Straw Bale Gardening Australia

All you need is a couple of straw bales a bag of organic compost some organic fertiliser and seeds or seedlings.

Straw bale gardening australia. The soil beneath a pile of rotten hay or straw improves marvelously after a year or so leaving a patch of humus rich earthworm populated earth. Sprinkle over a couple of handfuls of organic fertiliser. It may be that swilling out the teapot on it each day is enough in your area or you may need to keep the hose handy.

Karsten recommends erecting seven foot tall posts at the end of each row of bales and running wire between them at intervals of 10 inches from the tops of the bales. They function essentially as a raised bed each bale is 14 16 inches high and a container garden in one. Water the bale or bales well if you can leave them out for a couple of weeks and water them every day even better.

Straw bale gardening is just that planting your seedlings into bales of straw. Unlike a planter filled with potting soil the bale begins life as an essentially sterile medium. The main difference is that the container is the straw bale itself and is held together with two or three strings.

Position the bale s on their side so the cut side of the straw is facing up. Advantages to the method include. A soaker hose system set in place is perfect.

Water with liquid fertiliser. Straw bale gardening uses more water than a normal garden so set up a system now. Think of the straw bale as a large container with a volume of 40 gallons.

Once the straw inside the bale begins to decay the straw becomes conditioned compost that creates an extraordinary plant rooting environment. One of the coolest things about straw bale gardening is that it combines the best of container gardening with vertical gardening. The best part was down the bottom of the bale.