Garden

[Tigriss]

We did this growing up, Hay Bale Raised Veggie Beds.

You can plant directly in the bale or square them off and fill with soil.

[60sgirl]

yes Chili, stack 2 or 3 so they are higher off the ground. What I did then was lay down cardboard on the ground, or newspapers work, anything that will be biodegradable, then lay down the dirt, I mixed organic soil with peat moss and then planted.

I just finished up with herbs today but because it is still a bit early and can get down in the 30's, I covered the pallets with saran wrap that I propped up with some stakes about a foot high than taped the wrap around the edges. That way I made like a mini-greenhouse that will keep any tender plants warm overnight and just pull up the stakes during the day when it is warmer.

So far my spinach is poking out, I planted thyme, rosemary, parsley and basil under the tents. And my yard looks neat with no weeds!

Tigriss, my neighbor used the straw bales last year but told me he nearly took his hand off. He was using a saw to cut through the bales to make the holes and said it was so hard to cut, the saw slipped and he nearly took off his hand. Each of the straw pieces are extremely tough fibers so I did not try his method. I don't think I have the strength in my arthritic hands to cut through straw. BTW. I think you said hay but it should be straw. Hay is a grass and can grow on your lawn. I had a small hay bale out last year in the front garden beds and when it started to come apart, grass starting growing all over the flower beds.

[Tigriss]

Nope, hay bales is what we used. You just push the hay aside fill with a bit of potting soil, plant your seedling, and water. Hay is dead grass that has dried, it can't grow again. It is inexpensive and way for you to make bed with a material that will compost over the winter enriching your soil.

[Buck-i-Nana]

On 4/18/2015 tigriss said:

Nope, hay bales is what we used. You just push the hay aside fill with a bit of potting soil, plant your seedling, and water. Hay is dead grass that has dried, it can't grow again. It is inexpensive and way for you to make bed with a material that will compost over the winter enriching your soil.

I just got a mailing from my local nursery on hay bale raised bed style gardening. Looks great, and I will be trying it this year for sure.

[Tigriss]

On 4/18/2015 Buck-i-Nana said:

On 4/18/2015 tigriss said:

Nope, hay bales is what we used. You just push the hay aside fill with a bit of potting soil, plant your seedling, and water. Hay is dead grass that has dried, it can't grow again. It is inexpensive and way for you to make bed with a material that will compost over the winter enriching your soil.

I just got a mailing from my local nursery on hay bale raised bed style gardening. Looks great, and I will be trying it this year for sure.

It is very easy. You will love it!

[perfumera De La Luz]

tigress your straw bale garden is awesome!

On a very tight budget I went to the local cement/quarry supply and bought a ton of Cinder blocks. I lined the bottom of the bed w/ chicken wire and filled it w/ the best organic soil I could find.

I built it so that the holes in the blocks were lined up on the borders and exposed so that I could put herbs in these holes and save the center for veggies and lettuce.

This was much more economical and durable than wood, and the herbs trail down the sides so it looks a bot nicer… but admittedly not very fancy looking- just very functional. I've surrounded the raised bed w/ lovely potted plants to regain some charm which seems to have worked.

Whatever you do have fun!

[sktchy]

On 4/10/2015 nunya said:

On 4/6/2015 Macy said:

if you join Pinterest, there are many boards that have excellent ideas on raised garden beds. I have already started putting mine together.

I went to Lowe's and asked one of the guys in the outdoor area if I could buy a couple pallets real cheap and he said go around to the back of the store and take as many as you like, we just throw them away. They were stacked by the hundreds.

I don't have a truck so I could only manage to take 4 of the small ones, but I sawed off the extra slats and left the outer boards of the pallets so they are now square and stacked them 2 high, then filled with dirt and mulch. They are now ready for planting.

I am going to use my BIL's truck next weekend and go back for 2 big ones. They are identical to those expensive kits or making one yourself and FREE.

I've used pallets the past 3 years, they work great. I have to water a lot and add more soil every year but it's a great space saver and really cuts down on the weeding.

Do you continue to re-use the same pallets every year ?

I live in a high-rise and we have several 'patios'. One of the patios has 4 raised beds (on concrete). Do these pallets shift - did you stake them into the ground so they do not move ? I assume some kind of plastic was laid onto the concrete prior to setting the raised beds on top of concrete.

[60sgirl]

actually I researched hay vs straw and found this article: It does say you can use hay but tell you how to get it ready the year before. As I said I had a hay bale in the yard one year and it grew grass in my flower beds.

First, let me tell you the difference between straw and hay. Straw is the stalks or stems of grains like wheat, barley, or oats after the grain has been harvested. Hay is grass or legumes that have been cut and dried and is generally used as animal feed. Hay often contains seeds which sprout when used as mulch, which is why there are so many warnings against using it. Straw can also contain seeds if all of the grain was not removed, but in general it is less of a problem.

how do I get away with using hay, when there are so many warnings against it? What I do is try to anticipate how many bales I will need next year, and purchase them this year. I leave them out where they will receive rain and snow. Most of the seeds sprout, and the bales begin to decompose. By the time I use them as mulch, or to build a new bed, they already contain worms and other beneficial soil organisms.

[60sgirl]

here's another article and the link to the whole article:

link

But the main point in any conversation about these topics is to warn people to be careful that they DON'T get hay when they buy 'straw bales'. Straw and hay are often packaged up identically, and many garden centers—and even farmers who sell their extra bales on the roadside—use the term 'straw' whether the bale in question is straw or hay. And if you use hay—with all those seed heads intact—as a garden mulch, the seeds will sprout and you'll become an unintentional grain farmer.

…Which happened to me once. I hadn't yet learned that you have to visually inspect the bales for seed heads, and picked up a batch of hay that was labeled as 'straw'. The plants that popped up a few weeks after I spread it as mulch taught me two important lessons….

when I had horses up to a few years ago, hay bales were very expensive. I can't imagine any garden center selling hay for gardening. It cost a fortune to buy hay for all the horses. I didn't make it up about the seeds sprouting. There are tons of garden forums and website online about using straw bales.

[wildcat fan]

Thanks, Macy, for sharing that info about straw vs hay. I also appreciate the pallet idea. I would never have thought of that! Like Pie1993, I wondered if you re-use the pallets each year?