2nd Year Bales -- YIPPEE!!!

I am early into my 2nd year of using straw bales for gardening.  I LOVE IT!!!

I am using my bales again (new last year) for this year's garden.  They are not as pretty/pristine/tight as they were last growing season, but that is fine...actually preferable in some ways:

• They don't need to be conditioned ("cooked") like new bales do.
• They are much easier to plant in...the straw separates easily to get plants deep in the straw.
• They tend to hold water better.

I still plan on watering very frequently and fertilizing some, but this year's gardening will be much less work...and I use "work" lightly here...gardening in a straw bale is so much easier than soil-based methods.

Since I quit blogging last year in early June -- I was so busy enjoying my harvests!!! -- I should make a few comments about what I learned from last year:

• I tried to cram too many veggies into my bales.  I read a lot and tried following guidelines as best as I could.  But I fudged a bit and thought I could squeeze an extra plant or two in here and there.  Don't.  These veggies grow so well...but they need the space and sun to thrive.  Putting in too many veggies blocks off sunlight to ones behind them.  My Mom always used to say, "Plant zaggered!"  That meant to zig-zag planting so one plant would not completely block out the plant behind it.  And I did that...but with too many thriving plants, zaggered doesn't help much. Spread things out like various reading sources suggest...and maybe give everything an inch or two more.  I was overly ambitious and optimistic.  I have no regrets.  It was a learning year and most things did extremely well.  And in my 4 "salsa bales" out front...it was no big deal.  My tomatoes were the "back" plants...peppers next...herbs in front.  Fabulous!


• Don't have high expectations if you don't get 6-8 hours or more of sun.  If you have shade trees, morning-only exposure, or buildings that block late morning or afternoon sun, be prepared for lack-luster growth. 
  
  My 4 bales that were in my back yard started off like gangbusters.  But that's while the trees were still relatively lightly leaved.  When they became heavily-leaved (particularly from the trees on the west side of my house), I lost a lot of light.  My strawberries did very well, but they were early-bearers.  My peas and beans did fine, too.  But my bell peppers, cucumbers, and assorted squash never did much.  We had such a hard winter that my strawberries froze out...regretably.  They were so good last year!  So I'm just going to plant 6 tomato plants out there.  They will do fine...and I will definitely use the extra tomatoes.
  
  My 2 bales on the far side of my garage were a waste.  Even though they were south facing, the lilac bush in front of them (plus mature oak and pine trees on west side) blocked too much south and afternoon (west) sun.  Also...because they were under the eaves of the garage roof, they didn't get as much rain as would have been optimal.  I still watered quite frequently...but the combination of low light and not as much rain water -- I think -- doomed them.
  
  My 2 bales in front next to the front porch did fine, even though they are also next to a wall and had a roof-line eaves over them.  BUT...they got full-day sun and seemed to get more rain water than the ones by the garage.  I had zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes there.  All thrived.
  
• Sticking clumping flowers in the sides of the bales is a nice aesthetic touch!  I used impatiens and begonias and they were so lovely.
  
• ALL my herbs did fantastically well.  That is the thing I'm most excited about again this year.  I was able to have fresh and home-grown dried herbs all year-round.  Still using on some from last year!

Overall, this is an endeavor WELL WORTH the effort.  I am so happy that I discovered this last spring and plan to do this each year in the foreseeable future.

Here are some pix from my 2014 (2nd year) bales.

Front Yard -- By Front Porch.  Zucchini and yellow squash...plus a
few random green onions that survived in a peat pot over the winter.

Front Yard -- West Side of Garage/Driveway.  Giving this spot another shot
even though I don't expect it to produce much...if anything.  Zucchini,
yellow squash, and eggplant.  It may be hard to tell, but these bales are
far less decomposed than all my other ones.

Front Yard -- Large Flower Bed.  My 4 "Salsa Bales"...4 roma tomatoes,
1 cherry tomato, 2 hot peppers, cilantro, rosemary, thyme, dill,
sage, oregano, stevia.

You can see in this last picture what a toll the severe winter took on my shrubs.  I need to have 4 shrubs taken out, plus one pine tree.

I will add a photo of my 4 backyard bales when I get tomatoes planted there.