There are lots of ways to build a garden. You can go the traditional route, with a garden tilled right into the ground, or construct raised beds that you fill with soil.
Another option, though, uses bales of straw. They're cheap and easy to acquire, and it's possible to grow herbs, vegetables and flowers right in the bale. If a straw bale garden is ideal for you, here are a few basic tips to get you growing.
Use Straw, Not Hay
If you didn't grow up with livestock or on a farm, you may not know there's a difference between bales of stray and bales of hay. In fact, the two are completely different. Straw is dry, stiff and yellow. It's a byproduct of a grain crop; once the seeds of a plant like wheat are harvested for food, the straw is gathered and baled. It doesn't have much — if any — nutritional value left, so it's often used for livestock bedding, but not food.
Hay, on the other hand, is grown specifically to feed livestock. Hay bales are made up of plants — usually grass or legumes — that have been harvested and dried as food for cows or other grazing animals. Because hay is still full of seeds, if you try to use it for garden planting, you're very likely to end up with a whole lot of unwanted sprouts.
