Garden Notes

Straw bale garden after being planted in late May

This year at the start of the season in the Channel 6 Garden our leader Sharon Morrisey, decided to try straw bales as new container for some of our plants. Sharon said it was a way to garden if you have bad or contaminated soil and we were going to try some as an experiment. Using basic straw bales, Sharon had conditioned them with urea to start the process of the straw breaking down to become better hosts for our plants. (Apparently old straw bales work better because they have already begun to breakdown and if you have new bales, they need to be conditioned.)

At the end of May we planted squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans and cucumbers directly into holes we dug into 3 straw bales using just a cup or two of potting soil and some fertilizer for each plant. Those vegetables looked very spindly and out of place and I originally thought that we would not get much from such an odd container, especially considering that our plants were growing with so little soil.

The bales got off to a slow start and while the rest of the garden was growing by leaps and bounds, the straw plants were just holding their own. However, by the end of June the straw bale plants were lush and healthy and those plants produced a surprising amount of food. The beans and tomatoes did especially well and the spagetti squash are still growing and ripening out. At the same time, one of our fellow volunteer master gardeners planted potatoes in a straw bale at her home and we are still waiting to hear how many potatoes she harvests this fall. She said the plants look great, but who knows what is happening inside.

Now that we are in the middle of September, I think the straw bale garden was a successful at the Channel 6 Garden and I want to try this for growing potatoes next year. That no dig potato harvest idea really appeals to me!

Same straw bale garden with vegetables ready to harvest

This method of gardening is promoted by author Joel Karsten and the finer points of straw bale gardening are explained on his website. See more at: http://strawbalegardens.com/faqs/2-why-straw-bale-gardening#sthash.XlDF8was.dpuf