I have heard of both square foot gardening and straw bale gardening. I'm leaning more toward sheet mulch gardening, which is essentially the same as lasagna gardening. lasagna gardening offfers the advantages of both straw bale AND square foot gardening, in that you simply layer your organic materials (a little more work than simply cutting holes in straw bales and planting in that, but less work and less traumatic impact on the existing soil biota than tilling and amending as recommended in square foot gardening. Also, like square foot gardening, you can plant quite intensively in a sheet mulch bed, nearly as intensively as in a square foot garden. So, my 1200 square feet of planned sheet mulch beds will be the equivalent of around 2500-3000 square feet of traditional tilled beds, and, when you consider the row spacing needed in a traditional garden, add around 400 square feet more for comparison sake. Trust me, with all the winter sowing I am doing in the next month, I will need every square inch of space! Mark-

Hi! This year I built raised beds. I lined them with cardboard and then a layer of straw. I put good garden soil on top of that, and planted seeds and transplants. My problem is that nothing is growing well. Everything sprouts, grows a bit, and that's it. I read up on straw bale gardening, to see what's up. I never did the 10 day thing with the ammonium nitrate and high nitrogen fertilizer... I'm worried the plants aren't growing because of this. Any suggestions? Is it too late to do something to the straw now? I'd heard straw was good for growing, but I didn't realized you needed to condition it first!

Hi, soaplady. I have a friend in Farmington MO who has set up "raised beds" in her hoop house using straw bales. She places two side by side, then puts on a layer of manure which she waters in well. As the straw starts to compost, she puts on a layer of potting mix and plants seeds for her winter salad greens and such in the potting mix. The heat from the composting straw helps germination but doesn't last long enough to provide any heat during the growth period. I read a post from a man in Florida on either the Market Gardener thread or Four Season Harvest who does the same thing outdoors with his lettuces in his cool season. He put the bales cut edges down on pallets and used a weed eater tool to carve out a depression in the bales. I think he used mushroom compost as a growing medium. He said he sells his greens for $6/# wholesale or $8/# retail. Last summer I put a single straw bale, cut edge down in the yard. I put dried goat manure on it, watered it in and transplanted a volunteer pumpkin seedling into it--just opened a space in the cut ends and watered it. I emptied the chickens' waterer onto it every day when I gave them fresh water. It was a miniature pumpkin and produced a few fruits. The added benefit is that the whole bale composted nicely. The best thing is that all summer long, I didn't see one cucumber beetle on the vine or any other bug for that matter. Since I have livestock, I have used leftover or spoiled hay with pretty good results. The trick since hay can have a lot of seeds is to water it well, let the seeds germinate then cover the whole business for a few days with clear plastic to "cook" the bale and seeds. Yesterday (Oct 19) I put "books" of hay treated this way to make an experimental bed in the second hoop house, wet them down and put some good finished compost over the top. We'll put the cover on the hoop house this afternoon and then I can start transplanting my seedlings into the beds. The other two beds are finished compost and plain soil just in case the straw/compost bed isn't as effective. I am concerned about the layers freezing where the natural soil hasn't done so in the past, even in extended periods of cold. At least our cold here in central Missouri. Hey, I'm a Master Gardener too and make soap as well. Also, cheese from our goats' milk, have the chickens, big gardens (about 5000 sq. ft.), orchard, etc.

I agree, let's start a forum on straw bale gardening. I just purchased ten bales of nice clean straw yesterday, April 10, 2015 and would like to know if I can put them out now even though it is far too early to plant as I am in zone 4 Wisconsin. It would certainly given them plenty of time to start composting. Is it necessary to follow the two week preparation period for the bales? or can they be set out now.