Garden from straw bales new innovation

Annette Short loves to garden. This year, however, she found a unique approach that attracted attention to her back yard in Ryley called straw bale gardening.

“I just have to do gardening, I love it,” she said. “I just have my little whimsies.”

That includes finding a book called “Straw Bale Gardens” by Joel Karsten (Cool Springs Press, 2013) that planted the seed of an idea to try a different technique this spring for growing things.

The book “inspired me to experiment with growing vegetables in and on top of straw bales,” she explained. “I purchased 20 wheat-straw bales in the fall of 2013, and subsequently bought soaker hose, nitrogen fertilizer, and Triple 10 fertilizer, and was set to go.”

For more see the Aug. 26/14 Mercury