Topic: straw bales

[bunjies]

whilst i was at work today, i may have had a good idea :o
would straw bales be ok to use as the 'sides' of a raised veggie bed?
i know they wont last for long, but i assume they will just turn to usable mulch, and can be easily and cheaply replaced.
i am going to have to raise my beds quite high as in my area we have about 10" of soil before hitting bedrock ::)
has anyone done this? did it work? is there a reason not to use them?
many thanks!

[Curryandchips]

Just remember that high beds will dry out more in the summer ...

[keef]

Straw bales rot quite quickly if left in the open.. Hence farmers put them in barns   ;D

Also - most farms make large round and rectangular bales nowadays. The small ones your porbably thinking of are quite hard come by.

[bunjies]

i thought they would probably dry out quickly but i am unsure of what to do, we have so little soil :(
i can still get small bales, fortunately as i cant imagine how long it would take me to get through a d1000 (or whatever they are now called, the big bales) bale of hay or straw for my rabbits :o
i suppose there is only one way to find out if it will work well, i will try it!
i could cover the straw bale 'wall' with tarp or something, should stop it rotting so quickly AND might help to hold in a little moisture!
for those of you that have them, how high are your raised beds?

[keef]

Sorry, mine are'nt raised, but the width of small bale seems a bit high too me.. you'd also loose a bit of space aswell.

You could cover them with somthing - but they will still rot eventually, unless they are 100% dry.

Someone posted somthing last week about using old pallets to make a raised bed - that sounds like a better plan.

[saddad]

I have seen them used quite successfully Bunjy, encourage the rot, plant directly into them, and as soon as they collapse you have an inch or two more soil!
You have to do something in the hole to get them started... try asking about toms in bales as that was the most common use...
 ;D

[bunjies]

you are a star!! thankyou very much!
so i can use them as edging AND plant stuff into them as well? BONUS! ;D

[Leonnie]

Last year I grew squashes in a raised bed made of straw bales and it worked very well. The straw bales only lasted the one season, possibly they would have lasted a second season. :)

[OliveOil]

You would also be encouragin rats and mice to live in teh straw throughout the winter and they will breed liek mad in the spring too! 

You would need a hec of a lot of soil to fill a bed like that too!

Do your other lotty neighbours use a raised bed method?  I would take a look at other plots and see which ones work best and then follow suit! After all they will be tried and tested methods for that area and the old timers down there will have some good ideas.

[supersprout]

Use them for a hot box for next year too (under construction) :)
Potatoes in the New Year, then MELONS! :P

[Leonnie]

My straw bale bed was filled mostly with horse manure and a layer of top soil. The squashes seemed to be very happy in there and we didn't experience any problems with mice or rats. Why would a straw raised bed attract mice and rats any more than a compost heap? My raised bed was built exactly like the one supersprout has shown except I had another two straw bales on the other side to make a closed rectangle rather than the open shape of supersprout's bed. :)

[bunjies]

Do your other lotty neighbours use a raised bed method?  I would take a look at other plots and see which ones work best and then follow suit! After all they will be tried and tested methods for that area and the old timers down there will have some good ideas.

therein lies the trouble! my village doesnt have ANY allotments at the moment, i am trying to get enough people together who want them as i have been told if enough
people ask, the council has to do something about it! we will all be staring from scratch. i am presuming that my possible lotty will be the same as my garden with regards to soil amounts....

[supersprout]

Oh, good luck bunjies!
This is the finished hotbox-in-the-making leonnie, took a pic today. Spare bales at the front - it probably looks identical to yours? :)

[Leonnie]

Looks just like the one I had :)

[OliveOil]

My straw bale bed was filled mostly with horse manure and a layer of top soil. The squashes seemed to be very happy in there and we didn't experience any problems with mice or rats. Why would a straw raised bed attract mice and rats any more than a compost heap? My raised bed was built exactly like the one supersprout has shown except I had another two straw bales on the other side to make a closed rectangle rather than the open shape of supersprout's bed. :)

Just speaking from my experience with horses -  Hope you manage to get an allotment sorted soon!!! 

Actually - looking at teh pictures of it I'm quite tempted to build my compost heap out of straw I must admit!  But I'm still torn as the allotmenteers dont mind us having chooks on the allotments as long as the rats are kept under control and that means not leaving bedding for them lying around/keeping the place clean etc...and if we have a rat/mice infestation they will make us get rid of our chooks! Hmmm will have to think on this one!

[Leonnie]

hmmmm, that's a difficult one. we had to give up our hens earlier this year because of complaints from neighbours (nothing to do with rats) so I can understand you not wanting to do anything to draw attention to your hens. it's a pity though because there are plenty of nesting places for rats in compost heaps and untidy allotments so if you were going to have a rat problem it's not necessarily anything to do with keeping chickens or having a compost heap built from straw bales. :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

You get rats everywhere. In your situation, I'd be worried about the likelihood of being blamed for every rat that came along. There's no need for chickens to attract them.

[supersprout]

We have rats on our allotment from time to time. Last year they were in my neighbour's shanty town, this year they're in someone's compost heap. C'est la vie? :-\

Slightly off thread, last year and this year I grew spuds under black plastic and had a number munched by meece. Today one of the lottie cats was studying the spud bed with interest, when I looked closer you could see the critter running around under the black plastic (must have been very tantalising for the cat). Next year we'll see if there's the same problem with straw ::)