Three Great Uses for Hay or Straw Bales

At your local garden center or farmer’s market in the fall, you probably notice lots of hay or straw bales. Hay is different from straw; hay is essentially dried grass, and contains seed heads and the long, flat leaves characteristic of wheat, millet, timothy hay, and other types. Straw is actually the inedible part of cereal grains, primarily oats, and it is used more as bedding than feed for animals. Straw or hay will work for most of the uses below, but straw is usually cheaper.

1. Fall Decorating

Straw and hay bales make lovely bases for decorating. You can pull some of the hay out to stuff a scarecrow and then set him on them; bales make a lovely backdrop for gourds and pumpkins. Hay bales can also be used to line a driveway or sidewalk, and then you can poke solar lights into them for outdoor lighting.

Anywhere you want to put potted plants, you can put them on straw bales. They can even serve as seasonal furniture for an outdoor cookout or other event. Cover them with red-checked tablecloths or other material.

2. Garden – Mulch, Planters, and More

When fall is over and winter sets in, don’t throw away the straw or hay – use it as mulch. Spread the straw over your garden soil and around any plants that are still growing. Once the growing season is over, you can work the straw into the soil to add organic matter. Alternatively, you can let the straw sit on the surface all winter and dig it under in early spring. Beware, though, that hay is likely to have seeds mixed in; be ready to pull up sprouts next spring if you don’t want them in your garden. Straw is a better choice if you don’t want to deal with sprouting seeds.

Did you know you can use a straw or hay bale as a planter? Scoop out a hole in the top of the bale and fill it with soil and compost. You can even grow some vegetables this way, as long as they have fairly shallow roots – you can’t grow carrots in a straw bale, for instance!

You can, however, grow potatoes according to some sources. For potatoes, you don’t need any soil; you can plant the seed potatoes directly (and deeply) into the straw and the roots will grow among the hay or straw and draw nutrients as the bale decomposes. You can pile loose straw from another bale over the green aerial parts that make it up above the top of the bale. Shade is key for producing potatoes from the plant.

One more garden use for straw bales – stack them around your garden to keep out invaders like deer, and even to act as a wind break and insulator. This might prolong your growing season a bit.

3. Fun Stuff

Make a maze with straw bales for your kids and their friends and neighbors. Use them to insulate animal housing – stack bales around the outside of dog houses, chicken coops, sheep and goat pens, and so forth. Straw and hay bales also act as a moisture barrier – they soak up water from rain and melting snow before it gets into the base of the building or enclosure.