Straw Bale Gardening: Advice wanted!:]

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by aahhaa, Feb 29, 2012.

  1. aahhaa

    aahhaa Member

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    Location:
    South Haven Michigan USA
    Here in Southwest Michigan, we are having an extraordinarily mild winter- little to no snow so far and what does fall melts in the next couple days. Temps have already hit the high 50°s (F) several times and more sun than any one remembers- it is very like an Oklahoma winter.

    So instead of the 'traditional' shoveling of 5 feet or so of daily Lake Effect, I've been messing around with this newfangled Straw Bale idea. (Its a true wet land here, with the cold ground water only inches below the surface.)

    I'm finding lots of not exactly conflicting info on line, but some of the more practical aspects (like keeping the relatively expensive bales intact for 2 years instead of one means making sure you get'em with synthetic twine, among many other things {like which side goes down}) are ignored by the YouTube gurus.

    Managing water, planning veggie supports, various fertilizing schemes (including pee:]) are all more than a little vague.

    I'm after vegetables, and mebbe cantalope or strawberries, in a wooded area without full sun. My gut says it'll be a loooong cool spring starting a month early, so kale & chard and snow peas might be worth starting even a month early.

    Anybody got 'startup' experience in the straw bale arena? Thanks in advance!
     

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