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Growing Vegetables and Flowers in Strawbales
Where to buy straw bales? Livestock Feed stores
What kind of straw bales? Wheat. ….Oat bales aren’t baled compactly enough and tend to sprout. Synthetic baling twine lasts longer. If the bales are baled with regular twine, you can stake them at either end, or line them up in a row to reinforce the ends. Bales aged about six months are best.
Where to place the bales? Once bales are watered, there will be no moving them. So decide on their location in advance. Place them where drainage will flow away from the house. Leave room to maneuver between them. Orient the bales with the twine off the ground, with the narrow edge facing up.
How to prepare the bales? To create a soil-like environment, sprinkle a cup of blood meal on each bale. Then, really soak it. Best yet, put a drip line over them and water every few days. The bales will heat up and in about 10 days, put your finger deep into a bale to be sure it has cooled before planting. Otherwise your plants will burn.
What crops to plant? Tomato, peppers, okra, dwarf-variety corn, beans, peas, zucchini, melons, squash, cucumbers, annual herbs and salad greens, flowering annuals. Root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips are not successful bale crops. Alyssum and marigolds are natural pest repellents. Edible nasturtiums make good corner crops.
How to plant the bales? Plant seeds or seedlings directly on the moistened bale, then cover the top with a two-inch layer of compost. Sprinkle generously with water. Or, use a trowel to break apart a little planting area for your seedlings. Then apply about an inch of compost, again sprinkling generously.
How to tend your crops? Continue to water every few days, as you would any crop. You can dowse with compost or use weak manure tea to keep up the nutrient flow.
At the end of the season, break apart the bales to use as mulch or compost. Start with new bales each year.
Become a potato snob. Just grow and eat your own potatoes. Layered cultivation yields a harvest of dozens potatoes over a few weeks. It’s easy. Locate half a barrel or another 20-30 inch container. Cut four 1-inch-diameter drainage holes in the bottom, or remove the bottom. Scrub the container then rinse with one part bleach in 5 parts water. Place the container in a sunny location. Fill the container with several inches of loose acidic planting mix, a variety that includes peat moss, or add one shovel-full of peat moss per cubic foot of regular potting soil. You could plant eye pieces of regular potatoes from the grocery store or farmers’ markets, but you may run into disease problems and get a smaller yield. Better to purchase certified disease-free seed potatoes from a nursery or by mail order. These are usually available by January. Select about eight potato pieces, each about the size of a golf ball and each with at least one potato eye, then plant them about 6 inches deep. Next sprinkle a layer of cottonseed meal or a dowsing of diluted fish emulsion or another fertilizer. Water the soil thoroughly about twice a week. In hot weather, more watering may be required. Do this throughout the growing process, but be careful not to let the soil stay soggy. When growth is about 6 inches above the soil, add some more soil, covering about 2/3rds of the stems and foliage, then fertilize again. Repeat this each time there is a flush of new growth. When the soil is within two inches of the top of the container, stop planting. When the foliage begins to flower, stop fertilizing. New potatoes are ready as soon as the plants are blooming in earnest. Trying not to disturb the roots, dig in and feel for little spuds. Gingerly harvest them. Then boil the potatoes in their skins and serve with butter and chopped parsley or another herb. Mature potatoes are ready once the plants finish flowering and begin to turn yellow. Potatoes are best if they “cure” in the soil for a few weeks. Stop watering and let the greenery die back. Afterward, you can dig them out or tip the container out to harvest them. Store your potatoes in a dark, cool place.
