Once one becomes a fan of the Straw Bale Gardening method, it is amazing how many bales turn up in strange places.
- In a parking lot. Many businesses, apartment complexes, car dealerships, etc., will set up beautiful fall displays including straw bales. When the season is over, the bales usually end up in the dumpster, where nobody wins. Simply asking if they have plans for their old bales, can land free bales in your trunk for FREE!
- At a mobile home park. Often bales are used around the base of mobile homes as insulation, and in the spring those bales all have to go away. You may end up with more than you can use if you find the right contact at your nearby mobile home park.
- Look for horses. Wherever a horse exists, there will be bales of hay nearby. In almost every case the bottom of a pile of hay bales will end up with a few moldy bales. Those moldy bales are great for a bale gardener, even if they are hay, but they are not good food for a horse. Moldy hay is deadly for a horse, so the horse owner is likely to give you all the moldy bales in the hay bale pile at no charge.
So start looking around and don’t be afraid to ask, because once you become a Straw Bale Gardening fanatic you’ll start seeing bales everywhere.
Straw Bale Garden Complete Book
Get Joel's Straw Bale Gardens book, which explains the exact process for conditioning your garden, and how to harvest an amazing crop of vegetables.
BaleBuster5 and Book
Starter Package Combination: BaleBuster5 is 100% organic, proprietary blend to prepare five straw bales for planting . Also, get the Straw Bale Gardens book which is a complete guide to Joel's method, detailing the entire process of growing a straw bale garden.
