A selection of strawbale gardens.
Hello. I set up my website primarily to get people interested in strawbale gardening. But other things have come into the mix. That said I have never lost my passion for this great method. I hope I can fire up your enthusiasm to give this fantastic method a try. Before we get onto strawbailing let me digress for moment and talk about topsoil. I wanted to fill out some tomatoes and went to a major DIY store to collect some. I was very, very disapointed in the quality. Full of what looked like coir and stones etc. Very little substance to it. A gardening pal told me about a make he had purchased from the range, so off we went. It is called supa-grow organic topsoil. Peatfree, British made, it is superb. Smooth, dark, heavy and great to work with. Please let me know how you find high street topsoils and composts.
Good soil is so important.
Back to strawbale gardening. More and more houses are being built with lawns, but nowhere to grow vegetables. Strange when food prices are going up and up. Strawbales will slot in anywhere, they are very versatile. Here are a couple of ideas. If you time it right you could have potatoes growing inside the bale. (pick an unusual variety like Pink Fur Apple). And then poles of beans growing vertically. Or, a strawbale with a variety of tomatos growing vertilcally and a bed of various types of lettuce. This is no waste container gardening. When the strawbale is tired it makes simply the best compost. I lay it down and grow marrows to die for. Please get in touch with any questions, I will endevour to answer them.
As far as I know there are no workshops on this method in the UK. I am in the process of planning some. This method will come across so well in that environment. The first will be held in Lincoln. Please do get in touch to express an interest.
I hope this has been of interest. Good health. Simon Gibbins.
