Straw Bale Gardening is an excellent alternative to traditional gardening using the small square straw bales. Straw bales bring your vegetables high enough for easy maintenance and harvesting. The vegetable plants do not need to be weeded. Last, the straw bales can be recycled after 1 or 2 years as compose.

It is advisable to plan your garden before laying out your garden. I suggest using grid paper, since it is easier to lay out your garden more accurately. You have the option of assigning what ever numeric numbers you want to each grid. For instance, each grid can represent six inches, one foot, two feet, three feet, etc. This way you will know on paper how much garden space you will need for the type and amount of vegetables you want to plant and harvest. So certain questions need to be answered.

First how much garden space is needed in order to harvest the vegetables wanted? In order to find out, measure the length and width of one of the straw bales that will be used. (Small square bales are fairly uniform in width and length).

Second, how much space is needed in order to maintain and harvest the Straw Bale Garden? Add two feet around the sides and ends of every bale. If a person is in a wheel chair, allow forty-eight inches around each bale. These dimensions should allow sufficient space to maintain and harvest your garden.

Third, how many varieties of vegetables do you want to harvest? In order to know this you need to know how many plants can be planted in each bale. Here are some popular vegetables, and amount of plants that can be planted in one bale.

• Dwarf determinant tomatoes – two per bale
• Cucumbers – six plants per bale
• Squash, zucchini, and melons – three plants per bale
• Peppers – four plants per bale
• Bush beans – 12 to 15 plants per bale
• Bush peas – 12 to 15 plants per bale

 To give you an idea how to lay out your garden and vegetables to be harvested, this is how my garden is designed. My garden design includes six cucumber plants, one zucchini plant and two melon plants, eight pepper plants, ten dwarf tomato plants, twenty-five bush beans, and thirty bush peas.

This means I need thirteen small straw bales to make up my Straw Bale Garden. These thirteen bales are laid out with ample space for me to maintain and harvest my garden. Because of my impairments, I need to allow fortyh-eight inches around each bale rather than twenty-four inches.

One word of caution. Make sure the bales are exactly where you wantr them placed. Once you have soaked the bales with water, they will not be able to be moved. This is why it is best to plan your bale garden in advance.

Before you lay out your straw bales, make sure you lay each bale lengthwise. This makes it much easier to plant by just parting the straw. Also make sure the twine holding the bales together are running around the bale. In other words, do not place the bales so the twine touches the ground. This will only hasten rotting of the twine. However, if your twine still breaks, you can use metal or wooden stakes to hold the bales together. (I prefer using sharpened wooden stakes).

How do you plant your vegetables in the bales? Just use a trowel or anything else sturdy enough to separate a portion of each bale to plant a vegetable plant. Next put a large handful of compst soil, or potting soil with time-released fertilizer in the hole you made. Take your young plant and plant it int the soil. Then move on and place another plant in the bale, and do the same thing you did with the first plant.

 Since you are using straw bales as your gardening medium, you need to make sure your bales arae kept moist (even after the intial soaking). The straw bales require much water, so it is best to have your garden hose hand. In addition, the straw bales also need to be given liquid organic fertilizer once every or two weeks.