Bales of Straw

[celiacjean]

I just purchased two bales of straw, now not sure how to best use them, I could put a layer on my compost heap or should I use them to put between my strawberry plants and to cover my garlic when I plant it in October?

[fzjohnson]

Or you could leave them in situ for a Winter or longer, then plant your strawberries in the rotting bale. I did this and it protected the berries from all but birds. I had lovely soft/fluffy compost at then end when I cut the twine still binding the sagging biscuits of straw. I added it to my garden and compost bin (the less degraded bits). Where are you in the world? This might help when others are contributing.

[Cleansweep]

Consider a ‘straw for muck’ exchange/loan with a pet rabbit keeper. This principle is used by cereal growers on a commercial scale where they cannot keep livestock themselves.

[Wellies]

I get the big rectangular bales that weigh about half a tonne.
I have a house cow so the straw goes down as bedding. She eats quite a lot of it too but it ends up as cow muck that gets deposited onto the bedding straw. It all gets forked up and goes in our compost bins.
I put a thick layer of straw on the top of my compost heaps to keep the heat in and exclude light from the top so the worms come up further. I just lift it off and spread it on the next heap when I turn a heap.

[Wellies]

…or you can wee on them to add nitrogen to all that carbon.

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