You can never have enough hay bales in your garden. I noticed rabbits had been eating my carrot tops. I don't blame them. Carrot tops are great edibles. It was my fault for growing carrots in an open space in my back yard.
All is not lost. I am going to add hay bales. You see, there is a good reason to enclose your beds with hay bales. I'm going to enclose the part of my bed where the carrots are growing and keep the rabbits away. No rabbit would dare eat from behind. It is too much work to jump or force their way through the potato plants.
You can use green bales when using them as boarders. If you plant through green bales they will steam kill your seedlings.
Bales are also great wind protectors. Here is a sample from my book, "Hay Bale Gardening."
WINDBREAKING
In Missouri we have spells of powerful wind that will root your plants right out of the ground. A powerful wind will come along and whip your plants back and forth until they are broken in two.
Most of the time plants don't need support but at the very early stages of plant growth it is time to look for protective support. You can use twine or soft tie downs to stabilize your plants but in most cases I use bales for the main wind protection. In some cases, I use soft tie downs tied to my bales to support the plant. The twine on the hay bales make for a good place to tie to. Last year I supported some small apple trees by tying them to my bales that I had placed around the trees.
I also used bales to stabilize weak corn stalks. Just put them on the side where the wind is blowing and they will get shelter from the torrential rain and wind.
On the sides of tomato plants I use disintegrating bales as a windbreaker and a good source of plant food. Caution must be used when using disintegrating bales. Disintegrating bales heat up so fast that they can wilt the living plant next to them. You can use them but keep the disintegrating bales far enough away from your plant.
In most situations use a dry bale for windbreaking. Make a windbreaking wall by stacking up the bales. Put a few fence posts around the bales to keep the stack from falling over.
"Be a guardian gardener and protect you plants."
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