Garden on Straw

By Emma Biggs And Steven Biggs Donna Griffith
Published on August 8, 2019
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We use bales for beans and summer squash.

Our biggest, sunniest garden area has nice soil, but tomato plants won’t grow there because our neighbor has a huge black walnut tree, and black walnut trees give off a toxin called juglone in the soil. So one year Dad and I tried growing some tomatoes in straw bales above the soil so the plants wouldn’t absorb the toxin. Unfortunately, our experiment failed because those tomato roots went through the bales into the soil.

Gardening in a straw bale is like gardening in a big block of compost! Here’s how to set up an above-ground garden.

Plan Your Garden

Figure out how many bales you need for your garden and where you want to put them. One bale is big enough for two tomato, squash, or pepper plants, or for several bean plants. You can use them to create a new raised bed or put them along the edge of a garden that’s already there. Set the bales out about two weeks before you want to plant them. It doesn’t matter if the strings that hold the bale together are on the side or the top.

Prepare the Bales

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