Farm1 wrote:
"Dick Adams" wrote:

....
Have you tried tomatoes, onions, squash, or melons?

I've planted a pumpkin into a well rotted bale into which I cut a hole. It
did well. If I was going to plant toms or beans, I'd do them in a bed with
bales around like Len did but in a smaller bed than he used. The spuds did
well in the bed we put bales around.

I always rot my bales for a while before doing anything with them unlike
Len did. I buy bales and drop them on the ground and then turn them when
I think of it so the soil microbes can start work on them.

It appears to me that Len uses the straw bales for both the base and the
edge of a garden plot. This is one of the two common forms that I have
found. One of my problems is, in spite of my claim of being perpetually 17,
my body will be 69 before the next harvest. So I'm looking for raising the
height of my garden.

Bales also work well to extend the growing season (beginnig and end) and
especially if they are starting to rot. Use them straight on the ground to
protect things and with an old window or some plastic on the top of them.

Extending the season is important to me. Although I'm a Southerner, I currently
live just west of Baltimore in the Land of the damnyankee Snow - winters are
worse than they are in Armidale. Straw bales could mean an eight month growing
season!

Dick