Straw Bale Gardening

We've started our own little organic straw bale garden next to the store.  It's our first year, so its a bit trial and error.  We found some great resources on how to start the process.  We used a 10-day regimen of watering and fertilizing using organic fertilizers such as bone meal and blood meal. The straw bales (not hay!) are placed cut side up and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of fertilizer per bale is used daily during the 10 days.  Once the bales start to compost and mushrooms start to sprout, you know your bales are ready for planting.  Most of the plants were seeds we started back at the end of February and transplanted once the weather was nice enough.
I ran a soaker hose the length of the bales (and doubled back as far as it went).  I'll keep updates on how its doing!