Getting Started

What to Read

Just Google "straw bale garden," and you'll get a long list of articles, YouTube videos, and other resources to check out.  I liked seeing all the photos that are posted -- just Google "straw bale garden photos" -- great for what you'd like (and NOT like) to do.  Here are a few articles that I'd highly recommend:

Grow and Make -- Straw Bale Garden -- Good step-by-step how-to's.

No Dig Vegetable Garden -- Good step-by-step how-to's.

Container Gardening -- Straw Bale Gardening -- Good step-by-step how-to's.

New York Times -- Grasping at Straw -- I loved this article which appeared in the 3/20/13 issue of the NY Times.  Apparently a lot of other people did, too.  I read later it was one of the most-visited online pages the NY Times has published.

I would also recommend buying a copy of Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten, who is probably the ultimate expert on the subject.  He has a website, Straw Bale Gardens, where you can get some basic info, see some pix, but it's essentially a site to order his book...which is also available on eBay, Amazon.com, etc.  

The book is newly published (2013), thorough and, visually, beautiful -- layout, design, photography, artwork.  I just got my copy on April 8th, so I haven't had time to read much of it, but I think the most helpful part will be all the drawings of vegetable placement suggestions for various numbers of straw bales.  Definitely get this book!!!   

What to Buy

Straw -- You need to buy STRAW, not HAY.  Hay is feed for livestock...it is full of seeds.  If you use hay bales for your garden, you'll grow a bale of "grass" weeds.  Straw has had the seeds stripped, and any residual seeds that sprout are easy to pull. 

Frankly, trying to find places online that sold straw bales was frustrating.  Articles would suggest nurseries, lawn and garden stores, home improvement stores, farm retailers, and such.  But finding straw bale sellers -- when I listed my city -- not much to go on...old links, places 100+ miles away, etc.  But out of the blue, a pop-up ad for a wonderful nursery (Arbor Farms Nursery) about 1/2-mile from where I live appeared on my screen, and they had straw bales listed as part of their inventory.  I called and, yes, they had straw bales, so I went over and ordered 12 bales and made arrangements for delivery a week later (on April 5th).  I love this nursery, so I would have called them even if their online pop-up ad hadn't hit my laptop screen, and it didn't surprise me that they would have just what I needed.

Landscape Fabric -- Since one of the big advantages of straw bale gardens is the lack of weeds, it's important not to have any other seeds or perennial weeds from under the bales creep through.  I bought some biodegradable landscape "fabric."  It was actually heavy paper that was about the weight of construction paper, except much stronger.

Fertilizer -- High-nitrogen fertilizer is needed to begin decomposing the straw for planting.  Potassium and other nutrients are mentioned, too.  You can go with traditional commercial fertilizers or go organic.  The reading sources listed above have more complete information, and I'll write about our special home-brewed, high-nitrogen, organic fertilizer in a later post.  Let me just say, however, that it is "pure gold."

Peat Seed Starters -- I've never had much patience starting plants from seeds, but it just felt right for this effort.  So I got two peat pellet greenhouse kits at the nearby hardware store.  Each kit's bottom tray holds 50 biodegradable peat pellets, that expand to about 2" high when water is poured on top of them.  Seeds can be placed in the center hole of the peat pellets to germinate.  A clear plastic top is the greenhouse cover.

Seeds -- I also bought some seeds while I was at the hardware store.  Just for starters, I got basil, cilantro, summer (yellow) squash, zucchini, banana peppers, and pole beans.  I will be getting more, but I wanted to wait until I figured out what vegetables and herbs I wanted to grow and what ones I wanted to buy as young plants vs. growing from seeds.  Like I said, I'm not all that patient.  I definitely will be buying tomato and bell pepper plants, probably some other herbs, too.  But if I see other things I can start from seed and feel reasonably sure I can get them to a hardy, stable size by planting time, I'll do that.

Potting Soil -- Get a bag of potting soil to use when you transplant your seeds to the straw bales.  They need just a little to help protect delicate roots.  One of the reasons I went with peat pellets was to get a starter cushion for the seeds, but I'll surround the little 2" high pellet with about 1 cup of additional potting soil when transplanting.

There are certainly a few other things you'll need for your straw bale garden...but you should have plenty of time between getting your bales ready and planting time -- after Mother's Day (here in northeastern Indiana).  Some writers say that having a soaker hose is the best way to go for straw bales, since they require more water than traditional gardens, but Dad is my water boy (as you will hear more about later), so this is a good daily activity for him.  Plus I didn't want hoses laying all around.  I'll also be getting tall metal stakes and twine for my tomatoes and pole beans.  I've seen that most gardeners use T-stakes, which are pretty sturdy, but I'm going with slender but strong, dark green rods that my hardware store carries, so I can put them with a couple of bales in my front flower beds that will have tomatoes.  I would prefer not to p.o. my neighbors who might tend be snooty about that kind of stuff.