i am 67 & wife 66 yrs old and we are putting together a straw bale garden for 2018; no more diging in the dirt or back breaking bending over; thank you so much for your idea with out this we would have no garden; thank you again.
I agree, nice and tidy, I like organization, however, I like being eclectic using a variety of items, gardening styles as long as everything is in decency and order, thriving together and not looking cluttered and tacky.
Do you still do a bale garden? Would love to see a recent update! This video inspired my straw bale garden last year. Hoping to get a second year out of the bales!
I tried this years back. Its expensive buying the straw bails and they take so much water. I do lasagna gardening now in New beds. Its much cheaper and its better. I use cardboard and leaves so I don't have to weed my tomatoe bed at all. I add gypsum, a little Milorganite, a little 10-10-10. I was using the fish emulsion fertilizer. This year I'll be using Miracle Gro. I did organic for about 15 years. Just don't over fertilize with MG every 2 weeks should be fine.
Beautiful but you're growing huge amounts of food. What do you do with it all? In my early teens, I put in a large garden one summer and it produced so much that I fed all of the neighbors and then more remote parts of the town as well. Soon people just couldn't take any more and asked me to stop delivering!
I notice you seem to have plenty of shade on your garden, so I am assuming this helps on the watering factor. I've been seeing recently the biggest gripe from bale gardeners is the speed of evaporation taking place to where they feel they are actually watering more than were it in the ground. Do you find any differences in your water consumption? I did see drip lines, but have you noticed a difference in your water bill once you started bale gardening? It looks like your bales have a bit of age on them so I imagine they are very moist in the shade.
We used to grow pumpkins in old hay rings left over from feeding cattle all winter would Be alright if you baled your own hay- at $6. Per bale it is expensive
Okra doesn't like to be transplanted. direct seed well after last frost date. It doesn't like cool weather either.......... Love your hay bale garden! I'm going to give it a try...
Lovely garden. It's good to know that hay can also be used. I've read that it causes grass to grow where you don't want it, so thank you for clarifying that. Well done!
I’m so glad you posted this video! I was going to plant some squash and melons in April and I had no idea of using the bale method but wasn’t sure how it would look so thank you so much you’re such a great inspiration🌸🦄🌈💖
It's rare I enjoy gardening channels mostly because they regurgitate the same old junk, but I enjoy yours. I subbed, but I noticed you're no longer uploading vids. Shame. Take care.
How long will the bales last? Two years, three? What do you do with the collapsing hay? Do you use it for mulching the paths? How did the sweet potatoes work for you? Last, how many acres is the garden?
Do you guys have woodchucks or groundhogs in your area? It's a huge problem in my yard and gardens. Lovely gardens. I am thinking about doing a haybale tunnel. Thanks.
Thank you so much for the tip about using hay instead of straw. Some people swear you CAN’T use hay bales because of the seed issue, but seems like they wouldn’t remain as viable if the bales are conditioned correctly. I called the local co-op about straw bales, and they are $4.95 each, and 1.5 x 3 ft. I’m going to ask how much their hay bales are. If cheaper I’m going to go with hay. Also, great idea using the cattle panels. I have some old 2x4’s and some “scraps” of hog wire and dog wire. To save money I might try building some “panels” with what I have! LOL Maybe it’ll work. Also, I’m in east-central Alabama, about 50 miles north of Auburn, and I was worried it was too late for some things such as lettuce and cabbage, but I might try some in the shade and see how that works. Great video! I’m going to subscribe and also watch more of your stuff! Happy gardening! - Adam
great ideas and good for people with limit on space and more carefree for people who are disabled--many uses for this system--thank you.....PS seems the harvest is more too as it hold moisture even with dry climates.
Beautiful! You made it clean !! Orderly, easy to walk through, the plants are healthy. I am impressed thank you is it straw on the ground? Or wood chips? I wish you all the best.
WOW. This is a must watch. I watched it twice and saved it to my Facebook page. This is truly the way to garden. No more bending over, digging in the dirt, working all day in the sun.
