Laura Kildow

2016 will be my 3rd season gardening in bales using the book: “Straw Bale Gardens: The Breakthrough Method for Growing Vegetables Anywhere, Earlier and with No Weeding” as my guide.

2014 I had 15 bales and my garden did wonderfully on an old gravel pad. 2015 I had 32 bales and put them on the lawn under the old clothes line so I could have more room and use the lines for peas to grow up on. This year, 2016, I have 75 bales and my husband is now convinced that the bales are effective in lengthening our growing season not only being able to plant earlier but even more importantly for us, our tomatoes don’t succumb to blight like the neighboring gardens do! Having the bales up out of the dirt & situated so the leaves of the plants dry off quickly helps keep them healthy.

I planted 2015 onions in retied 2014 bales with outstanding success. 2015 bales that we retied to compress have garlic growing in them now for 2016 harvest. The bales from 2014 will be used as mulch now and the cycle will be repeated. We get as much out of a bale as possible!

This method of gardening has allowed me to utilize more area to for raising food and be able to garden without crawling around on the ground. For anyone with physical limitations I recommend giving this a serious look!