Straw bale gardening

[vivienz]

Just at the time we finally manage to get one of our greenhouses up, compost is taking a while to get here and fairly expensive, plus I need to save it for the raised beds as topsoil is impossible to get hold of.  All's not lost, however, as I've got 4 bales of barley straw on the way early next week (hopefully), each about 5 ft long, so that will give plenty of growing space.  They get started off with a daily regime of fertilizing and watering and that starts the process of breaking down, having the benefit of kicking out plenty of heat into the cold greenhouse.  One the internal temperature has dropped to 38C, they can be planted up and then it's a case of the usual routine for greenhouse crops.  I'll be putting tomotoes, aubergines, peppers and cucumbers into mine, maybe with some other bits and pieces.

The equivalent volume of compost would cost a fair old bit, but the straw bales come in at around £5 each.  Once everything is over at the end of the season, the spent bales can be used as a mulch on the raised beds (or anywhere else in the garden).

[Jilly]

What a great idea! I'd love to get my garden at the site started, but we are holed up at the rented house. I've used straw before as a mulch, permaculture and forest gardeners are really into it, you get some weed growth from unrecovered awns of barley or whatever, but not too bad. What is this method of gardening called and would it work outdoors? I've heard urine is good for decomposing straw too, but might make your green house a bit smelly! 

[PeterW]

16 minutes ago, Jilly said:

What a great idea! I'd love to get my garden at the site started, but we are holed up at the rented house. I've used straw before as a mulch, permaculture and forest gardeners are really into it, you get some weed growth from unrecovered awns of barley or whatever, but not too bad. What is this method of gardening called and would it work outdoors? I've heard urine is good for decomposing straw too, but might make your green house a bit smelly! 

Chicken manure is good - two big scoops in a bucket of water and wait for it to dissolve then pour it over. 
 

The brick beds in one of the Chatsworth cold frames use the same method - they split the bale into 6 and lay it flat, fine later of manure then soil on top. Gets nice and warm really quickly.