False claim: "No digging, no tilling, and no hoeing."

If there is no digging, are you laying the seedling on top of the bale? WikiHow instructions teach us that digging is very much a part of making a straw bale garden, "Use a trowel to dig a hole in the top of the bale for each plant." Sounds like digging to me. Who is fibbing us into no dig gardens? A State University has this to say, "To plant transplants, such as tomatoes, dig a hole in the top of the bale." I thought we did not have to dig? Which is easier, digging in a straw bale or well mulched soil? And yet the experts are saying, "Straw Bale Gardening: No-Dig Gardens Growing Vegetables"

No tilling. Tilling is a process that prepares the soil. You can use a rototiller and make the soil prepared for your growing bed. I can rototill a garden in about a few hours. How long does it take to prepare a bale? "The conditioning process takes about 14 days," Or you can overwinter your bales. 

No hoeing is a preference for all gardeners. You can use a hoe or not use one. How do you get a weed free garden without hoeing? A straw bale gardening author gives us the answer, "Cover the space between the rows with a weed barrier." Great insight! Thank you! Do you think that any of us gardeners would have weed problems if we could afford expensive landscape fabric? Is that a reason to advertise your book as a breakthrough garden with no weeding?  I could sell any garden book with the claim, Gardening with NO Weeding.

I'm author Larry Zoro. The Hay Baler Revolution started with the question, Why can't we use hay bales instead of buying expensive straw bales for gardening? Why can't I make my own bales instead of being stuck with straw bales? 

When I began, I knew nothing of straw bale gardening and developed my own techniques of growing in hay bales. See my copyright dates on my books and you'll see I'm the Master Hay Bale Gardener. I don't want to use straw bale gardening techniques and never will. I have developed my own.  I am original. 

Let's get down to basics. Nothing grows in straw or hay bales. It is foolishness to think that any kind of bales have nutrition to feed growing plants. After a cow pooped on a bale, it was the seedling that grew from the manure not from the straw. Get in tuned with real horticulture that works.

Beware of Toxic Straw Bales and those who want you to garden in them.

Straw Bale Gardening

I got a free straw bale gardening book at Amazon. They are a dime a dozen. There are so many of the same kind of books coping one another. It is like the same author has written most of them.

In one part of the book I read about conditioning the straw bale. They call it cooking the straw bale or composting the bale.  They use plenty of nitrogen to condition the bale. Nitrogen can stunt the plant or cause it to grow green with less fruit. I would be careful at using nitrogen by the cup fulls as suggested, it is toxic.

In the Hay Bale Gardening Revolution we bury the bales and have the bales compost naturally. Microbes and earthworms do the job without toxic overuse of chemicals.

The book suggested the warmth of the cooking bales will be nice for plants since they love warm bales. How ridiculous. The roots might like a normal growing temperature, but grow early without an hot house and the tops of your plants will die. I know. I've tried early growing outside of a hot house, it can't be done.

One reviewer had said my techniques were too hard. Talk about hard. Try cooking a bale. It would be easier cooking it in hot water than a chemical bath.  Most reviewers always point to straw bales as the answer to their gardening problems. They are trying to con many into buying their books. That's right, they are authors soliciting their books by writing bad reviews about other gardening books in order to deceive many into buying their books. Isn't that right Toy Reviewer? Toy reviewer is a famous straw bale author who uses his real name unless he writes you a bad review in order to increase his book sales. The things people do for money. The lies they tell just to increase their book sales.

I'm keeping my books cheap so you can have a successful garden instead of the ones shown with the magic of Photoshop.

We will be looking more into the straw bale revival, and showing you their false claims that simply doesn't work any better than throwing a seed into the ground and covering it with fertilizer.

Many have touted their claim as the originators of straw bale gardening. Do you know it started? It probably started with cow named Bessie when she discharged some excrement onto a straw bale and a farmer noticed a plant started to grow on the bale. He then had an idea to write a book and spread his new growing techniques that he said took years of study.

