Strawbale gardens

[ducks4you]

You might want to consider a cover crop. Their roots break up clay.

Even the deep roots of WEEDS will break up clay. I have been digging out weeds at DD's back yard and where some of the weeds are growing, those with a mass of roots, the soil is very friable. I use a spade to fully dig them out and I am removing the hard clay or compacted soil and replacing it with some of the massive amounts of decomposing compost from MY back yard.

 

[LocoYokel]

Love this thread, gave me ideas. I have a huge area in my lawn that creeping charlie has overtaken that I just have odds n ends of cardboard and plywood lying on to kill it. Thinking now that I will cover the whole thing with black plastic and use SBG idea to hold it down. (Thanks for the tip about the tarp @canesisters!)
If I get on it I could maybe get a fall crop, if not it would be set up for early spring planting, depending on how badly the bales decomped... hmmm, yep, ideas!
THANKS!!

 

[digitS']

I agree about the roots, even without having to worry about clay. Roots are really good for the soil. They hold moisture and, excepting seeds, might have more nutrients than other plant tissue. Roots take time to break down and in some ways, that is a good thing.

@canesisters , manure is a green. Straw is a brown. It has to do with nitrogen.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I am worried about straw now after what happened with the potatoes, but I never will know what it was. I just dug the potatoes today and all the potatoes looked good, except some of the russet that were in that row that I had pulled some to take to the County Extension office. All the straw laid on the ground during the winter in that area, but it was on the area were the good potatoes were. Also, I have never seen such weeds. Most of it is geranium. I am thinking of tarping that whole area and see if I can kill those weeds.

 

[catjac1975]

That was LAST summer.. this summer's garden didn't get going and is still in it's little paper envelopes. However - I've been doing a lot of reading this summer and making plans. That's what gardeners without a garden are SUPPOSED to do, right?
My 'test' SBG did GREAT last summer and I intend to get a larger version of that going around March. I've still got a source for local rye straw, and that seemed to work well for me.
I've possibly got a spotty source for wood chips - and a steady source for sawdust - so I'm already taking steps to try and start a BTE garden too. I always get confused with the 'green'/'brown' thing. Is manure green or brown??? No really. If I'm adding it to sawdust (from a cabinet shop) it's 'green' - right?? I was thinking of putting the cows to work (and relieving some heat stress) and keeping them in a few days a week. Cleaning the stalls will give me a good mix of sawdust/manure/hay.
Feed bag weed barrier under manure/sawdust/hay mix under sawdust mulch..?

One thing I WILL NOT be doing is putting a tarp under the SBG... that thing rotted into the ground just enough that I can't get it up but not so much that the mower doesn't regularly suck it up and stalling out with a gob of tarp wrapped around the blade!

Not even a single tomato plant?

 

[ducks4you]

I agree about the roots, even without having to worry about clay. Roots are really good for the soil. They hold moisture and, excepting seeds, might have more nutrients than other plant tissue. Roots take time to break down and in some ways, that is a good thing.

@canesisters , manure is a green. Straw is a brown. It has to do with nitrogen.

Steve

Just REMEMBER, if it's a weed and you Leave the Roots, the weed will grow back. What I did was to shake and work off most of the soil and then throw the weeds into a pile to bag up and burn.

 

[ducks4you]

Maybe this will help:

 

[Beekissed]

Was wondering if anyone has heard anything about the use of glyphosphates in the crops harvested with the by product of straw. I don't know that everyone who opts for this type of gardening know that?

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/danger-of-straw-bale-gardening-no-one-is-mentioning/

 

[Ridgerunner]

We've had some discussions on this Bee a while back, probably on another thread. In certain climates some products are used to get the crop, usually a grain and often wheat, to dry out enough so they can harvest it. It also kills weeds so they dry up and don't interfere with threshing as much as green weeds would. It's not always glyphosates, other products are sometimes used, but yes that's the one most often used. Of course it can't be used on certified organic crops.

The climates where it is sometimes used are generally cool wet climates at harvest time. In a hot dry climate the crop dries up but in a cool damp one it may take forever for the last of the wheat to get dry enough to harvest. By that time the stuff that ripened earlier is lost, either to birds, rotting in the field, or its' so dry it shatters when threshed and doesn't make it all the way to the thresher. About the only place in the US that this practice is used much is North Dakota. It's more common in parts of Canada and Northern Europe.

I did not read all of that article, he may be babbling on about stuff used before the crop is planted to clear the land. Use your common sense about that. If glyphosate was still active after being used to clear the land before the crop was planted the wheat would not grow. That stuff is gone long before there is any wheat to harvest. But stuff sprayed before harvest, that is not good. If I remember right Washington State University found that out the hard way when some of the "experimental" wheat straw they sold killed people's crops after they sold it as mulch. Pretty sure it was Washington State. I don't think that was glyphosate, I think they were experimenting with a different product, but I don' tknow that for sure.

 

[Beekissed]

Good to know! I'm switching to hay instead of wood chips, I've always used hay down through the years, and I don't know of anyone in these parts who uses herbicides in their hay fields, but it still makes me a little nervous to think I could spread that on my entire garden and then not be able to grow anything....I'm black thumbed enough without THAT going against me.