Have any of you tried straw bale gardening yet?

9 years ago

Hi all. Yesterday, I think it was, a Kindle Daily Deal was the book Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten for $1.99. Whenever I see anything gardening for that price, I hop on it.

I've never even heard of this method and I see that Garden Web doesn't even have a forum on it yet. The reviews were mixed. Some loved it, some hated it. It's kind of the same result you see from square foot gardening and lasagna gardening.

All that said, I tried searching the reviews for a Gulf Coast-er gardener but to no avail. I tried humid, hot, wet and various other Gulf Coastal keywords, but got nothing.

So has anyone tried it? If so, how did it work out? If not, and you've heard about it, what do you think about it? It gets so hot and humid here that I worry about fungus issues and over watering. Especially during the summer storms.

I'm seriously considering trying it, but want to make sure you all think it would work for us.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments (6)

Andrew Kolodziej
9 years ago
I have just bought and read the book myself, but rather than plant directly i the bales I decided to use them to outline a new garden (after putting down garden fabric) then layering in some pea gravel for drainage, next i will put in the soil which I hope will be held in place by the bales. if you wat to follow me on this I have started a new gadening blog called http://theaagoraphobicgardener.com
Rusty
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
There is another gardening site that has a form dedicated to straw bale gardening. I don't imagine I'd be allowed to post the name of it, or a link to it here, but if you Google "Strawbale Gardening discussion forum" it will be the 1st or 2nd one on the list that comes up. I quickly scanned through some of the posts just now, and seems like people from a lot of areas, including NC and Georgia, have posted there.

Rusty
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lucillle
8 years ago
I used hay bales one year but planted in the soil right next to the bales. The hay helped as a mulch and I'm sure later the decomposing hay helped the soil.
christy51274
7 years ago
Hiya. Although I'm on the East Coast (Maryland to be exact), I've currently got three bales with plants planted directly inside of them. Going on week two and they're thriving thus far. I wasn't too exact with the conditioning process, but the bales seemed ready for planting. If you'd like, I can keep you updated.
CaptTurbo
7 years ago
I'd like to try it but fear the chance of getting straw that was grown with the new herbicides they are using these days that don't affect grasses but will destroy your garden plot for years if you get the wrong stuff.
Antonio
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Hi all,

I'm new here to this forum and to gardening in general but we did try a straw bale garden this year and we live in Gautier, MS here on the Gulf Coast. So far our straw bale garden has worked out fabulously. We haven't had any issues so far with overwatering. We use a soaker hose underneath a layer of potting mix to water the plants. Due to the nature of the straw bale itself, I don't think you can over-water it. The excess just runs out the bottom. I have noticed a slight algee growth on the topsoil but it has not seemed to affect the veggies yet. There is almost no weeding required for the garden and there are fewer bugs to deal with as well. These are some pics from about a week ago and everything is more than twice this size today.

I'll try to keep you updated on the progress as we go along and share our lessons learned.