If you’d like to install a raised bed but don’t have the resources to build one, you can achieve the same effect by growing your plants in straw bales. It’s also a great option for those with poor ...

In 2012, Joel Karsten wrote a book called "Straw Bale Gardening" that spurred a new way of raising vegetables by literally planting them in bales of straw. This method certainly hasn't replaced ...

Upon retiring in June of last year, one goal was to plant a big, beautiful vegetable garden. With great enthusiasm, I set to work diligently rototilling, planting and fertilizing. Unfortunately, ...

When Joel Karsten was growing up on a farm in Minnesota, he noticed how lushly weeds grew from rotting bales of straw. That made him wonder: If straw worked so well for growing weeds, wouldn’t it work ...

If you’d like to install a raised bed but don’t have the resources to build one, you can achieve the same effect by growing your plants in straw bales. It’s also a great option for those with poor ...

I am excited to report that my straw bale garden yielded some very nice vegetables! If you read Part I of my article, you know that I decided on straw bale gardening so that the garden soil could be ...

Straw bale gardens are becoming popular with growers plagued with poor soil or limited garden space, said University of Missouri Extension horticulturist David Trinklein. Straw bale gardening combines ...

Straw bale gardens work well for veggies, herbs, and flowers but not perennials or larger plants. Bales need to be conditions for at least 12 days with water and fertilizer before planting. Plant ...

In the Spring Home and Garden section, which came out in April, I wrote a story about new gardening methods and products and mentioned straw bale gardening. As a gardener, the idea intrigued me, and I ...

Some gardening tasks (despite being good exercise) are just not very enjoyable. Digging in red clay, weeding and bending over to pick bush beans come to mind as three seasonal “pains.” Enter growing ...