Would you like to grow your own vegetables this year but simply don’t have a good garden spot? Or perhaps you want to start small and wish to avoid all the digging, weeding, and backbreaking ...

Terrible garden soil? Or even no soil? No problem. Yes, you can garden! Straw bale gardening uses a bale as the medium in which you plant. You won't have to dig in rocky or hard soil, and it ...

This is no small thing when age makes bending and kneeling a little more challenging. Since straw retains water, it’s easy to keep plants hydrated, ... The downsides of straw bale gardening.

The straw bales absorb the water in large amounts, nourishing the plants within them. Kester places small amounts of soil on top of bales as well to prevent seeds from crumbling away from the bale ...

So far there are 60 permitted straw bale buildings in the county and one in the city of San Diego. ... "It can be anything from a five-story office building to a small craftsman home," she said.

Growing vegetables out of straw bales is a hot topic lately after a web-site and Facebook frenzy led to a book this spring called"Straw Bale Gardening" (Cool Springs Press, $19.99).

My two years of research led to my book “Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales” (Storey, 96 pages, $8.95), which came out this year. I am quite taken with the technique, though as with all ...

This year's growing season is not exactly off to an early start. But a local gardener has a suggestion: Plant your vegetables in a bale of straw instead of in the ground. It's a humble method with ...