Planting in Straw Bales

Planting in Straw Bales: Everything you Need to Know for a Better Garden

Straw bale gardening (sometimes called hay bale gardening) is a gardening method that uses straw bales as the basic structure of your vegetable garden.   Like raised bed gardening, planting in straw bales has the benefit of raising your garden bed to a workable height, giving you control over the soil in your vegetable garden, and helping you manage weeds and drainage.  

Straw bale gardening is exactly what is sounds like: growing your plants right in a bunch of straw bales.  For those with limited space and time to lay out garden beds, this may be the perfect method (you can even grow a straw bale garden right on top of concrete!).  It also would be a great garden for those who don’t want to do a lot of weeding or who are unable to bend over.  The idea behind straw bale gardening is that the tightly packed straw decomposes, creating the perfect environment for planting vegetables.

Gardening in straw bales works because the straw begins to break down inside the bale and provides your plants with enough nourishment to grow.  While you can use hay, the seeds in the hay bales will sprout into – well hay, and require a lot of weeding.  You can purchase bales of straw at a gardening center or animal feed store.

Contents

Before You get Started Planting in Straw Bales

Just like other gardening methods, you will get the best results with a little planning.  With a little preparation, and the right materials you can grow most vegetables in your raising straw bed garden.  Here are a few tips to get your started:

  • Choose straw not hay – hay is often cheaper, but it include the seeds so you will get lots of weeds in a hay bale garden
  • Make sure you have organic straw bales.  If the bales were sprayed with chemicals this will impact your vegetables
  • You will need about 2 weeks to condition your straw bales, so make sure you give yourself time before you need to get seeds planted.  You can see more about conditioning your straw bales below, but you will want to add nitrogen rich materials or fertilizers to aid composition and help with plant growth.
  • Think about your watering method BEFORE you plant.  Your straw bale garden with dry out easily so you will need a good watering method

Setting Up Your Straw Bale Garden

STEP 1 – Lay out Your Straw Bales

Lay out your straw bales where you want them to stay – once they are wet they are almost impossible to move.  You can choose any arrangement you like, but keep a few things in mind:

  • Straw bales will dry out quickly, so place them next to each other to decrease evaporation
  • You need to be able to reach your garden, so leave enough space to reach the center of the garden
  • Some plants will vine or shade others, so plan what you want to plant before designing your garden
  • Vegetables need lots of sunlight, so make sure you place your straw bale garden 

We decided to make a straw bale castle, complete with 2 potato towers and an arch made from an old gazebo.  You can place the bales of hay on their side or upright.  Depending on how the bales are tied together, the string may disintegrate if it is against the ground, but some people argue that putting them string side down allows for better water retention.  Either way, how you place your bales is up to you.

STEP 2 – Prepare the Straw Bales for Planting

Start by completely soaking the straw bales.  You can find many methods of fertilizing your straw bales (basically you need to add nitrate), but I opted for an organic approach and topped each bale with a mixture of aged cow manure, rabbit dropping, and some bone meal.  You can also use fertilizer, but it is important to make sure you are adding nitrogen in particular to the hay bales.  Soak the bales again and let the fertilizer soak in. 

Continue soaking the bales of hay for 2 week weeks.  During this time, the internal temperature of the bales should get quite warm as the straw decomposes.  Once the temperature drops to below your own body temp, you can get ready to plant.  If you choose to go the organic route, this may take a bit longer.

Check the bales after 2 weeks. If the straw bales feel about the same temperature as your hand, you can plant your vegetables. You can also take the internal temperature if the bale.  If you plant your seeds when the straw bale is too how, it will not germinate.  Once the bales are cool, it’s time to plant.  You can add a small amount of seed starter to the top of the bale if you wish as well.

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Planting in Straw Bales

STEP 3 – Planting in Straw Bales

Just like a raised bed, you can grow almost anything you like in your straw bale garden, although it is best to avoid root vegetables and top heavy plants like corn and sunflowers. Some of the most common vegetables for planting in straw bales include:

  • Tomatoes and Zucchini : 2 to 3 plants per bale
  • Peppers: 3- 4 plants per bale
  • Squash: 2 to 4 plants per bale
  • Lettuce: up to 6 plants (depends on the variety)
  • Cucumbers: 4 to 6 plants per bale
  • Strawberries: 3 to 5 plants per bale

When planting seeds, add a little seed starter or other soil to the top and sow your seeds.  When planting transplants, make a small space in the straw bale and slide your plant inside. If your plants will grow tall (like tomatoes), you will want to add additional support just like in a traditional garden.

Maintaining Your Straw Bale Garden

After you finish planting in straw bales, it is important to maintain your garden during the growing season. Weed as needed and make sure to keep your straw bales well watered. You can do with by hand watering, with a watering can or hose, or set up a watering system. You may need to add additional nutrients throughout the growing season. One recommendation is to add fertilizer every 2 weeks, but with the organic method we used, we found that we did not need to add as much throughout the summer.

You may also see mushrooms growing on your straw bale garden – don’t worry about this, but also don’t eat the mushrooms! In general, people tend to use straw bales for one year but you may have success using them a second year after you add more nutrients. Planting in straw bales is a fun way to garden – and definitely has a place in your backyard farm!

Need some more info to get started: check out the Straw Bale Gardens book.

12 thoughts on “Planting in Straw Bales: Everything you Need to Know for a Better Garden”

  1. How cool! I've heard of straw bale gardening but wondered if it's something you need to build each year? Straw is pretty expensive here (about $15 a bale). I'm excited to see how your's turns out.

  2. Apparently you can use good straw bales for 2 years (hay for one year). You also have a bit of compost at the end as well – but $12-$15 dollars a bale seems really steep! Around here it was $10 and even that was too much – we found some for $4-$5.

  3. I'll be interested to see how this works out. I used straw as mulch one winter to cover a new flower bed. I had so many weeds from the straw that I had to crawl on my hands and knees to weed the garden. It took me weeks to get all of the weeds out.

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