Setting Up A Straw Bale Garden-Let's Get Started
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มี.ค. 2020
- I decided to change the layout of my garden this year due to some irrigation issues I was having. I thought I would show you the set up from start to finish. This video is about setting up the Straw Bale Garden. It will provide instruction on choosing the right location, the right bales, placement of the bales, and setting up the support posts and trellis wires. If you follow these instructions you will have your garden ready for conditioning. This video describes in detail the purpose for t-posts and trellis wires running across each row.
One thing I forgot to mention, you can have as big or little a garden as you want or have room for. You can also put your bales on a driveway or patio if wanted. You would not have to use any cloth, cardboard, or mulch under the bales if you put on solid surface. Just figure out where you want to put it and go from there.
If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me a question. I look forward to hearing from you. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
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Straw bale was the best garden I ever had in 50 years of gardening.
Hello your explanations are very detailed and clear. You know how to teach things and that's awesome
Good job especially with the trellis designs. Very efficient!
Thanks bunches. This really helps support young plants and the plastic sheeting I use in early spring when u get those unexpected cold spells.
Great video!
Thanks so much. Happy Gardening
Thanks
Good enough for her to get raised beds this will be perfect always wanted to try it
I love this idea. Looks like it will user friendly, for the elderly or disabled...Cost effective as well. Quick & easy. I wanted to garden last spring & summer, but couldn't manage to get my raised beds built. Thx for taking time to make this video.
You are very welcome. This is an easy way to have the raised beds without having to build and creates good compost for garden and flower beds the next year.
Same here lol.
You can also you pipe strap that comes in a roll with holes and cut off in desired length with snips
So glad to have found you. I'm wanting to use bails of hay. This video was wonderful. Thank you. So glad I found you.
excellent! Next year!
Very informative video and I appreciate the effort. I did a hay bale garden two years ago in a new area of my garden. Straw is very scarce in my locale so I used hay and didn’t have many weeds at all. My plan was to put the hay bale garden in a place where I was going to have raised beds in the future. After completing the growing season and the following winter, the hay bales had composted down beautifully and I just built the raised beds around them and I had a great start on filling them with the composted hay material. Now, whenever I have a raised bed that the soil is getting low, I’ll do a hay bale garden for the season so it will fill up next season.
So practical and attainable…thx
Really well done Tracy. You are a natural on camera. Great info in a fun delivery.
Straw Bale Gardens thanks bunches for that.
Gardening With Tracy I posted a link to you video on our Facebook page and in my newsletter this month.
Where are you getting your bales of straw?
@@jolynnbenefield3878 fresh acre farms in Monticello. Where are you?
@@Strawbalegardens Dublin Ga
Love your set up. Just found you & subscribed.😊
I'm totally impressed with how much you got done! I look forward to seeing more. What is your planting zone? Thanks.
Thank you for this video I wanted to try looks a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be
very informative
I wish you'd make a video on using second year bales
@@binanocht6110 I figured as much. Made boxes for mine and have broccoli in one and garden peas and carrots coming up in the other. Still would like to see what Tracy is up to.
I followed your recommendations for setting up my garden and I'm so happy with it and it's gorgeous. Wish I could show you a picture. Thanks for sharing your garden with us.
You are very welcome. I am so glad you chose straw bale gardening. It’s very rewarding. Happy gardening.
Nice job, very informative
Love your setup!!! 🎉
Very informative, can’t wait for the videos to come on the progress...
Treva Potter thanks.
That looks awesome, thanks for sharing.
Умница! Взяла себе много идей ваших. СПАСИБО!!!
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing ;-)
Medusa Muddhole thanks. You’re welcome.
Really cool idea. Good luck this season!
CB's Greenhouse and Garden thanks bunches. You too.
Awesome garden set up!
Thanks so much.
This was so helpful! I love your vibe and your doggo! :)
Thanks so much. I’m so glad my videos help. Yes my precious boy. He’s my garden buddy.
Very explanatory. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Really good gardening advice.
Thanks so much. Glad you are enjoying my channel.
🌷LIFE SAVING , JUST STRAW BALES AND BLOODMEAL , ............... GO !
Awesome video! Thanks!
Thanks so much. Can’t wait to start again soon. Getting excited.
You just popped up Tracy! Loved the info. I think I'll try this. Just subscribed!
Thanks so much.
Thanks for joining my channel.
LOVE IT! You're all man Tracy! Awesome channel. Subscriber from NW Florida.
Welcome aboard!
All man ?
Great ideas, thank you Ma'am.
Phil Cooke you are very welcome. I have a passion for gardening. Some of it is a learn as I go thing so any ideas are greatly appreciated.
@@gardeningwithtracy2326 We do not know what next year will bring so I am making preparations now. I believe that straw bales will be my best option.
Tracy thank you for the very useful video 👍❤️
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed. On vacation now but hope to post more soon. Happy gardening.
