With you on that bro. I only maintain a compost pile to hot compost meats/bones/etc. (you know... what many call "uncompostable"- LOL) I clean out my rabbit boxes (litter trained rabbits) and throw manure, spent hay, and urine soaked wood pellets (now sawdust) right onto beds. When I went to put my garden to bed for the winter- it was 6"+ deep in pure worm castings. I more or less failed at indoor worm bins, but they sure found my garden. I have since piled it up with maybe 40 bags of other people's discarded leaves, my other scraps, and garden refuse. The worms may even do well over the winter with this insulation.

Ah, memories. I did bales on 2 sides in western WA to block wind and they block a little light too, maybe an extra hour-plus in shadow until you get plant height, but that's a nice little microclimate in there for spring, and sounds like a good idea until you get the hang of it and commit, and the bales are mulch and compost when done. Hardware cloth is esp effective against moles IME and easily secured to bales. I'd be interested to see if bales keep out deer, antelope I can see, maybe if you use the short side as height. I can't picture them keeping away pack rats, but the nurserymen should know. You'll have the advantage of starting earlier as the bales are effective shelves to hold clear plastic/row covers - I rolled mine around old 2x4s. Sounds like a good project to exercise both back and brain! Dan

Well, hmmmm. The bales were placed over the low spot in my yard that tends to stay wet. I barely watered them. The plants look okay. Except I have 5 bales "abreast" of each other (long sides together). I believe the center bale got too hot. Those plants died early on. Production has been nearly non existent. Why? IDK, maybe too much nitrogen from the high nitrogen treatment used to prime the composting of the bales. My bales don't really seem to compost until late August. I don't think that concept works in Oklahoma heat and lack of rain. Maybe they were just planted too late. With big plants like tomatoes or potatoes, they put their roots down through the straw and do okay. I planted some flowers and herbs in the bales last year and they dried out too fast. I had 2 new beds this year that I didn't want to spend the money to put soil in. We tried the lasagna method, only DH really didn't entirely understand it. Our layers were not as thick as they should have been. Last years straw bales went on top as mulch I grew potatoes in them first. Not the best production. But the peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes and brassica plants have done quite well, I think their roots have gone down into the soil beneath the beds. As experiments go, this has worked better for me. I think we will continue to add to these beds, until they are as deep as the wood frames, but their production was just as good this year (except for potatoes) as any of my other beds. I do plan to do some more experimenting with strawbales this fall. I may use some to create the walls of a cold frame. At this point it's a question of how to keep the chickens out of whatever I plant.

straw bales aren't getting hot