What is it? I didn't know until a few years ago when my son Joel who lives just west of Guelph found out about it, read up on it and then embarked on it. (He is the kind of chap who enjoys creating new projects and enlists the assistance of one or more of his three children, sometimes his busy wife, whenever he can).
There is a fair-sized piece of land on which their home sits. Each year it seems he has obtained an increasingly larger number of bales so the rows become longer. The harvests have been impressive.
I shall try to explain the process as much as I know, but Joel would happily explain the details.
Joel orders new straw bales each year: the old ones are removed and broken up for compost. The fresh ones need to be placed in position to "cure" for approximately four weeks before the traditional planting time around the May 24th weekend. During this curing period, heat builds up within the bales. At some appropriate time, Joel adds nitrogen (example, Scott's Turf Builder) and water. In the meanwhile, Joel assisted by one or two of his young daughters, has planted a variety of vegetable seeds in the garage. Right now some of these have already germinated --this year aided by some kind of greenhouse Joel has obtained. (Due to self-isolating, I have not been able to see this yet).
Then the straw bales are partially hollowed out, soil is placed in them into which the seedlings are transplanted. To avoid having to continually water the plants manually in dry hot weather, Joel has devised a system of watering with tubing and plastic jugs, attached to poles, and fed by a water source --I think water from rain barrels.
I have only tried growing vegetables in a straw bale once, last year, with some rather poor-looking tomato plants I rescued from somewhere late in the season: I have to say they did re-remarkably well with the straw keeping the roots warm.I was harvesting tomatoes until the first frost.
If you wish to ask Joel any questions personally, his email address is:
joel.a.d.porter@gmail.com. In the meantime I shall ask him to join this forum so that he can respond to any comments you may post.
Below I am attaching some photos of Joel's straw bales from right now above, previous years and examples of the harvest.
Wow. Very impressive! I'll see if I can interest Edwin in trying this out. Maybe a simplified version where we can water ourselves. So cool.
Thanks so much for sharing Joan!
You are welcome! You could ask Joel For an example of how straw bales can be obtained: they must be fresh ones i.e. not ones treated with fire-retardant chemicals as the type used in Autumn displays might be.
I love how planting this way means veggies are not planted in the ground soil which may have lots of chemicals etc.
Hi Carrie, this was the original reason we started this method. We're on old farm property, and the natural place to put a garden for sun exposure, etc. is down slope from where who-knows-what was parked (dripping heavy metals, oil, etc.) for who-knows-how-long... I was going to get the soil tested for heavy metals etc. before committing to a garden, but then stumbled onto a mention of this method. You could literally plop a bale down onto concrete, and grow stuff, without worry about what is in the ground (or even if it IS ground...)
@joel.a.d.porter So sounds like this would work for a balcony too?
Thank you for joining the forum Joel! My first question is where can we buy the straw bales?
Believe it not, the mainstream farming community (98% of all farms in Canada are still family owned) are all over facebook. Facebook marketplace is a great place to look for "small straw bales" and also kijiji is another. "519 Farmers" (519 being the area code) is a group on facebook with 10's of thousands of local family farming members, and so posting an "ISO" (in search of) message on a forum like that, gets a lot of helpful response. I have paid between $2.50 and $5.00 per bale, but $4.00 has been pretty standard for average over the past 6 years. Think "one bale = two mature tomato plants, to get a sense of the investment and margins.... or $2 per plant, if you are comparing with cheaper forms of farming.
@joel.a.d.porter Thanks so much Joel. You have definitely peeked our interest and we will be searching for small straw bales.
We have added a couple of articles on straw bale gardening on our resource page. Check them out here.
I have skimmed through the first article on Straw Bale Gardening: The Complete Beginner's Guide. It looks very useful even if one can't organize straw bale gardening this year, it's also good to plan for next. When I planted in my one bale last year, it was something of an after-thought and I didn't use any special fertilizer, just a mixture of compost and a little sheep manure and potting soil in the bale- as I do when planting directly into the ground as I have been doing for decades. Joel gets great results, partly because he has full sun exposure.(Not forgetting his great aptitude and skill😀). But let's use whatever we have for planting vegetables whether it's a balcony, window- box or a narrow strip of garden with partial sun exposure.It's fun!
@joanporter Totally agree Joan. We are going to try the straw bale vegetable gardening if we can locate a place to buy them, but also do some in a planter.
A few people have expressed interest in the straw bale gardening. I am currently checking to see where we could buy straw bales and will provide an update as soon as I have found something.
I have called a number of farms but they are not answering phone calls. Probably busy or not in all the time. I emailed a couple this past weekend. Heard from one that they do not sell straw bales. Haven't heard from the other one yet. Will keep trying.