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So my wife got this gardening book which showed this straw bale gardening ideas. It sounded interesting so we looked into it a bit more. Now I'm picturing buying a bale a straw for hey maybe $3 accounting for inflation etc. OK granted it has been some years since I was in the market.

We belong to the DuPage County Farm Bureau and get these monthly news letters and offers of discounted services and products. There is a farm that had bales of straw offered. We call them up and if we were to buy 10 of them they could sell them to us at $10 a bale! Shock!

OK, the book said garden centers would have them...... no luck there either.


After checking around we found a place that had them for just under $7. I drive out there and they are all gone. I'm pretty much thinking that this is not happening this year.

But I'm out by our Rural King and find a few stacked up for $7 plus tax and so now we have a bale.
While I was picturing maybe 10 bales one is going to do for this price.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has done this or is doing this now. I hope to start condition it tomorrow and have it ready to plant in a couple of weeks just about the time the last frost date is past.

Ed

You growing 'straw'?

To see this sort of garden use the search "straw bale garden" and look at images on google.

Ed

I think it would depend a lot on your climate and other things. Around here, straw is a rodent magnet and attracts lots of rats and mice. Not something you want where you live.
If you have lots of rain, it would help keep the seed bed from getting saturated, but if you get little rain, the plants would dry out fast and die.
Also, raising the plant bed gets you up and away from your soil. Again, if you have crappy soil, that would be a good thing, but if you have rich black soil like I do, you want the plants right down in it.
In nature, you never see plants growing up on a pile of dead vegitation. They choose to be down in the black soil.
To me, it looks like another fad like the upside down tomato. Nature did things the way that works best, and each time we try to "invent" something better, we fail.

When you are phoning enquires be sure to ask "spoiled" straw/hay, not good for animal bedding but for you use just starting to compost.
Also check on Craigslist.
Here is $4.00 a bale https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/grd/5561684922.html
Here is free, but farther afield. https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/grd/5557476224.html

Well the progress has been slowed down. Lot of rain over night so we have standing water in the backyard again. I could get the boots out I guess but I was hoping for better conditions. Several other activities out there are also going to suffer.

I have another raised bed about half filled, need to have that done in about 2 weeks. The wife wants to move our new compost bin.... and have a path put in to the clothes tree island. Then the old compost bin needs to get taken apart and the soil distributed. One of the old raised beds is rotting out and needs to be replaced. The tree I started taking down last fall needs to get finished. Brush needs to get to the street for pickup by Thursday morning. And the mower needs to get checked out and some grass cut. Well that is for starters. Spring always gets too busy for me.

Just writing about it has tired me out.

Ed

Wow no one mentioned asking for "spoiled" straw. This would be stuff that got wet I'm guessing? Not sure I want to put "wet" straw or soiled straw in the back of my van but if it wasn't too bad a tarp might contain it pretty well. Those are the days I wish I had a pickup.

I had not thought to do a craigslist check. Both of those places are a bit farther then I'd hope to go but still not that bad. The closer one is maybe an hour away depending on traffic conditions.

I think maybe just this one bale will do for this test season. If I like it then next year we might look at 10 bales.

Thanks for the incite.

Ed

rpd wrote:When you are phoning enquires be sure to ask "spoiled" straw/hay, not good for animal bedding but for you use just starting to compost.
Also check on Craigslist.
Here is $4.00 a bale https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/grd/5561684922.html
Here is free, but farther afield. https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/grd/5557476224.html

BTW this is the book my wife has:
Ed