@@gardeningwithtracy2326 thank you! Enjoy your holiday ❤️I will try for the first time growing sweet potatoes with straw bale! Tracy please, do you know if I could possibly plant watermelon in straw bale?! Thank you so much 👍🌹🌹
I have not but I read u can. I planned on planting some when I get back. I planted butternut squash and spaghetti squash and they did fine so I’m sure watermelon would do fine too. You can plant them in the upper side of the bale so they can grow out into area beside.
I used hay because we don’t have straw in my area. I did not have any weeds (In 10 bales) because the fertilizing process burns all that up. If you see I have posted this on several videos..it is because I want people to know it’s fine to use them. I grew TONS of squash in my first attempt. I am doing this method again this year.
That’s awesome. It’s great you have had great success with hay. I have never used hay. I have read that Hay tends to break down quicker. I am planning on trying to use my straw bales for couple years straight. Do you have success with using your hay bales more than one year? If so I may try that sometime as well. Thanks for the info.
Gardening With Tracy No, they broke down by the end of the growing season. But I had such great success with it, I am doing it again this year with more bales. My husband built me a raised bed and I used the old hay to fill up the bottom and just added soil on top of it. I will get one new bed a year (hopefully) and will use the old hay as filler...for the next few years. Until I get about 6 beds made.
Blessings for your garden this year. ❤️
Thank you for sharing this video is just what I wanted :) Just subscribe to your channel.
Thanks. I hope to be getting more videos out soon. We’ve had some bad luck this year thus far we lost my father-in-law in May had twin grandbabies premature and I also broke my wrist so it’s been an event full year so far. Luckily I got my garden out before any of this happened and hopefully I’ll have some videos when I get a little more recovered. If you have any ideas for videos you’d like please shoot me a message and I’d like to try to get those out to you. Happy gardening.
We use old straw bales.
Yes. That’s great if they hold up. I am planning on using some of my old ones next year. Excited to see how it turns out.
What a useful video! One question I have is about your trellis. Did you simply form a section of wire mesh fabric into an arch or purchase them in that shape? Thanks!
Great question. It is actually a cattle panel that I got from a family member. I then arched it over and used some rebar to keep in place. Works great. Happy gardening.
Hi Tracy, why didn’t you put up the 2x4’s? Is that a must? Why wouldn’t you have just used wire you used in the middle on the top where you put the 2x4 as well? If it’s for support purposes couldn’t you just put another T post in the middle? Or do you need the 2x4’s so you can put up the hog panel? What height t-post did you use?
I’m asking because I want to copy your garden design but it’s getting expensive.
Thank you.
Great question. I used the 2 x 4 to help with support. The wire when tight could pull the t posts inward. The board helps to keep the posts from giving. If u get them in ground hood enough you could probably do without.
I. think I used around 6 foot tall posts. You could use shorter ones if they cost less.
If you will be using tomato cages on one row I would definitely use the 2x4 on top and ru. Through the cages it really helps with supporting the cages in my opinion.
The initial cost was a little bit but other than bales you just have to buy most of it one time.
I am having to downsize my straw bale garden this year due to a pet allergy. My dog has severe allergies to the straw causing respiratory issues. I will only be having 4 bales this year and have converted most of my garden into raised bed using my left over bales and garden mix. I am definitely going to miss my bales. They are amazing. I just hope my garden does as well. I’m sure you will be very pleased with your setup.
Happy gardening.
@@gardeningwithtracy2326 thank you so much for your response. I appreciate it and I hope your dog does better with only four bales. I breed Therapy Dog’s and I did not think about how the bales would impact them. Hopefully my dogs are totally fine.
Thank you, again. I appreciate your videos.
Hi Tracy, you inspired me to give this a try. I do have a question. How do you get the trellis wires so tight? Mine are really loose.
Sorry I just saw this. That is a tricky thing. I use a pair of pliers to pull. I pull as tight as I can and then wrap around pole couple times before securing. This keeps it from slipping as much. Hope this helps and really sorry for the delayed response. Happy gardening.
How do you orient the bales? North to south? Or east to west?
I am trying to see how to attach my board to T post. I see you notched it and drilled but lost from there. Can you comment?
Absolutely. I notched the end so I had a tight fit. I then drilled a hole in board. I ran a wire through and wrapped it around the t post making sure to tighten above one of the notches. This will keep it from falling. I hope this helps. If you have anymore questions please let me know.
Do you also plant in the ground between the baked?
I apologize for not responding before now. My notifications are not popping up and it is also not letting me know when I respond to a question.
I do not plant between the bales but you sure can. I placed cattle cloth under my bales to try to help with grass growing between the bales so planting between them would not work for me. Happy Gardening
I have a huge straw bale. Right now it's Winter. If I want to use that for my garden next year do I still have to condition it if it'll be outside under snow decomposing for at least 7 months before getting used? I was thinking of adding loose straw in a garden bed that already has soil to fill it up more.
Yes you will still need to condition the bale. It needs those nutrients for the plants. Yes you can add decomposed straw to existing beds. I do it every year. You may have to water a little more than usual but makes for good compost. I try to get it mixed in with the existing soil before planting. Happy gardening.
@@gardeningwithtracy2326 Should I still water it if it gets covered in snow? I want to use it for sweet potato plants. Do you think the nitrogen would go away from the soil by then? I Kno it inhibits root crop growth.
