Straw Bale Gardening Instructions Made Easy
Straw Bale Gardens Complete Explains Planting in Straw Bales
Have you heard about growing vegetables in a bale of straw? Are you limited for space or surrounded by poor soil? Don’t have the time or equipment to manage a typical garden plot? Then maybe it’s time you learned about simple straw bale gardening instructions.
Author Joel Karsten details everything you need to get your own straw bale garden going. You can start growing your own food by following the step-by-step instructions.
Straw Bale Gardens Complete covers all you’ll need to know to get started:
• Why? An overview of straw bale gardening and how it differs from traditional plot gardening and the advantages over typical raised bed gardening. Because plants grow in the bale rather than soil, they are less susceptible to plant blight typically caused by pathogens in soil.
• No space to grow? Check out the photos of straw bale gardens on a driveway, rooftop, apartment balcony, or even inside an old shopping cart! If you have space to fit a bale of straw, you can start growing your own food.
• What is straw? Learn about where straw comes from and the differences between straw and hay (they are not the same!). Read the hints on where to find straw locally.
• Planning: Here is where the straw bale gardening instructions begin. Study how to orient your bale to the sun and how to deal with sloping ground. Find out what tools you’ll need, how to make a trellis for your plants, and what type of fertilizer to use.
• Conditioning the bale: The secret of straw bale gardening is that the bale composts internally. Before planting, the bales need to undergo a simple process of fertilization and watering that takes about 10-12 days.
• Ready to plant: Read the tips on sowing seeds or transplanting, and study the novel idea of how to make a seed tape from ordinary paper towel. Find out what to plant and when to plant, from tips on planting onion sets to advice on how to grow peppers.
• Go big or go home: If one straw bale is good, then two must be better, right? Study the colorful illustrations of layout and planting ideas for a single bale up to 20.
• Extend the growing season: Learn how to turn your straw bale garden into a mini-greenhouse.
• Feeling creative? In addition to easy-to-follow straw bale gardening instructions, learn how to make your own sturdy tomato cages or a simple water recycling system. Build a simple compost bin and learn how to compost at home.
• What to do with the leftover bale in the fall? Make a new bale with the BaleMaker 3000! Learn how to make your own bales by building this simple tool out of three boards and a plastic storage container.
• Resources: Includes a list of suppliers, handy conversion charts, and a complete index.
Straw Bale Gardens Complete is filled with full-color photos, diagrams, and charts to create a complete set of straw bale gardening instructions.
Author Joel Karsten developed his straw bale gardening instructions out of necessity. Armed with a B.S. in Horticulture from the University of Minnesota, a brand-new home surrounded by construction fill, and not much money, Joel needed to look for other options. Remembering boyhood memories of how the thistles grew tallest where broken bales had been tossed up against the barn, an idea was born.
Ready to get started with straw bale gardening?