Hello, I just came across your video, and , so mad I didn't find this earlier..I've been researching pallet gardening, and have been gathering things I need here and there. But, after seeing your video, and which led to finding a few other videos, I really would prefer to start hay/straw bale gardening. Ive never gardened before, other than containers. But I just bought an old renovated farm house in a farmland rich area, and decided to try sustainable gardening and living. Your videos are great.. And I think I will try this , small at first, to go along with my pallet gardening. I love it when people share videos to show us not so experienced people, how we can achieve the same results Thank You So Much!!
Okra long beans and more veggies 🌽 blue berries kale 🥬 bitter gourd spinach Add more fruits 🍉 perfect 👌 what is the difference between hay and bale straws which is better hay straws ok thank you 🙏 Got it. Great is the faithfulness amen 🙏
I am wondering how important it is to water and plant the stem end of the bale? I got a bunch of bales but they are bundled backwards so the stem and is the short side makes the bill short
@Ryan, Always lay your bales with the cut edge facing up. If you look at the stem ends, yiu can tell which side was cut by the knives in the baler. You want the cut edge up so moisture can get into the stems or straws, and work its way through the bale. If you lay the bales flat or strings up, water will not penetrate very easily and it will also be harder to get the sections apart for planting started plants.
There are many methods that folks use. Roundup, wood chip mulch, cardboard, old carpeting laid face sown, news print or brown craft paper with hay or grass clippings on top. In my garden which you see in the videos I use the same Bahia grass hay that I am growing in as a mulch. I break bales open and take sections tearing them apart a handful at a time and shaking it out over the open areas to create a 12 to 18 inch fluffed layer of hay. This layer will settle over a couple of weeks to make a 1/4 inch or more thick tightly woven layer of mulch that will let water through but will stay clean and dry and prevent weeds underneath from sprouting and coming through all season long. I have done this for over 20 years in both my bale gardens and in my traditional in ground gardens before I started bale gardening about seven years ago.
Straw bales are just way too expensive.. Plus you have to condition them before using, and continue feeding your "garden" while using them.. Seems to me this is just a fad or a lazy "gardeners" way of gardening.. You would spend a lot less if you had to pay someone to plow your area, and then build healthy soil and maintain it.. No more tilling, and no more fertilizing except the compost and cover crop(s) you apply each autumn.
I had been wondering bout strawberries in cylinders I bought 300 n I hate strawberries. Love them in shakes cookies n jelly. Thinking bout quit driving semi 🚛 n sell enuff fruits n vegetables hopefully make ends meet
This is beautiful, put together nicely. I live in NJ zone 7. The closest place I can cattle panels is about 30 mins away and they don't deliver. I have no transportation to haul them myself unless I rent a trailer/flatbed or small UHaul. However, I've always wanted some. The straw bales are easily accessible to me and considering next season starting a small section with this type of gardening, age wants to tell😂🤣
I live around a lot of old pessimists in the 70s I am putting one bale right by the fence so they can see me grow strawberries next year without digging bending over etc. I cant wait to see the look on their face
Amazing! Would love to see that in person. Thanks for sharing! Have heard that straw gardening requires voluminous amounts of water. Is that true in your experience?? How long have you used/are you able to use those bales??
Just subscribed! Really impressive garden! I live in S FL and will be trying this. My question is do you change the hay each year or just keep adding and reusing? Thanks so much for your time.
