Hay Bale Garden Failed This Year

Hay Bale Garden Failed This Year BALE HANDLING didn’t turn out as well as Jeri Stewart hoped it would but she blames it on the abnormal weather this summer The Ava Mo gardener and her husband Kevin are disabled and liked the idea of having a taller garden to eliminate bending They tend a 2 400-sq ft garden and sell produce at a farmers market Initially Stewart heard about growing potatoes in loose hay and thought it would make harvesting them easier When someone offered to give them 150 bales of hay that had been rained on the Stewarts decided to experiment with other vegetables too Kevin built 4-in tall open-bottom planter boxes to set on blocks of four bales placed in a square string sides around the perimeter He added old garden soil peat and composted manure from the couples’ chickens The idea was that the roots would grow into the hay which would retain moisture Unfortunately it was a very wet spring “The hay tends to kind of melt with the rain ” Stewart says The hay shrunk unevenly and it was difficult to keep the boxes upright The weeds also thrived in the hay and because the bales sagged the Stewarts had to bend over to pull them Triple-digit heat later in the summer also took its toll on the bale garden “I’ve never seen this high of heat for this long ” Stewart says adding that with the hot dry days came bugs in numbers they had never seen before “We lost plants so we sprayed but we’re still losing plants ” The Stewarts watered their bale garden every day but most vegetables didn’t do very well The zucchini only lasted a couple of weeks Acorn squash “baked” in the heat Pattypan squash did the best Tomatoes did the best of all the vegetables – 10 lbs off five plants in one picking but only after the Stewarts sprayed them for blister bugs and beetles “Strawberries were iffy ” Stewart notes Keeping them weeded was a losing battle due to the weed seeds from the hay bales Pulling weeds also pulled up strawberry runners requiring a lot of extra bending to replant them As for potatoes they do seem to be doing fine in the loose hay New potatoes have been easy to harvest “The hay breaks down too fast in heavy rain ” Stewart says She notes that straw may have worked better as it doesn’t break down as easily However at $4 50/bale that isn’t an economical option “I think we will go back to planting in the ground with black plastic mulch ” Stewart says Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jeri Stewart Rt 2 Box 615 Ava Mo 65608 ph 417 683-1363

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.