Straw bales for habitat projects?

[j-bird]

I have access to roughly 100 straws bales..... What sort of things could I do with them?

They are wet and HEAVY (still recovering) - but are all still actual bales.

I am considering trying to grow tree saplings in a few just to see if I can. I also think a ground blind is out as I am not sure it will last long enough to be worth the effort.

I don't have to do anything with them, I just thought there may be an opportunity sitting there that I am missing.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Are you talking the small square bales? If so, they make great mulch around apple trees if you break up the bales and layer the straw 3-4" thick under the dripline. They will smother weeds for a few months and then slowly break down and add organic matter to your soil.

 

[swat1018]

Free organic matter, if nothing else.

 

[j-bird]

Are you talking the small square bales? If so, they make great mulch around apple trees if you break up the bales and layer the straw 3-4" thick under the dripline. They will smother weeds for a few months and then slowly break down and add organic matter to your soil.

NO - no mulch for trees. I once used cypress mulch and voles got under it and ate off all the support roots of my tree and killed it. Now I use weed fabric and gravel.....no more vole issues!

 

[j-bird]

Free organic matter, if nothing else.

I thought about that......but since I leave my annual plots stand and then till in the soybean and corn stubble with a tiller I figured the straw would be essentially overkill. Maybe not.....but I'll keep that in mind.

 

[chickenlittle]

You can grow stuff in straw bales but it takes a lot of watering. The bales dry out faster than the soil will.

 

[Bill]

Round bales? Temporary Road screens or maybe field blockades the deer need to walk around.
A big a$$ fire?

 

[Peplin Creek]

Screening would make a lot of sense. Possibly position them to funnel traffic to certain areas.

 

[SD51555]

Pile them up and compost them. Too many weed seeds to do much else.

 

[Catscratch]

I've shot quite a few deer,doves, and chickens from bale blinds (basically crawl between a couple of round bales). Making funnels with them is a good idea too. Maybe put a gap or two in a line of them. Screening is also a good idea. What about putting in a plot and burning them? That might supplement something your soil is lacking (I don't know much about what burning would do for you, I'm sure someone on here has an answer to that).

 

[yoderjac]

You could build a cool fort!

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Cut the the twine and mix them with grass clippings from your lawn over a couple years time. I composted some old hay bales mixed with sheep manure that made for great fertilizer for my TNM brassica plot this past summer.

 

[j-bird]

It's square bales so no real screening or blocking value. I may keep a few just to try to grow some veggies in but other than that it sounds like other than composing they are not going to be of much use to me. Oh well, I thought there may be some opportunity there that I had not realized.....

 

[Northbound]

If you need more lmk. Have 150ish that have been in dry barn at least 15 years. I'd like to compost it but my lungs convince me I don't need that barn space

 

[j-bird]

You could build a cool fort!

I'm childish enough as it is......don't give me my own beer drink'n fort!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

If you have a veggie garden, maybe use the straw to mulch under your tomato plants. Dad and I used to spread straw to a depth of about 5" around all our tomato plants. It kept the weeds down, the soil moist, and it rotted down at season's end and made the soil more crumbly - friable I think it's called. It kept the tomatoes from lying on the ground - we planted 12 dozen each year and that's too many to stake !! You can also mulch around peppers, broccoli, cabbage, etc.

 

[bueller]

Or you can stack them in random spots in an open field, tuck some tannerite into each stack, climb into your a tree stand with a rifle and see how quickly you can blast everything to bits.

 

[Mortenson]

The gardening thread on here had a few interesting vegetable ideas. Other than that, I'll say a few of my best hunting seasons were spent in ground blinds made from square straw bales. What can it hurt to arrange a blind in a backup spot, or an east wind spot, as long as they're in tact and not too wet to lift. Probably only get 1 season out of it. I liked to put a lot of them on a hayrack and make it real "busy" looking -- sides ranging between 2,3,4 high. Slap a comfy chair in the middle and work on your tan 'til that last hour.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm childish enough as it is......don't give me my own beer drink'n fort!

But you could call it Fort Dick's! We know how much you like that!

 

[j-bird]

But you could call it Fort Dick's! We know how much you like that!

I don't think so.....maybe Fort Budweiser or the like......