Joel Karsten - Straw Bale Gardens Complete, Updated Edition

The author as a farm boy, working hard and dreaming up new ways of doing things.

While I didnt have much money, I did have a fresh bachelor of science in horticulture degree from the University of Minnesota, as well as some distinct memories of growing up on a small farm. There, we always seemed to have a few broken bales of straw that would get piled up along the side of the barn. After a few months of decomposing, the biggest, greenest, healthiest thistles on the whole farm would spring up from these bales. I wondered, even as a young boy, why the healthiest looking weeds were always the ones growing out of these old bales, but as a recent horticulture student I now knew. In my exhaustive study of soils, composting, plant physiology, and all things horticulture, I found that most mysteries, including why weeds grow in bales, can be explained by sciencemicrobial soil science, to be exact. The old bales, I deduced, were composting inside, creating brand new soil. This provided a phenomenal growing environment for weeds. So why, then, couldnt I use bales of straw to grow vegetables? I decided to explore the question, and Ill say it again: necessity is the mother of invention. If I had been able to come up with $200 to build raised beds instead, you might well be reading a mystery novel right now, instead of this book called Straw Bale Gardens Complete.

The system I now like to call SBG wasnt an instant success, unless you consider 15 years of experimenting and perfecting a method to be instant success. Its not as simple as it might seem to some onlookers and many would-be bale-gardeners who dont bother to learn the right method. Well, you just buy a bale of straw and dig out the inside and put in a little dirt and then drop in the plants, they conclude, and shazam! You have a garden. Not exactly. Ive seen what happens when its done this way, and its a disaster. The plants starve to death and the dirt brings in the weed seeds and disease we are trying to avoid.

DEAR MR. KARSTEN,

I had to write you this note to tell you about my dads Straw Bale Garden. My father grew up on a farm and ended up living in the city and becoming a school teacher for his forty-five-year career. His gardening in the city was limited to our abandoned sandbox and a few flower pots and window boxes.

When he turned eighty-four two years ago, he was beginning to slow down with health issues but still talked about his days on the farm. Im sure you know where this is going, but I convinced him that we should plant a Straw Bale Garden at his house, and after reading your book he agreed.

We talked all summer about that garden, and he spent all his waking hours tending the garden and reading your guidebook over and over. We talked on the phone every day, and the conversations we once struggled to keep going were now endless discussions about the garden. Hed tell me what was almost ready, what he harvested that day, and what he gave to the neighbors. He was filled with new life from this garden every day from April through October, and it brought him more joy than anything else in years. It brought us closer as well, and it gave him so much pride. He loved to explain to the neighbors and his friends just how the process works, and then brag about all his plants and how big his tomatoes grew.