Cooland very healthy, very pretty. . You know it is called straw bale gardening. Did you use straw or hay? For those who don’t know - Straw is byproduct from harvesting wheat. After wheat is harvested then the “straw” is baled for bedding for horses mainly but other livestock but most use pine sawdust or shaving. Some cattle people will feed to cattle as a bulk but it gives little nutrition bit cattle have multiple stomachs and can break it down. Horses have only one,stomach and must have high quality green, soft, leafy hay - good growers test for nutrition value. Horse people (experienced) would never feed straw to horses Ever unless desperate - horses won’t eat unless starving. There is little to no seed so very little wheat seeds, weeds or grass. However hay is grass grown for feeding horses and livestock. Top growers will cut at bootstage before it goes to seed. However most who want highest yield or who just grow for cattle don’t care and they don’t keep weeds out either. so with hay you can end up with lots of grass seed and weed seed than veggies. I like pure alfalfa hay - not a grass and it is excellent nutrition for soil. Most farmers have to replant after a 2-3 yrs so the fields stay pretty clean so I get little weed or weed grass. It is much more expensive and the really good part is the tiny little green leaves. For horses - you can’t have any mold, mildew and you want green colored alfalfa or even grass hay like orchard grass. It will be much softer and offers higher nutrition. When you shake out alfalfa cut at right moisture levels and cured correctly - it will have lots of those little leaves which you can shake over a tarp to save in a can to sprinkle on beds each month or every few weeks and work in for excellent natural nitrogen plus calcium and other vits. . And incorporate the green stems into the compost or shred and put directly into beds in layers. I use it on top of beds around plants as a mulch. Or grow in them just like straw. Remember alfalfa is a legume not a grass. Now to get it cheaper - sometimes it will get a light rain either before baled or after before getting it up from the field etc and it will mildew so farmers can’t sell so you can get it much cheaper. I like to get high quality but thoughly cured and finished it’s heat cycle - then shake the sections - just tap over tarp and save the itty bitty leavesand plant into bales or use as a framewor and fill with good soil. .
Thanks for posting this video full of inspiration. Hopefully more people will be moved to grow this way. Could you please let me know about your strawberry towers and why they are hollow in the middle? Many thanks and best regards - John
I love your strawberry towers. Do you have a place I can find the plans for them? Or can you give me a little insight? All of the ones I found googling don't seem to have the double columns and are filled with soil. I like that yours appear to be filled with straw. If they are straw, how did you condition them? Thanks!
What do you use for irrigation? Is that drip tape? Or tubing? I am starting a hay bale garden, inspired by your beautiful garden and wondered if drip tape which gets best reviews, would work when going up onto hay bales.
How do your sweet potatoes do, if you do not trim back the greens. I would think that the melons and squash may stretch out even further, competing for sunlight etc., with the sweet potatoes. I prefer to use sweet potatoes as a "living mulch" planted with taller things that can get sunlight from higher up. Sweet potatoes also don't like a lot of nitrogen in the soil, but the melons and squash do. If you get squash bugs, how would you even be able to get them under control?
You didn't mention your watering system, which I see is drip irrigation. I've seen other bale garden that do quite well also, so I'm well convinced it's a perfect medium with proper conditioning and fertile soil addition. Any garden a cat loves is a good garden. Thank you too for the recommendation of using old bales which have dead seeds. I love gardening, but getting up in age is making is quite difficult what with the bending and kneeling and I'd love to try this method. From the looks of it, it works very well.
Your hay bale garden is s nice and neat. Come to my house and help me with mine! Mine is not so straight and nice. Can I use a lawn fertilizer that is 26 nitrogen? Couldn't get urea or amonium nitrate.
Hello.. beautiful garden. Are you referring to Joel Salatin when you say follow 'Joel'., or Joel Karsten? Thank you for sharing all your experience/knowledge.
i am 67 & wife 66 yrs old and we are putting together a straw bale garden for 2018; no more diging in the dirt or back breaking bending over; thank you so much for your idea with out this we would have no garden; thank you again.
How'd it work for you guys?
How did it go? Was buying, transporting, the straw a ton of work? Did you have to water it constantly? Lasagna gardening is cheaper and almost free.
Wow beautiful garden sir! Can't wait to start planting. Thank you for sharing!
Great garden and you still got room to expand it also
What can be said except "WOW!" I love this. Your gardening knowledge is inspirational!! Thank you for sharing.
Love this very tidy garden! An organizational nut's dream! 👍🏻
I agree, nice and tidy, I like organization, however, I like being eclectic using a variety of items, gardening styles as long as everything is in decency and order, thriving together and not looking cluttered and tacky.
