mix. The soil is about 4 inches thick on top of the bale. This will hold the moisture in the bale, add nutrients to the bale during the season and is a place to plant seeds.
photo credit: Average Jane

Moisten the bales with a fine water spray. You are now ready to plant your bale garden. Pull apart the bale by hand to make a hole to put your plant. I also add some soil if I am planting a transplant. Each bale should hold two tomato plants, four pepper plants or two squash plants. Cucumber and lettuce are spaced differently. I use the square foot gardening spacing guide. An example would be six to eight cucumbers, three yellow squash or 12-15 bean seeds per bale. And lettuce would be spaced 6 inches apart.

Annual herbs like basil, cilantro and parsley grow well in bales. I tend to mix them in with other vegetables. Watermelon and cantaloupe can also be planted in bales but I like to have a stronger fertilizer mix for these heavy feeders so plant them in a straw bale square.

Root crops don’t so as well in bales. Their roots are crowded but I have found they thrive in containers and are so easy to harvest – just tap the container to loosen the soil and dump the container. And grow potatoes in loose straw for a great crop.

Hay bale gardening is easy and the garden area has a unique look. I also use a square bale garden formation for heavy feeding plants, lay out the bales for an interesting garden and have mossed the sides of the bales for a very artistic flower garden. hay bale gardening a versatile form of gardening.

Tips:

• Buy your bales off season for a better price. Sometimes in late spring they will be free for the hauling.
• Plant flowers around the base for a fun look to your bale garden.
• Stack the bales two high if you want a garden that is easy on the back.
• Straw bales have less seeds in the bale but cost twice as much
• Bales should last two years.
• When you are done using the bales, compost them for more soil for another gardening year.

Technorati Tags: Creative Organic Gardening, hay bale gardening, raised bed gardening

© Denise for The Gardener's Rake, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The reasoning for planting in hay was that it was like a raised garden and you could plant earlier with less work and no digging. The No Dig method is considered to be better for soil structure.
photo credit: JBColorado

I read that you needed to start with transplants. They suggested wetting the bale down very well a couple of times a day for several days. When you were ready to plant your transplants you would dig a hole in the bale and put in rich potting soil or compost.

So I decided to add a hay bale wall to my garden area and started dragging in hay bales. Of course the neighborhood was watching and wondering what the eccentric gardener was up to this time. I wet the bales down as suggested and added fish emulsion to the areas I knew I would be planting in.

I planted peppers, tomatoes, flowers and beans in the hay bales in different arrangements that were pleasing to the eye. Several bales I stacked creatively and planted ornamental gourds in those in such a way they would trail down the bales. This made a garden art piece that I could add accent pieces to for fun in the garden.

My accent pieces were old farm pieces, crocks and pottery pieces and later: mums and pumpkins.

My garden plants grew well. I think I had one of the larger tomato crops that year. And the gourds looked great cascading down the bales.

At the end of the year the bales were breaking down and I threw them in the compost pile.

I have used bales since, particularly for gourds, I just like the look and focal growing spot I can make using bales.

Another unique ideas I have heard of for hay bale planting is making a moss planter for plants (It’s a great look!) and a growing flowering plant wall.

One suggestion you may want to consider. Hay brings in more weeds. You will wanter older bales that have brokern down a little or go with straw bales. The straw bales do not have seeds.

Technorati Tags: creative gardening, gardening methods, hay bale gardening, raised bed gardening, straw bale gardening

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