By Kent Rogers | March
2008
- Introduction
- Prepare your bales
- What to plant & how to care for it
- Resources
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Kent Rogers of Wake Forest has successfully cultivated a vegetable garden in bales of straw. Kent points out that the method produces good-looking, healthy plants without weeds, and is especially convenient for people who don’t have a large plot of ground to till, or who are physically unable to do a lot of kneeling, bending, raking and hoeing.
Here is some of his advice for people interested in straw bale gardening. Kent is a member of Wake Electric, a Touchstone Energy cooperative. You can contact him by mail at 13028 Powell Rd, Wake Forest, NC 27587, and by e-mail at kent.rogers@earthlink.net
I have learned that wheat straw bales are the best. Pine straw won’t work. Get bales that are tightly tied with synthetic twine if you can find it. Synthetic twine won’t rot and it will hold the bales together longer. If the bales use regular twine, you may have to put a stake at the end to hold it together. I have paid about $2.50 each for bales.
I arrange 10 bales per row, so they can hold each other together. Orient bales with the strings on the ground to make transplanting easier.
If you make more than one row of bales, put them wide enough apart so your lawnmower can get between them. And because you’ll be watering them, place bales where the water will drain away.
You can use seeds if
you add some topsoil on top of the bales. I transplant my vegetables
from flats and trays directly into the bales.
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