Straw bale gardening

Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, straw bale planting is easy and fun for the whole family. From tomatoes to spinach, plenty of vegetables can be grown in these unique planters.

Hay bales provide an excellent venue for growing produce, even (especially!) for beginning gardeners. Horticulturist Joel Karsten began growing bumper crops in straw bales after college. Today, this bestselling author’s method has proven successful in nearly every global environment. He even teaches people in impoverished nations how to grow their own produce in straw. Karsten’s bale technique can help gardeners raise tantalizing tomatoes earlier than others who follow a more conventional…

Straw Bale Gardening provides many advantages over traditional soil gardening, some of which have already been alluded to: no weed seeds, no disease or insect carry over, and a neutral pH which allow you to grow essentially anything with roots.

Straw bale gardening can destroy your garden. A bold claim, but it’s true. Here's what you need to know to safeguard your harvest.

Unlock the secrets of growing potatoes in straw bales. Our step-by-step guide makes it easy. Cultivate a bountiful harvest with straw bale gardening!

If you're thinking about growing vertically in straw bales but don't know where to get started, this guide can help you with some simple tips.

How to get started with straw bale gardening for beginners who want to grow vegetables and other annuals.

We arranged and rearranged our straw bales. Once we got them in the configuration we wanted, we began conditioning. We followed the organic guide for conditioning in Joel Karsten’s book, R…

This article is contributed by Loraine who lives in the Kansas City, Missouri metro area (we always like to know what bio-region a contributor is from). Loraine tried using straw bales to grow in, and reports on her less than spectacular results. Have you got any suggestions for Lorraine? I am intrigued by the idea... View Article

Straw bale gardening might seem like a novelty or even a too-good-to-be-true scheme, but the method has been around for decades. We asked plant pros with experience gardening in straw bales to find out more about this unusual way of growing vegetables, and they happily shared their top tips to help you get started.