I posted in the Spring on “Planting Straw Bales” with tomato plants. The technique has been more successful that I had even hoped. The tomato plants are soaring above my head and loaded with tomatoes of all types. Thus far, I have harvested many grape tomatoes, but so has the neighborhood chipmunk. Growl….
These little guys are adorable until they are ravaging your garden beds or digging dens under your concrete foundations and porches. One of the chipmunk gang in our yard has learned how to raid my suet cage and bird feeders. Double Growl…
I sprinkled chile powder in the chipmunks favorite dining area, but he just brushed it away and kept on feasting. Triple Growl…
One mistake I made with the Straw Bale Garden was placing the bales onto palettes instead of on newspaper. The palettes did keep the area neat at the start, but as the bales have decomposed they have sunk to low levels. I am hoping that somehow the roots of the tomatoes will find their way into the gaps of the palette and reach the ground underneath. I will update again further along in the season.
MINDING MY P'S WITH Q 
Good pics. 🙂
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Thank you…the technique really works!
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So I was wondering do you think that using straw bales reduces the chances of fungus? I fight fungus and do not want to use standard fungacide? An unrelated idea. Someone recently told me they grew potatoes in a pile of wood chips left on their street by the utility company. He said they were the best crop he ever had and they all came out clean.
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I didn’t have any fungus problem, but the bales did grow mushrooms. It didn’t seem to bother the tomatoes at all. By the time the sun got high in the sky, the mushrooms were shriveled. This was definitely the best way I have found to grow tomatoes.
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