Green beans, kale, um, cabbage...A CAT! :) Beautiful job.
Do you still do a bale garden? Would love to see a recent update! This video inspired my straw bale garden last year. Hoping to get a second year out of the bales!
Its very expensive, and labor intensive moving bails of straw. Watering non stop. I bet he doesn't do this anymore.
Love it! PLEASE tell me how do you water the strawberry towers????
I tried this years back. Its expensive buying the straw bails and they take so much water. I do lasagna gardening now in New beds. Its much cheaper and its better. I use cardboard and leaves so I don't have to weed my tomatoe bed at all. I add gypsum, a little Milorganite, a little 10-10-10. I was using the fish emulsion fertilizer. This year I'll be using Miracle Gro. I did organic for about 15 years. Just don't over fertilize with MG every 2 weeks should be fine.
Stunning! I have gotten so many good ideas from this video. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful garden with us.
So cool, I love it, thank for show how
Beautiful but you're growing huge amounts of food. What do you do with it all?
In my early teens, I put in a large garden one summer and it produced so much that I fed all of the neighbors and then more remote parts of the town as well. Soon people just couldn't take any more and asked me to stop delivering!
I only just found your channel. Wow! I think I've got my TH-cam watching for the next few months sorted. Amazing garden!
Thank You
Chris Schraders Me too!
The 52 Week Gardener what a fantastic garden, l love seeing all the different ways people grow food. So interesting, thank you:-)
I agree! this is the best garden on you tube
Your garden is phenomenal,how often do you need to replace or change bales ?
Love the variety you have in your garden. Do you ever have any trouble with cross-pollinating with the different varieties next to each other?
Cross pollination is only a problem if you're saving the seeds from homegrown to sow the following year.
Great garden! Thanks for the virtual tour.
Does the cabbage grow inside the hay bales?
I notice you seem to have plenty of shade on your garden, so I am assuming this helps on the watering factor. I've been seeing recently the biggest gripe from bale gardeners is the speed of evaporation taking place to where they feel they are actually watering more than were it in the ground. Do you find any differences in your water consumption? I did see drip lines, but have you noticed a difference in your water bill once you started bale gardening? It looks like your bales have a bit of age on them so I imagine they are very moist in the shade.
*Beansie* what about wrapping the bales in Garden fabric or black plastic?
We used to grow pumpkins in old hay rings left over from feeding cattle all winter would Be alright if you baled your own hay- at $6. Per bale it is expensive
Okra doesn't like to be transplanted. direct seed well after last frost date. It doesn't like cool weather either..........
Love your hay bale garden! I'm going to give it a try...
Love all your posts! So clever!💚
Your garden is really amazing, I'm going to try it myself... just a little bit smaller...Thanks for the Idea...
Lovely garden. It's good to know that hay can also be used. I've read that it causes grass to grow where you don't want it, so thank you for clarifying that. Well done!
He said no grass with the older bales. If grass was growing, you could pull the grass and use it as mulch.
I’m so glad you posted this video! I was going to plant some squash and melons in April and I had no idea of using the bale method but wasn’t sure how it would look so thank you so much you’re such a great inspiration🌸🦄🌈💖
I'm going try that Three sisters garden see how it works
Just happened across this channel.
Its incredible
Pure abundance!
One thing I want to ask. I bought some bales here in December. Is it better to prepair them now or wait till three weeks before planting.
It's rare I enjoy gardening channels mostly because they regurgitate the same old junk, but I enjoy yours. I subbed, but I noticed you're no longer uploading vids. Shame. Take care.
Do you have your rows going east to west or north to south?
How long will the bales last? Two years, three? What do you do with the collapsing hay? Do you use it for mulching the paths? How did the sweet potatoes work for you? Last, how many acres is the garden?
What a beautiful, immaculate garden. Thank you for all the great information.
Where do you live where everything grows so disease free??
Very nice - new sub!
