May 25 column: Straw bale gardening

Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Ditching the dirt. It’s all about straw bale gardening, which I think you’ll find quite interesting.

I’d never heard of it until one of my Master Gardener colleagues read a newly-published book on the subject and decided to give it a try in one of our demonstration gardens at the Extension education center.

I have since read that book (“Straw Bale Gardens” by Joel Karsten, published by Cool Springs Press) and figured I should check it out, too. Since I have a large veggie garden that is comprised of 26 raised beds, I only had room for 2 bales but at least I can experiment with them and let you know how they do.

For today’s article, I interviewed a gentleman who had also read Karsten’s book and has 40 (yes, 40!) straw bales in his vegetable garden. Impressive, eh? So take a look at the article and see what you think.