I'm debating trying an experiment I just envisioned... I have a cattle panel arch trellis I made last year that worked wonderfully for cucumbers. It just dawned on me that the several tomatoes planted in 5-gallon buckets and various pots I had situated inside and around the arch, could totally just be inside the arch. I wondered, "why do I need to be able to walk through the arch?". I don't! I don't have the materials to construct some kind of permanent raised bed to wedge inside the arch area, so how about I just stack in several straw bails I have rotting around, throw on many heapings of thoroughbred compost from a local bulk materials place and plant my crop of tomatoes on top of this for the year? I worry about crop rotation in my small yard. I'm not sure what I would do with whatever is left on the straw after a season of growing tomatoes, but it gives me all summer to think of a way to integrate that into other places around the yard. Then next year if this pans-out, I do it again. Would the straw base dry out too fast?

Here's a picture of the arch

Think my idea will work?