Kudos for acknowledging the "sea-sick" among us!
Do you guys have woodchucks or groundhogs in your area? It's a huge problem in my yard and gardens. Lovely gardens. I am thinking about doing a haybale tunnel. Thanks.
Thank you so much for the tip about using hay instead of straw. Some people swear you CAN’T use hay bales because of the seed issue, but seems like they wouldn’t remain as viable if the bales are conditioned correctly. I called the local co-op about straw bales, and they are $4.95 each, and 1.5 x 3 ft. I’m going to ask how much their hay bales are. If cheaper I’m going to go with hay. Also, great idea using the cattle panels. I have some old 2x4’s and some “scraps” of hog wire and dog wire. To save money I might try building some “panels” with what I have! LOL Maybe it’ll work. Also, I’m in east-central Alabama, about 50 miles north of Auburn, and I was worried it was too late for some things such as lettuce and cabbage, but I might try some in the shade and see how that works. Great video! I’m going to subscribe and also watch more of your stuff! Happy gardening! - Adam
great ideas and good for people with limit on space and more carefree for people who are disabled--many uses for this system--thank you.....PS seems the harvest is more too as it hold moisture even with dry climates.
Beautiful! You made it clean !! Orderly, easy to walk through, the plants are healthy. I am impressed thank you is it straw on the ground? Or wood chips? I wish you all the best.
hay on the ground
@@the52weekgardener85 I will copy you. Thanks! You have a gorgeous garden! Greetings and blessings be from Bulgaria
WOW. This is a must watch. I watched it twice and saved it to my Facebook page. This is truly the way to garden. No more bending over, digging in the dirt, working all day in the sun.
Hello, I just came across your video, and , so mad I didn't find this earlier..I've been researching pallet gardening, and have been gathering things I need here and there. But, after seeing your video, and which led to finding a few other videos, I really would prefer to start hay/straw bale gardening. Ive never gardened before, other than containers. But I just bought an old renovated farm house in a farmland rich area, and decided to try sustainable gardening and living. Your videos are great.. And I think I will try this , small at first, to go along with my pallet gardening. I love it when people share videos to show us not so experienced people, how we can achieve the same results Thank You So Much!!
Okra long beans and more veggies 🌽 blue berries kale 🥬 bitter gourd spinach
Add more fruits 🍉 perfect 👌 what is the difference between hay and bale straws which is better hay straws ok thank you 🙏 Got it. Great is the faithfulness amen 🙏
there just something gorgeous about an orderly garden amidst some evergreens
I am wondering how important it is to water and plant the stem end of the bale?
I got a bunch of bales but they are bundled backwards so the stem and is the short side makes the bill short
@Ryan,
Always lay your bales with the cut edge facing up. If you look at the stem ends, yiu can tell which side was cut by the knives in the baler. You want the cut edge up so moisture can get into the stems or straws, and work its way through the bale. If you lay the bales flat or strings up, water will not penetrate very easily and it will also be harder to get the sections apart for planting started plants.
Good evening do you put any fertilizer in you hay bail to start out
looking to star my own bale garden. its hard to find straw bales nere me. can i use hay bales??
Just wondering did you put anything under the straw on the ground
How often should you water the hay?
Same question here. I see the drip hoses and the sprinkler.. wondering how often and much you need to water.
How did you create the bare walk ways between the bales?
There are many methods that folks use. Roundup, wood chip mulch, cardboard, old carpeting laid face sown, news print or brown craft paper with hay or grass clippings on top.
In my garden which you see in the videos I use the same Bahia grass hay that I am growing in as a mulch. I break bales open and take sections tearing them apart a handful at a time and shaking it out over the open areas to create a 12 to 18 inch fluffed layer of hay. This layer will settle over a couple of weeks to make a 1/4 inch or more thick tightly woven layer of mulch that will let water through but will stay clean and dry and prevent weeds underneath from sprouting and coming through all season long.
I have done this for over 20 years in both my bale gardens and in my traditional in ground gardens before I started bale gardening about seven years ago.
