Straw Bale Gardens Complete

Breakthrough Vegetable Gardening Method - All-New Information On: Urban & Small Spaces, Organics, Saving Water - Make Your Own Bales With or Without Straw!

Joel Karsten

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781591869078
• eBook ISBN: 9781627886062
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

Take your straw bale gardening to the next level—in more places, with new products, and even sometimes skipping the straw entirely—with Straw Bale Gardens Complete.

The reception and enthusiasm for straw bale gardening, introduced in 2013, has proved revolutionary in vegetable growing. Why? Because the bold promises in the book are kept: grow vegetables anywhere, earlier in the year, with no weeding. Gardeners everywhere are excited. Straw bale gardening works!

In just the short amount of time that has passed, the gardening world and Joel Karsten himself have learned even more about how to apply this method in just about any environment: on a city balcony, in a rocky outpost, in a desert, and even in the tundra of Alaska.

Straw Bale Gardens Complete contains all of the original information that has set the gardening world on fire. But it also goes much deeper, with nearly 50 pages of all-new advice and photos on subjects such as growing in a tight urban setting, making your straw bale garden completely organic, and using new fertilizers and conditioning products. There is even information on using straw bale techniques to grow veggies in other organic media for anyone who has a hard time finding straw.

Fans of Straw Bale Gardens will not want to miss adding Straw Bale Gardens Complete to their gardening library. There is, literally, nothing else like it!

Planting
SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS

Seedlings may be planted directly into a hole in the straw bale. Seeds require a layer of sterile planting mix for germination.

IF YOU ARE PLANNING to use prestarted transplants from the garden center, or your own seedlings started earlier under indoor grow lights, it is time to begin transplanting them into the bales. Vegetables that are considered warm-season crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, melons, eggplant, cucumber or squash, are all examples of plants with a good track record as transplants. The climate where you live (and thus the length of the growing season) will determine whether or not you must start with transplants or if you can start with seeds. If you would normally use transplants, then purchase the smaller-sized transplants; they are less costly and the extra warmth generated in the root zone by the “cooking” straw bale will encourage very rapid early season growth. Your tiny transplants will quickly surpass the much bigger transplants that your neighbor uses in the traditional soil garden on the other side of your fence. Keep in mind that your transplants are going into a root zone that will be approximately 85° on average, whereas the soil may be only 50° or 55° on the same date.

Use your hand trowel to stab into the bale and make a hole by working the straw back and forth. Sometimes it is necessary to remove a little straw to make the hole for the transplants.

Dig right in

Move the soaker hose slightly to the side and use a hand trowel to stab into the bale. Working back and forth, open up an area large enough to insert the entire root mass easily without breaking up the roots. If necessary, remove a small amount of straw to accommodate the root ball. If the bale is really tight, use a pair of pliers to pull a little straw out to make room.

Internal bale heat

Make sure the bales are not too hot for planting seedlings. If a meat thermometer stuck 6 inches into the top of a bale reads over 105°, then wait another day or two until it cools down before planting. If you don’t have a thermometer, push your hand inside the bale before planting into it and if the bale feels hot on your skin, it is probably over 105°. If it feels like warm bath water or cooler, then it is safe to go ahead and plant your transplants that day. Temperatures don’t matter at all when you are seeding the bale, so go ahead and plant seeds any time after Day 12, regardless of how hot the bale is.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sbgs in Small, Urban and Unusual Spaces
• Straw
• Planning your Straw Bale Garden
• Making your Own Bales
• Conditioning the Bales
• Organic Straw Bale Gardens
• Planting Seeds and Seedlings
• Straw Bale Greenhouse
• Growing your Straw Bale Garden
• Sbgs and Water
• Harvest Time
• What Remains is Gold
• Plant Profiles
• Photo and Garden Credits, Resources
• Conversions
• Index
• Meet the Author
• Dedication
• Copyright