Growing a Garden Out of Straw

If there is a straw bale kicking around our place, it is always put to use. There are five long rows of them next to the peach orchard, where we'll be planting a small vineyard in spring. Though moderately fertile, it's a rocky patch, covered with sod that would be hard to remove or till. Grapes don't mind rocky soil: I once saw a successful French vineyard so stony it appeared to have a rock mulch. But to spare our backs we are letting the bales smother the grass for us during the fall and winter.

In other parts of the farm we use straw bales as the walls of compost bins, stacking them like building blocks. The straw's hollow stems let air pass into the pile, and their decomposition lends heat, fertility and moisture. We've also used bales as insulation, banking our duck house with them in winter to keep the ducks warm.

One of the many ways others have used this handy resource is as a growing medium, instead of soil. Gardeners often adopt this method when soil is out of the question: if it's compacted, weedy, toxic or nonexistent. Food can be grown in bales on a terrace, parking lot, roof, in a greenhouse and even indoors. The bales are set on their sides with the stems' cut ends facing up, then heavily moistened and often dosed with a high-nitrogen activator such as dried blood. For a week or so, beneficial bacteria colonize the bales and start to break them down. After the temperature of the bales climbs, then drops, compost or manure is spread on them and poked into fissures. Seeds or seedlings are inserted into these pockets, where they happily grow. (The Web site http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com gives a good introduction to straw bale culture.) Since straw is the stem residue of a grain crop, minus its seed heads, it usually sprouts few weeds. Hay, though cheaper to buy, sprouts as generously as a Chia Pet and is best avoided.

I once read in the July 1966 issue of Mother Earth, the journal of the Soil Association in England, about some Israeli farmers who were, at that time, growing crops directly in wheat straw bales. The purpose was to continue farming during the Sabbatical that occurs once every seven years, a time when farming the soil is prohibited. Like other bale farmers, they spread plastic sheets between the bales and the ground. This keeps the nutrients within a closed system (in this case, for religious reasons). It might be described as hydroponics with more natural, biology-centered materials.

In our grape plot, on the other hand, the nutrients are encouraged to ooze down into the soil. Because grapes are perennial, the ground will be their permanent home, improved from above with top-dressings of compost. The straw will be used to mulch the grapes. Then we'll buy a new load of bales from a neighboring farm. You never know when they'll come in handy.