[Gardening] Straw bale gardening

Speaking of straw, here's an interesting story from the Warren (NC) Record. -Mark http://www.vancnews.com/articles/2011/06/09/warrenton/news/news56.txt Oine man takes unique approach to gardening Wednesday, June 8, 2011 9:24 AM EDT By Luci Weldon After raising a garden in the field behind his house for many years, Oine resident James Boyd is taking a different approach to gardening this year - growing vegetables in bales of straw. He spent long hours tilling, hoeing, and maintaining his previous gardens, and well remembers working in the hot summer sun. Then, for a little while, Boyd was too busy to even think of planting vegetables. Things settled down last year, and he decided to grow tomatoes in pots. As he started making plans for this year's garden, he saw a magazine article that described growing plants in bales of straw. "You can use wheat straw, barley straw or hay bales, but you can't use pine straw," Boyd said. After buying straw from a farmer, Boyd prepared it for planting by soaking it in water for 10 days. "After it goes through a heat, you can plant plants," he said. For planting, Boyd used a spade to separate the straw, and then put a plant in the hole up to its leaves, similar to what you would do to plant something in the soil. He said that you can plant seeds in straw, but you need to put in potting soil so that the seed will be able to sprout. Boyd said you can grow a good variety of vegetables in straw, including okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, string beans and butterbeans. However, corn is too tall and heavy and may fall over. This year Boyd is growing six tomato plants, four yellow squash, two zucchini, four green pepper plants, two yellow and two red pepper plants, two hills of cucumbers, squash, collards and spring onion. He planted his vegetables around April 15. Since then, Boyd just keeps the garden watered and applies fertilizer every few weeks. "That's all I've done," he said. "I've just watched it grow. There's no grass, no hoeing, no plowing. It takes all the work out of gardening." Because the straw bales are sitting on the lawn, Boyd still has to mow around them, but he has placed the bales far enough apart so that the mower can go between them. Already, he has harvested some spring onion and expects to pick the first cucumbers and squash at any time. Peppers should become large enough to eat in a couple of weeks. Boyd considers this season's garden to be a great start and hopes that he and his wife will have plenty of fresh vegetables to enjoy this summer. "The onions tasted good," he said. "I didn't see any difference (in taste) from growing them in the ground." Boyd has more ambitious plans for the straw garden next year, when he wants to add string beans and butterbeans. He has read that straw bales can be used for growing potatoes and strawberries after they have broken down some. "I'm looking forward to really making it a big garden," Boyd said. He has seen his brother and sister work in the hot sun in their traditional garden next door, but said that they may try a straw garden themselves. Boyd doesn't think he will ever grow a garden in the soil again. "This (straw bale gardening) will be my way of gardening from now on," he said. "It would work good for people who don't have a lot of space and time. They get the benefit of fresh garden vegetables even (if) they have limited space and time."