@@Kre8iviT27 I wouldn’t worry about watering. The s ow will definitely keep it moist. I was meaning during summer may have to water the garden beds that you add straw too a little more than usual. I also believe the nitrogen will be gone so you should be good on the sweet potatoes. Let me know how it goes.
So are straw or wheat bales better to use? I know not to use hay.
Wanda Ham I changed my reply. I believe the straw bales I used last year were wheat straw bales. So yes you can use wheat straw. Any kind of straw bale should suffice. But u are correct definitely not hay.
Did you get organic straw bales? I am super stressed. I put my barn clean out on my garden, and now I am freaking out that it is going to destroy my garden because it was just regular farm store bales.
I do not do organic bales. I got my bales from a local farmer. Just make sure they are straw not hay. Less weeds.
Hi Tracy, I’m starting a straw bale garden. I can’t find nitrogen granules anywhere, but I did get fertilizer (generic miracle grow) it’s 24% nitrogen. Mostly urea.. so it mixes 1T. Per gallon of water. Can I use that mixed that way? Or another way? Do you think it will work? Thank you so much! Dianne
Hello! You are going to love straw bale gardening. I am going here in the next week to get my bales. Im going to set them up a little earlier this year. I won’t fertilize till closer to planting time but I want to go ahead and get them set up.
A good fertilizer with at least 20% nitrogen should work. Not sure the amounts of that one you should use. Do you have a farmers coop in your area? Our local farmers coop is where i get my urea.
I will see if I can find any info on that fertilizer.
@@gardeningwithtracy2326 ok, ty, so that fertilizer won’t work for the first nitrogen part of process?
Sorry for the confusion. Any fertilizer with at least 20% nitrogen will work. You said that fertilizer has 24% so it should work. I have only used the granules so this would be new to me. Your question is a great question I just don’t have experience with that particular fertilizer. I would recommend you could apply it to the bale dry based on size of bale and box recommended rate for that area then water it down. When applying sprinkle across bale and water down just as video instructed.
@@gardeningwithtracy2326 thank you💕
Are there herbicides in the straw?
That’s a great question. I do not know what the farmer used so I cannot tell you. To be honest had not thought about that. I am not doing as many bales this year due to a severe allergy with one of my dogs but if I get chance to ask I sure will. Thanks for watching and happy gardening.
You commented that you live in the city but your background is all country. I, however, didn’t watch the entire video before posting so maybe I misunderstood
keep watching this video over and over so I can try to replicate your set-uo!
Can you tell me how long are the T Posts?
Can you tell me how long are the 2x4's?
Thanks for doing this video!! :)
You are very welcome. Love this. The t-posts are 5 ft not counting what’s in ground. I think they are still called a 5 footer. The 2x4 is 10ft long. I also put 2 rows of wire run between the t-posts. This gives something to use support for tall plants and also something to drape plastic over to protect young plants from possible coke and frost. Hope this helps. Happy gardening.
Mate I think you need to go a little more off grid!! Away from all that country town traffic noise and them power lines!! LOL!!
I agree totally would love that.
Hi! How late in the year can one start a garden?
I usually plant a second crop of squash and zucchini and some other fall crops in July. Really depends on where you are and first frost dates and such.
Straw is questionable because of the source. Hey has more food value and become compost over time. It is not true that straw has less weeds. If you are concerned with weeds, put a newspaper or burlap on top to keep the weeds down. Again, hey has more food value than straw
Svetla Nikolova that is a great point. I agree hay has more food value than straw. It is a great source of nutrients for your livestock in the winter. I have found the straw works better for my gardening. Im pretty sure I accidentally got a couple bales of hay one year and had no success with growing much in them except grasses. Straw has minimal seeds so I haven’t had as many issues with grasses sprouting. Not saying I haven’t had grass sprout at all, I just haven’t had a big issue thus far.
I try to get my straw bales from the local farmers. This year I got from our local farmers coop. I have a farmer supplying me with next years bales. I also agree Hay is more nitrogen rich than straw but I add nitrogen to my straw bales during the conditioning of the bales to aid in growing my garden plants. As far as composting goes, I use my leftover straw bales as compost as well and they work great. The straw begins the composting process as soon as I start adding the nitrogen so u are basically growing in a compost pile. I have never used hay for compost before.
The newspaper idea is great. I have utilized that in my raised bed before along with cardboard. I do place cattle cloth under my garden area to minimize grass from the ground in that area. The straw bales have worked great for me over the past few years.
Do you have a hay bale garden? I would love to see pics. I am always researching new ideas and techniques and love everyone’s input. Thanks for again for your comments.
Looks like way too much work.
OK so which of your videos shows how to plant seeds such as corn and other veggies like Green beans? Also should you place any dirt on top of the hay bails for minerals?
th-cam.com/video/ghC3h8dMXa8/w-d-xo.html
This is the video on planting seeds. Great question. Yes definitely put potting mix on top of the bales to create a base and feed the seeds. Hope this helps. Happy Gardening.