Tropicana
16-02-2009, 08:52 AM
I posted a question in my last topic and I'm not sure that it got noticed. Hence the new topic.
I decided that it would be great for my back if my main vegetable garden was a straw-bale garden, as suggested by Len on his site. It looks great and would, as I said, save a lot of bending over and therefore pain for me whilst planting, weeding, harvesting.
Now, though, we are going through the wettest summer in 30 years and there is mould in the house as well as out there in the garden (especially in the shady bits). This raises the concern of mould in the straw bales of the garden. I had mould in straw bales over one winter when I lived in Tassie which sent mould spores flying everywhere once they'd dried out a bit & I tried to move them. So I just put them over an area I didn't intend to plant until the following year and they rotted down nicely. But........ :?:
If the strawbales got mould here in the summer, would it affect any of the remaining perennial plants in the garden? (I'd leave most of the garden empty or with a cover crop in the summer, too hot, too many hungry critters and sometimes, as this year, too wet to grow successfully) :!:
It was suggested that any mould bales could just be put on the compost. Fair enough, but how would that affect the structure of the garden? Would it maintain it's integrity during the change-over? :mrgreen:
Is it really worth going to the trouble of building the straw-bale garden in this climate? Would I be better off just applying no-dig techniques without the bales? What would be a good alternative to the straw-bales?
So much time has been lost for us out in the garden this summer due to the incredible amount of rain we're getting and it doesn't look like stopping or even slowing down any time soon, so I want to get the garden for winter up and ready to plant as soon as I can once the ground is eventually ready to work on. :?
Any input from those experienced in gardening in the sub tropics to the tropics would be much appreciated. :D
Best wishes to all,
Tropicana
I decided that it would be great for my back if my main vegetable garden was a straw-bale garden, as suggested by Len on his site. It looks great and would, as I said, save a lot of bending over and therefore pain for me whilst planting, weeding, harvesting.
Now, though, we are going through the wettest summer in 30 years and there is mould in the house as well as out there in the garden (especially in the shady bits). This raises the concern of mould in the straw bales of the garden. I had mould in straw bales over one winter when I lived in Tassie which sent mould spores flying everywhere once they'd dried out a bit & I tried to move them. So I just put them over an area I didn't intend to plant until the following year and they rotted down nicely. But........ :?:
If the strawbales got mould here in the summer, would it affect any of the remaining perennial plants in the garden? (I'd leave most of the garden empty or with a cover crop in the summer, too hot, too many hungry critters and sometimes, as this year, too wet to grow successfully) :!:
It was suggested that any mould bales could just be put on the compost. Fair enough, but how would that affect the structure of the garden? Would it maintain it's integrity during the change-over? :mrgreen:
Is it really worth going to the trouble of building the straw-bale garden in this climate? Would I be better off just applying no-dig techniques without the bales? What would be a good alternative to the straw-bales?
So much time has been lost for us out in the garden this summer due to the incredible amount of rain we're getting and it doesn't look like stopping or even slowing down any time soon, so I want to get the garden for winter up and ready to plant as soon as I can once the ground is eventually ready to work on. :?
Any input from those experienced in gardening in the sub tropics to the tropics would be much appreciated. :D
Best wishes to all,
Tropicana