Our no dig, no weeds, garden!

I grew up on garden food (thanks mom!) and have always been a veggie lover. Seriously, as a small child, I preferred salads over any other meal option! One of my dad's favorite stories to tell people happened when I was about four years old. My daddy and I were in a truck stop  (He is a truck driver and sometimes I got to go with him). When the time came to order, my daddy asked me what I wanted. I responded, in my little southern drawl, "A salwad, just a salwad." . What can I say? I love vegetables!

When Tim and I got married I thought the days of fresh garden food were over. We spent our first summer in an apartment. By the second summer we were in our current house, but instead of soil, we have red clay. On top of it all, we had no clue where to begin! Late last summer I started looking into other options and came across container gardening. I decided against this option because I am not a huge fan of clutter and felt like containers and pots everywhere would drive me crazy. Tim liked the idea of building raised beds but before we could do that, a friend suggested something else...

She suggested that we plant a garden using straw bales. The more they explained, the more excited I got!  No digging, no weeding, and lots of fruits and veggies :) 

We ended up using hay bales because I found some for half of what straw bales were being sold for at local garden stores. Either one will work, just know that hay bales have grass/weed seeds in them that may sprout when you are preparing the bales for planting. This happened to ours,  but they pull out incredibly easy. 

There are many variations to growing a straw bale garden, but I am going to share what I did.

1. Once you have the bales, place them exactly where you want your garden to be (once wet, they will be almost impossible to move around) make sure the bales are in a place that gets 6+hours of sun each day. There are two ways to lay the bales: straw parallel to the ground or straw perpendicular to the ground. I placed our with the straw parallel because, the string around the bales is synthetic(won't decompose/break), they will hold water much better, and when the time comes, it will make it easier to plant. 

2. The next step is to help the inside of the bales decompose and compost so they will be the perfect environment for growing plants.  If you plan ahead, you just have to soak the bales with water for four weeks before planting. I did not get an early start so here is what worked for me:

  Days 1-3, water the bales until soaking 

  Days 4-6, added 1/2 cup of blood meal to each bale and soaked with water.

  Days 7-9, added 1/4 cup blood meal to each bale and soaked with water.

  Day 10, just soak with water.

  Day 11 place your hand inside the bale and if it is cooler than your body temperature, it is safe to  plant.

3. Planting! 

Use a garden trowel to separate the hay/straw, put a small amount of potting soil in the hole(do not use dirt from your yard, it may contaminate your bales with diseases or weeds) soak with water, then put a plant in, letting the hay/straw close in around it. Once finished planting, water everything thoroughly and you're finished!
(It you are using seeds, you can sow them straight into the bales or germinate and plant the sprouted plants.)

Starting off small, perfect for two!

I discovered that the inside of the bales were already starting to compost and look like soil!

Olive photo bombing  :)

In 60-ish days we should have squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, and peppers! I will post an update as the garden grows. 

Are you straw bale gardener? Have any tips/suggestions? I would love to hear from you!