Okay - I saw this idea a couple of years ago on some TV gardening show ... planting tomato and other vegetable plants in a bale of hay! Anyone ever try hay bale gardening?
... For the tomatoes, right after the plants go in the ground, we completely smother the tomatoes with baled hay right out of the barn. ... Bales are hauled to the tomato area, bale strings cut off and large flakes of hay are placed around each plant and between each plant. ...
Michael, My Name is Leah, and I was so happy to find your discription of using hay or straw to plant Vegetables. I live in the country, in a house made from two tobacco barns, and I have plenty of room for a garden, but I have a lot of "Munching Nature", but I do have a 14, by 14 dog lot, that I hope to utilize for my "garden. Can you place the bales, one or two bales high. Which would be best, and also, is there anything you can tell me about concerning Vegetables, that I could plant now. I have access to hay and straw bales, and since I am disable, This, I believe, would work for me. Also, could you describe the width and depth of the potting soil I would use to plant.LOL - yes beth, the bales sit on the ground. But, they are not broken apart and spread on the ground for ground cover - they are left intact. As buckytom said - they are used as planters.
You take a bale of hay (do not remove the baling twine/wire holding them together) and cut a couple of holes in the top - add some potting soil, add the plant, fertilizer, etc. - basically just like you would if you were planting them in the ground.
The advantage here is that, if you are just renting a house that you may not be in next year ... you can have a garden without digging up the yard - or the expense in equipment, time and soil conditioners a real garden requires .