3 Reasons I'll NEVER Do Hay Bale Gardening Again!

I have had great success with straw bale gardening

Interesting insights. I can see how hay bale gardening could have drawbacks. I was curious about it but now I know. I use the Square Foot Gardening technique myself. Have done it since the mid-1980's and I highly recommend it.

SO glad I watched this.

Lady, if em slugs are bothering you, get two ducks! They will turn slugs to eggs!

I've used straw bales for several years now and have no problems with slugs or snails. I also have very little problems with insect attacks, other than cabbage moths, which are a nuisance regardless of growing medium. One must weed the grass that comes up through the straw on a regular basis. As soon as I see any, I pull it out, quite therapeutic. This year, I noticed a few stray bind weeds trying to have a go too. Those got pulled out immediately. Growing in straw bales is a bit of a process when setting up. If it is done correctly, and planting is done at the appropriate time after the bale conditioning, then there should be a high percentage of success. I've had a few plants that just didn't want to cooperate, such as root vegetables and onions. This is a great growing method, but it is not for every vegetable.

Since I already have a vegetable garden I had considered straw bales as a raised bed addition. However, weeds do seem to be a reasonable concern if the hay garden is not built on concrete, gravel or other urban grounds, where it’s popularly used for extended gardening purposes. Thank you for sharing this review.

Use a high nitrogen Fritalizer so the microbes can use it to break the hay down best to to use 2 year old hay so all weed seeds are inoculated

Strawberries and straw go together :-)

put some beer out for the slugs little caps of beer will get them all!

1- put a tarp down & salt on the edges occasionally 2- tarp great for weeds to 3- weeds are prob easier to control from a bale. For plants like potatoes, carrots...I knew someone who did a mound of sand & it worked well

A straw bed is great if you have a poor quality soil. Straw is a very good supply of carbon at low prices. Or to do a "wild" corner (with flowers and other plants that are not used to eat) next to a pond for example. But for a vegetable garden I don't find it interesting. At we can do compost with some straw and then use the compost in the vegetable garden.

Straw bales are better then hay for weeds, insert a couple of cups into the bale and add beer for the snales. I tried the ruth stout method of using straw as a ground cover and had the same issue. What I learned is you need to keep the bale intact and let the weeds grow in the bale, then after they have died off and the seeds have been soaked with water... yes water the bales a lot. Then you can break it up... breaking down can be sped up with nitrogen granules, this will cause the straw to break down.

Oh hunny…. Did you research the ins-and-puts of hay bale gardening? I see several major issues right off the bat. Too long to type… but the book Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten would have been massively helpful to you. Everything negative you experienced was manageable or completely avoidable. I do hope you’ll check out his book and try again.

I worry about how the nutrients and vitamins from the vegetables grown in this type of system. Two peppers from different soil microbes and minerals content can have different vitamin content.

One duck will take care of all your slug problems

My garden did great for about 4 mths. Suddenly my leaves on ALL plants started turning yellow. Fed, watered, sprayed for pests & disease, everything l could find online to do, to reverse damage. NOTHING WORKED!!! Everything died within a month. After another month, I started deconstructing & found out problem, TREE ROOTS! Even though garden was @least 20' away from trees, their roots had come from underneath, through 3 layers of weed stop. They had robbed all nutrients continued to wrap plant roots & choke them until dead! Had hard time trying to seperate straw from tree roots, to compost! Will never straw bale again!

You are supposed to lay the ground beneath them with carpet/matting to stop this problem of weeds. The area and space is obviously needed. There are ways to achieve better results. More research is necessary before starting this idea.

Problem solutions: 1) Raise your bale off the ground. I use a small pallet. 2) You keep saying 'HAY' bales. You need to use ONLY STRAW. Hay bales have live seeds in them, so of course you'll get weeds ...it's actually immature alfalfa or whatever the bale is made up of. 3) In order for your bales to break down at the end of the season you need to spend at least 10 days conditioning the bales BEFORE you plant anything. Here's a great video for that... https://youtu.be/tMw7-oZirjo Straw bales are a great option to backyard gardening. If you do it correctly.

You used grass hay,

Sorry that you had to experience that you would have thought in this Information Age somebody would have explained like you how unsuccessful this method was so at least you would have an idea beforehand