It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
We’re moving into a rental in North Texas – an area new to us. I was thinking about doing some hay bale gardens. Didn’t you plant some? Can you update me on how they turned out? Thank you! Been reading your blog for years – love it!
~ Emily
Emily, The only things I’ve grown in a straw bale garden before was potatoes. We went into “sell the house mode” and the idea was kind of shoved to the back burner. Several of my readers have sent in pictures, though, with fantastic results.
The key to using bales for gardening is to get STRAW, not hay. Hay will sprout on you, straw won’t. It takes 3-4 weeks to prep the bales before planting, so make sure to plan accordingly. You’ll need some sort of conditioner {a fertilizer with about 20% nitrogen release, organic fertilizers, manure, or bone meal} to help the bale break down faster and give you a grow medium in the bale. For the first coupe of days, just water the bales well. That will get them nice and moist. On day three, start sprinkling 3 cups of your conditioner onto the bale and water it in. Repeat this step every other day for 6 days {water every day, though}. At the end of two weeks, stick your finger into the bale to see if that baby is starting to heat up inside. If it is, you are on your way to planting.
There’s a great book that walks you through the process, it’s the same book that first peaked my interested in using the straw bale method. It’s called Straw Bale Gardens. It’s available on Amazon, but you may be able to find it at your local library as well.
Mavis, I live in western North Carolina where groundhogs are abundant. I’m having a really hard time keeping them out of my raised beds. They burrow under the fence and eat everything except the peppers! HELP!
~Page
While I have never had a groundhog problem, I’ve had a reader ask about gophers, and researched a couple of options for her to try. I think I would apply the same general principles to groundhogs. The only other thing I would add–and brace yourself, because it’s a lot of work, is that I would probably take the time to line the bottom of your raised beds with chicken wire, so they can’t pop up underneath the beds and destroy the root system. In fact, if any of you are building raised beds this year, take the precaution now. It is so much easier than moving the dirt later.
Mavis–I love your raised beds. But I never saw a post about how you made them. Care to share the building process? Thank you so much!
~Jennifer
First off, thanks! Second, here is the tutorial. The key is to volunteer to take pictures while your husband makes them. 😉
Hi Mavis. I highly recommend the movie Batkid currently playing on Netflix. It is the sweetest movie about a young boy’s Make-A-Wish to become batman for the day and how the entire city of San Francisco made it so very special for him. This is such a feel-good, joyful movie. Check it out!
~Mona
Mona, thanks for the suggestion. I like this kid already. I’ll put it on the list immediately.
Hi. I am wanting to plant strawberries in rain gutters this year, and was wondering what sort of success you all had with this method. I picked up 25 bare-root plants from a local farmer for $5, and I don’t want to tear up my yard any more than I have to, as my yard is about the size of a postage stamp, lol. Any info you could provide as to your success would be very helpful. Thank you!
~Melody
Melody, I get this question a lot, and the truth is, I have found that I found that in the ground is best for strawberries, as far as yield goes, but gutters are fun, and do still produce. If space is an issue, go with the gutters, you’ll get berries, just not as many. If you are looking to make big batches of jam, it’s time to take a rototiller to your postage stamp. 🙂 You can always use them as ground cover in your beds too, rather than tear up any more of the yard.
Well, that does it for this installment for Ask Mavis–I hope I’ve helped…or at least not hindered. Carry on.
~Mavis
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cptacek says
I have to disagree with telling the person in Texas to do straw bale gardening, especially if in the central or western part of the state. Wind and dry conditions will make it so you need to water those things like crazy.
We’ve had straw bales sprout. It depends on how well the combine threshes the wheat (or barley, or oats, etc.) out of the head. If the combine isn’t set correctly, yes, of course it can sprout. Also, if the hay is cut and baled before the hay forms a head and seeds, using hay would be fine.
Leslie says
What if you wrap the bales in plastic?
cptacek says
I don’t know. You have to balance wanting to keep it moist with it growing mold. There isn’t much wicking action in pure straw, I don’t think, so the bottom would be water logged and the top dry, if I had to guess.
In this situation, it might be better to make homemade earth boxes, making sure to cover the soil with plastic so it wouldn’t evaporate too much.
Jennifer says
As a landlord, if you do not already have a garden on the property, I would double and triple check with your landlord that they are OK with you creating any sort of garden on the property. It is work to remove it and restore what was there. Work that you will likely be billed for when you move out.
Debbi Atkinson says
We live in McKinney, Texas north of Dallas and did straw bale gardening for the first time the year before last and loved it! We didn’t do it this year as we are redoing the yard, etc.
Yes, you will have a little bit of sprouting but for us it died back without having to be weeded before we even placed our starter plants so it was a total non-issue. We have never had such abundant tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers! It was a great growing year as it didn’t get too hot too soon so that helped. We had no pests and virtually no weeds, but we did have to water a lot but we used drip irrigation. We didn’t mind as we had no mildew or mold issues which can be a problem in humid climates. I would strongly recommend getting the book if you decide to go this route as every method has its pros and cons and the book addresses every potential issue thoroughly. Next year we will definitely try it again.
Rachel says
For Melody–about the strawberries.
What about making a pallet garden and leaning it up against the side of the house. That’s how I have mine and they are doing amazingly well. I made mine a few years ago backing it with a few layers of weed blocker fabric, then filling all the channels with potting soil. For the first 2 years I had lettuce in growing in the pallet. Last year I put strawberries in it. They wintered over beautifully and are doing really well now. Over the years I’ve added fertilizer and aged manure to help add nutrients back, but since lettuce and strawberries are great garden companions I think that’s why they’re doing so well. To winter over, we shimmy the pallet flat on the ground, cover with straw and then some plastic garden fencing (to help keep the straw from blowing off in the fall before the snow blankets it). If you lean it upright against the side of your house keep in mind you’ll probably need to protect your siding from scraps, and general paint damage. Good luck.