Would you like to grow your own vegetable patch, but don't you really have the best earth in your garden? This problem is not just you! Certainly there is nothing more delicious than organic vegetables from your own cultivation and garden, but it is not uncommon for obstacles to those already mentioned. Alternatively, there would still be the raised bed that is filled with bought earth. But the construction is not complex, but the purchase of the earth is expensive. Now we have an interesting proposal for you that more and more gardeners fall back on. And it is the straw balet. Yes, you read properly! Gardening on straw bales is wonderful if you are looking for a replacement for potting soil. But that is by no means the only advantage of this innovative garden idea. We would like to explain to you exactly how this works in the following lines.
Gardening on straw can be used, no matter where you are in the world. The prerequisite is, of course, that you can guarantee water and sun. But otherwise they are not dependent on their place of residence. So if you have a rather desolate and dry landscape in the garden with dry and low -nutrient soil, you can use your own cultivation with straw as well as everyone who lives in very rainy areas.
And because the whole thing is so simple and does not require any special tools or devices, the idea can even be tried out by beginners without any problems. If you already have experience, you will fall in love with straw bales all the more. And if you don't have a place in the garden for a bed and have always been dependent on vegetables in pots, you can now use this original “plant bucket” and conveniently garden on straw bales.
How does such a nursery work?
First of all, you should know that the plants are not put on fresh straw. Instead, bales will be used, the straw of which is already in the process. For this purpose, the straw bales are treated in a special way. Water and fertilizers are used here. After ten days, the decomposition process begins. In principle, the interior of the bales slowly turns into new earth. In addition, heat is created during this decomposition process, which is extremely advantageous for the young planters. In addition, the tubes store water after they have poured their plants and so they receive vegetables that need more water enough moisture. For example, this is the case with tomatoes. A constant water supply is necessary for them if you want to avoid irregular or even burst fruits. The straw bale gardener makes gardening easier here.
What about the nutrients?
As you can think, Stroh is anything but nutrient -rich. So how is it that the plants are so good? First of all, you should not consider the disadvantage of this property. Because of course that also means that no weeds can grow. And that's great news. The regular plucking of the weeds falls away. But how should you supply the plants? There is simply a little fertilizer in the bales and they are already supplied! Sometimes it happens that seeds of the original plant are contained in the straw that also start to grow over time. But do not harm your vegetable plants in any way. But now we come to a more precise explanation of how best to proceed.
Where can I get straw bales?
It is best to use small rectangular or square bale. The rounds are also suitable, but far too big and difficult for some. But you decide that yourself. Avoid bale from conventional cultivation. This often contains residues from various weed control agents, which will later be released to their vegetables. Straw bales are available directly from farmers, but can also be bought on the Internet from a stock exchange. Many farmers now use the round variants. You can usually still find angulars on horse stoves.
Gardening on straw bales - instructions
A certain planning is also necessary for this type of bed and of course preparation. We have once again summarized a explanation of the individual steps, according to which you can focus on straw bales when gardening.
Preparing the bales
Now is the time when you set the right location for the straw bales at the latest, because you are still easy to change. However, since they will now regularly water straw bales, they will no longer be so easy to wear and could also fall apart. As already mentioned, the preparation process takes a few days. From the fertilizer (guano, horn gries or inorganic fertilizer), use approx. 100 g per bale and day, fertilizing the bales only every two days. It is best to alternate: one day is only cast, then fertilized and cast, on the third day they only pour again and so on. After the sixth day you will perceive a sweet smell. Then you know that the process has started and you can soon get started with gardening on straw bales and planting.
Arrangement in the garden
The gardener bales are placed close together in a row. The interfaces should point upwards while the cord stays on the side. The columns that arise can be filled with ripe compost and somewhat growing earth. This prevents stalls when growing the plants. Once the rows are finished, you can also add trellis or other climbing options depending on the plant species that you want to plant in the respective series. If you tension wire over the bale row, you can also use it to design small greenhouse. For this purpose, simply place film about it. The wire ensures a distance between the film and plant. This keeps the plants warm on the cool night and protects against frost, so that they can start gardening earlier. Moisture is also saved. If you are afraid of the decomposition during the gardening on straw bales on straw bales and want to avoid this if possible, you can also dress the straw bales with a frame made of wood and support you in this way.
Plant vegetables
If you use finished seedlings for planting, it is sufficient if you drill small holes into the straw. You can use a planter for this. The seedlings are then planted in these holes, not removing the whole earth around the root ball. Then fill out the hole with sterile earth mixture, covering the open roots at the same time. Semen can also be planted directly. For this purpose, however, they distribute a 2.5 to 5 cm high layer of earth on the bales beforehand. As soon as the seeds form roots, start growing directly into the straw.
After that, as in any other bed, it is watered. Since the gardener bales can store a lot of water, the plant is less at risk of drying out. At the same time, the many air between the straws also ensures that the water can run well to prevent waterlogging. In the meantime, many also use an irrigation system from hoses for the bales.
Vegetables are harvested - what now?
If the time of harvesting and gardening on straw bales has passed and the plants have passed, they remain some bales that are certainly no longer too nice to look at. They are gray and soaked and no longer usable. But not quite. You can use all the straw for a vegetable bed in the garden next year. Simply distribute it on the bed in autumn or store it on your compost heap and fertilize the garden and flower pots.
What can you plant except vegetables?
In principle, everything is possible when gardening on straw bales and can simply be tried out. Herbal plants thrive as well as tomatoes, carrots, cabbage and peppers, for which this planting method is most popular. Also consider some useful planting combinations to stimulate growth. Good partners are tomatoes and basil, radishes and salad or radish, combined with onions and carrots. The reason for this is that you need different nutrients and therefore do not "steal" each other.
But flowers can also be planted and in this way create an interesting and colorful garden design. In addition to sunflowers as in the picture above, marigolds, the nasturtium and other one -year plants are also suitable. The one year because they will throw away the straw or compost the straw at the end of the season.
Disadvantages of this original bed
As perfect and handsome, the idea for garden design and care also sounds, there are some disadvantages that you should know in advance:
- On the one hand, you don't really get organic products with gardening on straw bales. A lot of fertilizer is used for preparation, with many use to artificial to accelerate the process. And nitrogen is also part of it.
- The heat that is generated in this process is not only an advantage for your vegetable, herbal or flower plants. These circumstances are also a perfect prerequisite for the formation of mushrooms that do not harm the plants, but will sooner or later be visible and are anything but pretty.
- Insects are attracted. Bumblebees, for example, find the hollow stalks particularly great and can even build whole nests in the bales. In this way, however, they do something good for nature, because they offer shelter to the bumblebees. So if you don't bother you, this can even be seen as something positive.
