May 25 column: Straw bale gardening

Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Ditching the dirt. (or you can read my column lower in this post.) It’s all about straw bale gardening, which I think you’ll find quite interesting.

I’d never heard of it until one of my Master Gardener colleagues read a newly-published book on the subject. They decided to give it a try in one of our demonstration gardens at the Extension education center.

I have since read that book (“Straw Bale Gardens” by Joel Karsten, published by Cool Springs Press). Looks like I should check it out, too! Since I have a large veggie garden comprised of 26 raised beds, I only had room for 2 bales. At least I can experiment with them and let you know how they do.

For today’s article, I interviewed a gentleman who had also read Karsten’s book. He has 40 (yes, 40!) straw bales in his vegetable garden. Impressive, eh? So take a look at the article and see what you think.

Straw Bale Gardening column:

by Susan Mulvihill

Last summer, Spokane Valley resident Bruce Moriarty first heard about straw bale gardening. A friend was using that method and had trouble keeping up with all of the produce he was getting.

It was too late in the year for Bruce to create his own straw bale garden. This year he decided to dive right in by getting 40 bales of straw.

“I’m a guy who over-engineers and overdoes things but I wanted to give it a try,” he admitted.

Straw bale gardening isn’t something brand new. But a recently-published book on it captured the attention of Bruce and his wife, Diane.

In “Straw Bale Gardens” (Cool Springs Press, 144 pp., $19.99), the subtitle is likely why: “The Breakthrough Method for Growing Vegetables Anywhere, Earlier and With No Weeding.”

Author Joel Karsten explains how it works: “You plant your garden directly in bales of straw. Add some water, fertilizer and sunshine (not necessarily in that order), and your garden will explode with beautiful, wholesome produce. No tilling, no cultivating, no weeding. It really works.”

The concept is very appealing. As the bales decompose, the temperature inside them rises. All kinds of vegetables can be grown in the bales. But think what that will do for heat-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers.

The Moriartys purchased their bales from a farmer in Greenacres for $3 apiece. They arranged them in three long, U-shaped rows with the cut side up. That way, the straw would more easily absorb water and nutrients. The baling twine runs around the sides of the bales.

Soaker hoses attached to a water timer lay over the tops of the bales. That’s the water source throughout the garden season.

It helps that Diane works in the plumbing department of a local Home Depot. “Setting up the watering system for the garden was a snap for her,” Bruce said.

On the first of May, they began conditioning the bales to prepare them for planting. This process involves watering and fertilizing the bales over the course of 12 days.

Karsten recommends using warm water to help with the decomposition of the bale, which can be tricky for some. Diane screwed an adapter into their laundry room faucet to accomplish this.

During the conditioning process, the bales are drenched with water daily and fertilized every other day. Bruce and Diane used lawn fertilizer, which is high in nitrogen, and made sure it didn’t contain any weed killers.

In “Straw Bale Gardens,” Karsten suggests organic alternatives of blood meal, fish fertilizer, feather meal or organic fertilizers high in nitrogen. Fertilizer high in phosphorus and potassium are used on the 10th day.

Diane started their vegetable and herb plants from seed. Veggie crops include broccoli, cabbage, eggplants, cucumbers, melons, lettuce, squash, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes and pumpkins. They’ll also plant flowers on the outside bales so their neighbors will have something pretty to look at — not that a productive vegetable garden isn’t a work of art in itself.

Once each bale is planted, they’ll set up trellises to support plants that grow more than a foot above the bales.

At the end of the season, the decomposed bales go into the compost pile to provide nutrients for next year’s garden.

Bruce feels there will be important advantages to growing vegetables in straw bales:

“I won’t have to kneel down to harvest the produce, there will be virtually no weeding involved, there won’t be a need for crop rotation, and we’re going to get larger and better produce because of the added warmth in the root area,” he said.

As they embarked on their project, the Moriartys sought out help from Diane’s co-workers and from the WSU/Spokane County Master Gardeners, who are also growing a  straw bale garden this season.

They added that Karsten’s book has helped them learn about the process since they haven’t had much experience growing vegetables.

“It’s very thorough and well-written, has a lot of photos in it and good explanations,” Bruce said. “It’s designed for someone who has never done any gardening. If I can follow it and grow a garden, anybody can.”

This fall, we’ll report on how the Moriarty’s garden performed as well as the Master Gardeners’ demonstration garden.