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.

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.

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?

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.