{"id":1249,"date":"2010-05-12T22:04:38","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T04:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2013-04-12T08:10:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T14:10:45","slug":"if-you-give-a-gardener-a-straw-bale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/if-you-give-a-gardener-a-straw-bale\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Give a Gardener a Straw Bale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chronicles of a Straw Bale Garden – Day 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 5 – Last week<\/strong> a friend of mine found herself suspected of being both a drug dealer and a pyromaniac by going into a local, reputable garden store and asking about nitrogen fertilizer and straw bale gardening.\u00a0 This prompted me to educate myself, so I did some research on the possibility of spontaneous combustion in straw or hay bales.\u00a0 It involves some fascinating\u00a0 microbiology.\u00a0 In short, my straw bales are not at risk, which is good news since I already set up my straw bale garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main reason<\/strong> seems to be that they are not a big enough “pile” for the heating of decomposition to feed itself.\u00a0 Heat and moisture can escape sufficiently.\u00a0 The secondary reason is that they are last years bales and have already gone through metabolic processes which have a lower heat maximum with every cycle.\u00a0 If you are looking for a bonfire, you’ll have to look somewhere else, like possibly the plastic 5 gallon bucket under our back yard brick oven.\u00a0 But that’s another story.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile<\/strong>, here are some websites that I found very helpful.\u00a0 First, to inform about constructing a straw bale garden, I still like the simple steps from the June 2010 Fine Gardening magazine best.\u00a0 However, the instructions from the other sites indicate that there is not one absolute method.\u00a0 I received a gracious reply from a University of Idaho extension<\/a> representative that introduced me to:<\/p>\n

Nichols Garden Nursery article on building a straw bale garden<\/a><\/p>\n

University of Minnesota Extension information on straw bale raised beds<\/a><\/p>\n

If you thrive<\/strong> on understanding the intriguing chemistry and biology of gardening, then you’ll want to read more about the ongoing cellular respiration of cut hay, mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria, and interior bale temperature. This Virginia Tech article<\/a> gives an excellent detailed, but easy to understand explanation. \u00a0 yourcattle.com<\/a> gives straight forward advice about managing these temperamental bales should you be storing them in stacks for any length of time.<\/p>\n

I remain hopeful<\/strong> for the outcome of my bales, having faithfully watered it with fish emulsion solution again today.\u00a0 It may look like dirt frosting on a piece of straw cake to the casual passerby, but I see the promise of a vivid jungle of vines of squash with their exotic orange blossoms.<\/p>\n

Day 8, plus gopher tales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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