Burn Garden Burn

I tried to have a controlled fire but to no avail. It got out of control. I had to do the work of a fireman.  My main concern was not to let it head towards the field.

I bought a steel garbage can and thought I could burn through a hole I made in the bottom. The can would control the burn. No, it was a bad idea. Even though the grass had weight on it, the fire got out of the turned over can.  However, I did make a stove. The grass that burned, produced enough heat to cook eggs in a pan. I'll remember my garbage can when the power goes out.

Beware Straw Balers

Clopyralid products with names like Stinger, Reclaim, and Transline have been used on the wheat and oat straw bales that many use in their gardens. Clopyralid is an herbicide and is particularly damaging to peas, tomatoes and sunflowers and can render potatoes, lettuce and spinach inedible. Clopyralid lingers in manure and compost and spoils plants years after it has been applied.

You can still buy clopyralid products. The only States that have banned it are NY, CA, HI, and WA. Halloween bales may have some fire retardant chemicals sprayed on them.

Using organic hay, grass, leaves, or cover crops is the best way to go. You only use what you are assured of as being safe. The use of a pine baler or my home baler will make you the tight bales that will give you the bale garden of your dreams. Get my plans for the home baler and join the new revolution of hay bale gardening.

Home Baler Plans

Hay Bale Gardening Revolution

My type of gardening is not "Straw Bale Gardening." I don't cook the straw or have to punch holes in the straw to plant seedlings. You won't see me writing any more books on hay bale gardening. My techniques work. I don't need to tell you a better way, I already did. Last year I took many trips to Pennsylvania while leaving my plants unattended in 90 degree heat. They survived. The pictures in my books are original.

I make hay bales with a pine straw baler. I am going to be coming out with a new design called, "Hay Baler Station." While others are deciding what straw bale book to buy, join my hay bale revolution.

What do you think about those peppers? They were grown in drought with very little watering.

My dead Squash Plant

Have you ever heard that sick plants get infected by insects?  If your plants were healthy they would mysteriously ward off harmful insects. The idea that strong plants somehow protect themselves from evil insects is bull.  My case point is my squash plant.  Every year I grow a zucchini squash plant that starts out beautifully but by the time it starts to produce it is infected with squash beetles.  It doesn't matter how much you kill the beetles, each day they increase in number.  I get the same-old results, one zucchini, from half dead plant.  Oh, how I would love to use insecticides.  I grow organically, so I must confess, I can't grow zucchini due to the squash beetle.  I'm beaten by a bug.

Alfalfa bales can sell for a lot more than hay bales. Alfalfa roots reach way down into the earth where all the rich minerals dwell. It is also a legume which fixes nitrogen into the soil. The home baler can make alfalfa bales in the 40 lbs range and 38 lbs for hay.  I should get $5.00 to $10.00 a  bale for pure alfalfa.   The bales would make excellent livestock feed or compost bales if I can't sale them.
The picture is a spot of land I'm going to broadcast seed balls of alfafa. The plastic will set back the weeds, clover and grass from crowding out the alfalfa balls. The plastic has been on there for about three weeks.

Those who use manual balers it is convenient to use (what I call) the mini compressor.    When you need a half sized bale in place of a 38 lbs large bale.    They can be useful for beds, wind protection, and disintegrating compost bales.

SOYBEANS

The number one cash crop in Missouri is Soybeans.  When I wanted to grow some, I could not find the seed anywhere.  After an exhaustive search, I found some at a health food store in Springfield, Mo.  I made some seed balls and broadcasted them in my yard.  They are growing very well in this hot and  humid environment. 
There is nothing like green cooked soybeans.  If you have a yard, you ought to try growing some soybean plants.

The Universe of Clover

White clover originated in Europe. It has been popular throughout the world.
It likes clay and silt soils and a cool environment.
Its roots only go down as far as 2 feet.
It fixes nitrogen into the soil and is often called, green manure.
There are no problematics pest.  Deer and Elk love to feast on clover.