Nice, clean & organized. I have raised beds and containers and my garden is spotless just like yours! Looks great
Wow l love ít
Lots of hard work, but the kind of work I love.. Nice garden,
What keeps the hay from molding we get hay for horses and if they get wet at all they mold
Great job and thank you 🙏 Good Lord bless you always
Why do I have the feeling this is the same guy from the “pinky the cat” video?
Very interesting beautiful garden
Straw bales are just way too expensive.. Plus you have to condition them before using, and continue feeding your "garden" while using them.. Seems to me this is just a fad or a lazy "gardeners" way of gardening.. You would spend a lot less if you had to pay someone to plow your area, and then build healthy soil and maintain it.. No more tilling, and no more fertilizing except the compost and cover crop(s) you apply each autumn.
I had been wondering bout strawberries in cylinders I bought 300 n I hate strawberries. Love them in shakes cookies n jelly. Thinking bout quit driving semi 🚛 n sell enuff fruits n vegetables hopefully make ends meet
This is beautiful, put together nicely. I live in NJ zone 7. The closest place I can cattle panels is about 30 mins away and they don't deliver. I have no transportation to haul them myself unless I rent a trailer/flatbed or small UHaul. However, I've always wanted some. The straw bales are easily accessible to me and considering next season starting a small section with this type of gardening, age wants to tell😂🤣
How often do you renew the bails?....Does .the high temperature cause the cattle panels to burn the climbing vines?..Good job!
Where is this located?
I think this is very neat and organized. I may need to try this.
Love the towers! That's how I grow but I do lattice in a circle and grow everything in there.
I'm not the best gardener. In the world. But in 31 years I've had Good and bad luck. It's all trial and. Error. For anyone.
Hello... Amazing Garden. Do you have a supply list of materials for this garden?
Everybody ought to watch this. Is good education. Get kids away from the video games. And get them to watch this. Haha
I live in Phila. PA. And looking for hay for my garden! Any suggestions where or how to find! I would need it delivered!
great idea
Amazing!!!! I hope you continue to share with us
Okay you answered my question. About the flowers. Repelling pest.
I bought an Amish. Butternut Squash pie. At christmas. That thing was gooood. Ummm
How long will the bail hay last?
I live around a lot of old pessimists in the 70s I am putting one bale right by the fence so they can see me grow strawberries next year without digging bending over etc. I cant wait to see the look on their face
Beautiful garden brother
Did you just plant watermelon in hay? We have sweet potatoes in hay and compost. How do rate using the hay?
Absolutely gorgeous garden! Great ideas and planning...thank you.
What type of fertilizer do you use?
Beautiful! I want to try this also!
Fantastic video! I am making of list of what you accomplished!
Hi I’m new to all this. Are these hay or straw bales? And if hay, will it sprout?
You Rock !!!
Everything I've learned from your channel is WORKING !!!!!
THANKS !!!!
Do you hand pollinate your squash? Also do you flip your tomato blossoms, supposed to produce more tomatoes?.
Who is Joel? I need to know how to look him up to check out the hay conditioning you mentioned. Thank you for your time.
Amazing! Would love to see that in person. Thanks for sharing! Have heard that straw gardening requires voluminous amounts of water. Is that true in your experience?? How long have you used/are you able to use those bales??
Just subscribed! Really impressive garden! I live in S FL and will be trying this. My question is do you change the hay each year or just keep adding and reusing?
Thanks so much for your time.
