Oh bugger. Just realised the site does not include the new product. Was reading an article that provided the website and just figured it would be on there, but it doesn't look like it is.
They have invented new wall panels, called sit-ups, that are made from straw. You can just buy them and install and render them. They look pretty good, light-weight compressed straw that you can just lift and position (as opposed to haul, grunt, wriggle, grunt and hedge )Guess they won't be far away... will keep an eye out and link you to it when I can.
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schultz
Here is a brief history of straw bale gardening as I understand it. I first heard of it in the 1980's when I was promoting Sabbatical Fallow at our National Agriculture Fieldays. Some young Jewish people from Israel were fascinated with the Sabbatical Fallow that I was doing and my reasons for doing it, and that's another long story too.
Well these young people told me about straw bale gardening and showed me some literature about how and why it was done in Israel. When the new nation of Israel was first established in 1949, there was almost no agriculture industry there at all, only large tracts of desert. They had thousands of people flocking into the country and no way of feeding them so had to figure out a way to kick-start the production of food.
Out in desert or arid areas where that could get some water, they lay the bales of straw down in rows, on a plastic film. The plastic was to conserve the precious supply of water to stop it just soaking down into the dry soils. It also meant that they could plant in the same area every year without breaking their Sabbatical Fallow traditions whereby the soil had to be rested every seventh year, as the plants weren't actually growing in the soil but on the top of the plastic, killing two birds with one stone.
The method that is used is the bales are soaked with water then high nitrogen manure or fertilizer is applied. The high nitrogen and the water assists the bacteria break down of the straw and this process causes the straw to heat up which also sterilises the straw and kills any seeds that are in it.
As soon as the straw has cooled down you can plant directly into the bales. Seeds can be just sprinkled on top then rubbed into the straw so that they are covered, or small plants planted into hole poked into it. I use a crow bar to drive holes right through the bales and push my spuds as deep down as I can.
This is really easy care organic gardening because your plants grow really healthily and there are little or no weeds and the only care after planting is keeping it watered.
Spuds come out really clean and after a little rub look like look like they have just been washed. Carrots, I have found, have one fault and that is they are so crisp that they sometimes shatter when cut but are a beautiful flavour and very sweet.
At the time I heard this, I was living in the North Island where there is very little or no grain grown so that the availability and price of bales of straw meant that it was just something to remember. However I have since found that extremely good results can be got from bales of lucerne or what you call alfalfa I believe.
Another real advantage of straw bale gardening is that it does not matter how poor you soil is, or even if you have no soil at all, you can start your garden anywhere. You should be able to get at least a couple of crops out of a batch of bales and then you are left with a beautiful free flowing compost to dig into you soil or just scatter it as a base for your next batch of bales.
In fact I'm fairly familiar with Huff'n'Puff - he's a regular contributor to some of the straw bale building forums (or was when I was subscribed to them - haven't actually heard anything about him for a couple of years). He seems to be well stuck into building with bales in Aus., and has some fairly unusual (even controversial) ideas about how it should be done. One of the world's more notable builders, I reckon.
I seem to remember a while ago he was theoriseing about pre-fabricating straw wall panels. I guess he's got beyond the theory - be interesting to see how it works in practice.
Jack - I was hoping you'd post some more details about straw bale gardening; I've never heard of it before, and it does sound remarkably simple. My only query is about the high nitrogen fertiliser - if you're not using chemicals, what are your options here? Chicken manure? Anything else? What sort of quantities are needed, and how long does it take to convert a straw bale into a growing medium?
Rough Jack wrote:The method that is used is the bales are soaked with water then high nitrogen manure or fertilizer is applied.
Hi Jack
You know, I'm gonna try this! If I can get my hands on square bales that is. The ones I sourced earlier in the year were ghastly! More like poor hay. Anyway - my questions echo Muddy's - my main being - what fertiliser is the best - would you use a liquid one?
Well, my take on this would be that the more ghastly the bales - the better!!
Sounds like mulch bales would be perfect.
I'm also guessing that what Jack is talking about is using a compost tea (or manure solution), which I use here. You bung a heap of manure in a barrel, bin or whatever and then add water. You can use any manure, but I find chook really needs watering down heaps because it tends to burn things. You give the barrel a stir each arvo and check progress and have to add water ever now and then.
Once it is pretty fluid, you can bucket it out, but if you set it up near your bale beds, then you could rig a direct system which might be easier.
When you wet bales, they break down really quickly and a friend of mine who bales hay for a living, lost a batch to rain when he didn't get it in quick enough. He bunged it all down one end of his paddock for sale as mulch bales and then decided to bung a few seeds in. Every time we went to pick up mulch, he would be shoving massive watermelons at us!! He also had corn, capsicum and spuds going in there. He said it was the best gardening results he'd had in years, and all occurred just as an experiment!
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schultz
Well yes old Boots is right about the mulchin bales. But the best results I have had is from lucerne hay as there is no seeds at all in it.
As for the high nitrogen stuff, the old chook poop is probably the best you can get next to pig poop. The idea of the high nitrogen is that it helps it decompose quicker and with more heat.
And as for how long it takes, well when the hay or straw gets wet it starts to heat up. As soon as you can poke your fingers into the bale without them being too hot you can plant seends straight onto the top, then rub them into the surface. You may need to wait a bit long with the likes of spuds that you need to get right down to as near to the bottom as you can.
sounds like a plan.
Can you put the bales into a trouch or some kind of box tye thing?
I'm thinking it might be a plan for my rooftop garden, and if the bales are slightly warm still, then it might extend my growins season for things like squash by getting them off to an early start.
In the dim recesses of my memory this remind me of an old victorian kitchen garden technique I'm sure I saw in a book/on the box. In the middle of winter they'd stack up loads of straw and manure, stick a coldframe or wardian case on the top of it, and hey presto! You get a selfheating raised bed/greenhouse for winter crops.
In the middle of winter they'd stack up loads of straw and manure, stick a coldframe or wardian case on the top of it, and hey presto! You get a selfheating raised bed/greenhouse for winter crops.
Thats what they call a hotbed!
Makes me wonder whether anyone would want a hotbed of sin if it's made from manure
this sounds really interesting. we've got a few bad bales of hay (no good for our horses) which i was going to use as mulch, but i think i'll give this a go.
)Guess they won't be far away... will keep an eye out and link you to it when I can.
