[OT:] Gardening?

NakedPancakes · 04-15-2007, 04:54 PM

Anyone garden here? =]
I have a few questions and I joined a Gardening forum, but it doesn't seem very popular or populated. =\
So...
Anyone?

figaro · 04-15-2007, 10:10 PM

What kind of questions? I can try to help...

NakedPancakes · 04-15-2007, 10:15 PM

=]
Thanks.

Straw bale gardening. Where you plant stuff on straw bales?

What can you plant on it?

I've heard you can plant strawberries, tomatos, cucumbers, but not corn

So I just wanted to know what works.

figaro · 04-15-2007, 10:45 PM

Wow, you got me on that one and I asked my husband who sells flower bulbs and he has never heard of it either. I did Google it and this site looks like it has a lot of info http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgard...ide/straw.html

Good luck with it!

NakedPancakes · 04-15-2007, 11:49 PM

That's where I learned about it from. The magazine.

Thanks much though. =]

MoniDew · 04-16-2007, 04:03 AM

I have planted potatoes, right on top of my garden soil, and covered it with straw bailing. They grow quite well that way, and are easy to dig up when harvest time comes around. I also understand that strawberries like to be mulched with straw (thus, straw berries)
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Carol_OH · 04-17-2007, 03:29 AM

I don't know either, BUT have you seen this site (my fav magazine, too) www.countrysidemag.com - maybe there's a back issue/article?

AnaK · 04-17-2007, 03:53 AM

Check Organicgardening.com . They have a forum also and it may be more populated.

Susan P. · 04-17-2007, 08:03 AM

I've done straw bale gardening. It depends somewhat on how high the straw really is as sometimes people don't really have a bale thickness but what I've tended to do is to part the straw a little, put a small pot full of earth there into a mound and plant into that. Say good, healthy seedlings that you know will throw roots quickly. It can be reasonable to part the straw completely and plant IF the soil is rich and healthy and suited for the plant BUT wet straw around a plant can lead to stem rot etc so best not to have the straw right up against the plant at all.

What sort of plants are you wanting to put in? Vegetables or flowers or flowering shrubs or..? And are you planting seedlings or more mature plants..?

It would be perhaps easier to simply do a google search on 'straw bale gardening' and look at info sites. I'm not sure about corn but again it may be the issue to do with rot and mould. If straw is soaked and stays that way for a long time it was get blackish and mouldy. You need to water well but it's best to not let the straw stay soaked for days in possible. Obviously you can't help if bad weather hits.

RiverDaughter · 04-17-2007, 09:18 AM

I've never heard of it, and, from what I know from working on a farm, wet straw is not a good thing at all. For mulch, it does decently, but I can't imagine letting plants grow on them. The moisture needed would ruin the straw.

Is it a starter for plants, so that you can remove the roots easily and replant the seedlings elsewhere once the weather is warm enough?