Cooland very healthy, very pretty. . You know it is called straw bale gardening. Did you use straw or hay? For those who don’t know - Straw is byproduct from harvesting wheat. After wheat is harvested then the “straw” is baled for bedding for horses mainly but other livestock but most use pine sawdust or shaving. Some cattle people will feed to cattle as a bulk but it gives little nutrition bit cattle have multiple stomachs and can break it down. Horses have only one,stomach and must have high quality green, soft, leafy hay - good growers test for nutrition value. Horse people (experienced) would never feed straw to horses Ever unless desperate - horses won’t eat unless starving. There is little to no seed so very little wheat seeds, weeds or grass. However hay is grass grown for feeding horses and livestock. Top growers will cut at bootstage before it goes to seed. However most who want highest yield or who just grow for cattle don’t care and they don’t keep weeds out either. so with hay you can end up with lots of grass seed and weed seed than veggies. I like pure alfalfa hay - not a grass and it is excellent nutrition for soil. Most farmers have to replant after a 2-3 yrs so the fields stay pretty clean so I get little weed or weed grass. It is much more expensive and the really good part is the tiny little green leaves. For horses - you can’t have any mold, mildew and you want green colored alfalfa or even grass hay like orchard grass. It will be much softer and offers higher nutrition. When you shake out alfalfa cut at right moisture levels and cured correctly - it will have lots of those little leaves which you can shake over a tarp to save in a can to sprinkle on beds each month or every few weeks and work in for excellent natural nitrogen plus calcium and other vits. . And incorporate the green stems into the compost or shred and put directly into beds in layers. I use it on top of beds around plants as a mulch. Or grow in them just like straw. Remember alfalfa is a legume not a grass. Now to get it cheaper - sometimes it will get a light rain either before baled or after before getting it up from the field etc and it will mildew so farmers can’t sell so you can get it much cheaper. I like to get high quality but thoughly cured and finished it’s heat cycle - then shake the sections - just tap over tarp and save the itty bitty leavesand plant into bales or use as a framewor and fill with good soil. .
Thanks for posting this video full of inspiration. Hopefully more people will be moved to grow this way.
Could you please let me know about your strawberry towers and why they are hollow in the middle?
Many thanks and best regards - John
Have to depend on the weather. And live and learn. But I love doing it. Even if it doesn't always do well.
I love your strawberry towers. Do you have a place I can find the plans for them? Or can you give me a little insight? All of the ones I found googling don't seem to have the double columns and are filled with soil. I like that yours appear to be filled with straw. If they are straw, how did you condition them? Thanks!
What do you use for irrigation? Is that drip tape? Or tubing? I am starting a hay bale garden, inspired by your beautiful garden and wondered if drip tape which gets best reviews, would work when going up onto hay bales.
Did you have trouble with rodents and snakes borrowing into the bales? Very impressive garden, like the set up.👍🏽
nice concept!!!!
How do your sweet potatoes do, if you do not trim back the greens. I would think that the melons and squash may stretch out even further, competing for sunlight etc., with the sweet potatoes. I prefer to use sweet potatoes as a "living mulch" planted with taller things that can get sunlight from higher up. Sweet potatoes also don't like a lot of nitrogen in the soil, but the melons and squash do. If you get squash bugs, how would you even be able to get them under control?
You didn't mention your watering system, which I see is drip irrigation. I've seen other bale garden that do quite well also, so I'm well convinced it's a perfect medium with proper conditioning and fertile soil addition. Any garden a cat loves is a good garden. Thank you too for the recommendation of using old bales which have dead seeds. I love gardening, but getting up in age is making is quite difficult what with the bending and kneeling and I'd love to try this method. From the looks of it, it works very well.
Your hay bale garden is s nice and neat. Come to my house and help me with mine! Mine is not so straight and nice. Can I use a lawn fertilizer that is 26 nitrogen? Couldn't get urea or amonium nitrate.
dont forget to harvest the sweetpotato leaves also, its lovely in dishes
Good to know.
You can eat the leaves
Hello.. beautiful garden. Are you referring to Joel Salatin when you say follow 'Joel'., or Joel Karsten? Thank you for sharing all your experience/knowledge.
So awesome! The vegetables you harvest must be epic. Thanks for sharing your garden, it's fabulous!
So do you simply plant the seedlings straight into the hay? Or do you also put compost on top?
Thank you for all these great ideas! I'm 78, and just this year have discovered the great benefits of straw bale gardening!
I'm just going to stick to the veggies we use the most. Dont have much room. To grow much.