Jennifer Bradshaw's Comments

Happy I could be of such great help! I think you will really benefit from this. Just be sure to fertilize the bales like they instruct. My farmer friend told me that when they hay or anything composts, the process causes a loss of nitrogen. I needed to add more (I used a slow release fertilizer) as well as some organic dried manuer (sp?). It may be that my compost was the cause of the need for more fertilizer. I just went by the way the plants looked (when the plants looked yellow I added more fertilizer). The peppers really don't look happy in there but everything else is doing pretty well. I may have not planted them deep enough (I'm still a novice after three years of gardening!) Good luck. :D

Hi Jennifer. You place the straw bales on their sides and you have to water the heck out them for about ten days. They start to compost, but you need to give it time to cool a little so the heat doesn't kill your new plants (that's why you have to wait the 10 days). I placed some compost on top of mine but they say you don't have to do that (I'll experiment next year with that!). The link I found info at is: http://strawbalegardens.com/ and also: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/201052. There is actually lots of stuff on the internet about it now. Just make sure you get straw . . . not hay. You want as few seeds as possible in your bales or else you'll be growing lots of things besides vegetables! lol. I did get some nice looking grass in mine, but it's not that bad really. I had to pay $6.00 a bale here in PA. My sister said they sell hay for half that price in Ohio. I would've liked to get more, but as usual, was too broke. I love the fact that the height makes it easier to weed and harvest, deters hungry bunnies, and cats who love to christen fresh dug gardens with their nasty little presents! You can stack the bales any way you want. It would be cool to have a ziggurate garden! Maybe if I could find a cheaper straw source. :)