Day 1 – Chronicles of a Straw Bale Garden
Day 5 – If You Give a Gardener a Straw Bale
Day 17 – Sunday I put my first transplants into my straw bale garden. The good news is that two days later they appear happy and growing. The bad news is that getting them planted was a lot more work than I anticipated. It could be that the resources I read were referring to much smaller transplants, like those that come in pack of 4 or 6, such that the dirt and roots are less than 2 cubic inches. I do think it would have been much easier to slip those into place. As it was, I had flowers (which I began from seed) in 3 inch wide pots, the pots also being about 4 inches deep.
Another factor may have been our unusually cool spring weather, so that, maybe, the bales had not broken down as much as they might have. With all of the rain, they did certainly get moist enough; and there was some sunshine. They must have broken down some, because I was able to pull and tear at the straw just under the layer of compost and finally get those little green things planted.
So now my painted daisies are ready to poke their heads up through the vines, which I am waiting a few more days to plant. I am planting them from seed into the completely soil center of the straw cube, so it will be very simple. I just want it to dry out and warm up some so the seeds don’t rot. Next for the straw bale experiment: I will attempt to make custom lengths of soaker hose. I hope it’s not too entertaining for the engineers and mechanically -minded in my family to observe…