Worries about the down economy and food safety are fueling a boom in home gardens. However, many people don't want to toil in the garden, or they don't have enough yard space. A Wake Forest man says ...

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 ...

Straw Bale Gardens Complete provides an abundance of inspiration, with detailed steps for planning, planting and harvesting a straw bale garden. Joel Karsten inspects tomatoes growing in straw bales.

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 ...

Bad soil? Not enough soil? Maybe even no soil? Skip the ground and try planting fruits and vegetables in straw bales instead, suggests Joel Karsten, author of “Straw Bale Gardens” (Cool Springs Press, ...

You may want to pick up wheat straw bales to keep for your vegetable garden next year. Gardeners like Bea Waggener of Newport News are discovering the advantages of gardening in bales, especially when ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...