Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Weed-Free Gardening with Straw Bales
I have a confession to make; growing your own food isn’t as easy as everyone (including myself) has made out. I mean, it can be simple if you’ve got the time to dedicate to it. If you know that, three months on from now, life isn’t going to get in the way. If you can guarantee yourself a life change so there’s time to look after all those crops. But saying ‘just plant a small lettuce crop‘, or ‘fruit bushes offer an easy source of summer goodness‘ and ‘there’s nothing easier than throwing a few seeds into a pot on a balcony‘, isn’t actually too helpful. Crops, after all, need nurturing. They need watering, and thinning out, and harvesting. They need pests picked off, fruit needs collecting before the birds get it and, worst of all, there’s weeding! Contrary to what many might tell you, growing your own food is hard work.
So, when a book comes along saying that one major horror of growing your own – WEEDING – can be cut out of the plan all together, I’m not going to turn a blind eye.
For over a decade, Joel Karsten’s been gardening with straw bales. In a nutshell, you take a bale of hale, soak it with water for a week or so to start the rotting process and then you plant your vegetables into it. It sounds odd – I mean, there’s no soil. But, according to Karsten, the bale provides everything your plants require. There’s no weeding because the only plants in the straw are those that you’ve added. There’s watering, yes, but that’s almost always going to be required wherever you’re trying to grow. And then, at the end of the year, your straw bale has rotted down sufficiently to just compost and use elsewhere on the garden.
Seriously, this sounds like a radical change to gardening.
I always fall at the weeding hurdle. The allotment year starts off well, with the colder months allowing me to get the plot in shape, overhaul the soil, add nutrients and assume some sort of preparation. Sowing and germination, generally, is the easy and fun bit too. Then May, June and July hit, life becomes too busy to make regular trips to the vegetable patch/allotment and within the space of two weekends the weeds seem to have taken over. So, if there’s any way to stop those weeds from even starting to grow, I’m all ears.
I’ve already decided to try the no-dig method in my new garden when it comes to the vege patch. I’ve got LOADS of cardboard moving boxes to act as a base, and top soil from the rest of the garden. Next year I’ll have a load of well rotted chicken manure too. I’m also lucky to have the farm in Suffolk where I can grab a few bales of straw from – I’m definitely giving this method a chance.
Have you tried straw bale gardening? Think it could work? Let me know. If you want to check out the book, it’s on Amazon US | Amazon UK. Use the ‘Look Inside‘ feature to check out the start of the method!
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Warning: Use of undefined constant powered_by - assumed 'powered_by' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/thegui11/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-followme/followme.php on line 58
Leave a Reply