Straw Bale Gardening: A Revolutionary Way To Grow!

Find innovative products, new ideas, practical advice, and great deals with hundred of experts all under one roof at the KC Remodel + Garden Show.

And when it comes to gardening, there is nothing more innovative than Straw Bale Gardening! Don't have the right soil or looking for a new way to garden? Create a Straw Bale Garden. Joel Karsten will show you how when he appears on the Fresh Ideas Home Stage in the Governor's Hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Growing a successful vegetable garden is difficult enough if you have terrific soil to plant your garden in, but with poor soil it can be virtually impossible. Straw Bale Gardening allows anyone, even those with the worst soil conditions, to grow a terrific garden that is productive and much less labor intensive. For anyone with difficulties bending over or doing the heavy work that is usually involved in turning the soil and digging to plant and harvest crops, the raised height of the Straw Bale Garden makes those chores obsolete.

Harvesting potatoes means simply knocking over the bale at the end of the season and picking the potatoes up, no digging required. Weeding will also become a thing of the past; there are no weeds in a Straw Bale Garden. Stop spending money buying containers, building raised beds, and buying special planting mixes. With minimal maintenance you can get maximum production through Straw Bale Gardening. It will completely change everything you thought you knew about gardening - plus, it is so unique all your neighbors will be talking!

Don't forget to check the entire schedule for the Fresh Ideas Home Stage. Kevin O'Connor, host of the award-winning PBS series This Old House and Ask This Old House will share practical home improvement, renovation, and restoration advice, as well as hilarious stories from 35 years of the original DIY show when he appears on the Fresh Ideas Home Stage Friday and Saturday.

The KC Remodel + Garden Show, the region's largest event of this kind (with over 500 exhibitors), takes over the American Royal Center, February 6-8, 2015. Buy your tickets in advance to receive the best discounts - right now you can get 2-for-1 tickets via Facebook. And don't forget, Friday is Hero Day at the show. All active and retired military, fire, and police personnel will receive free admission to the show on this date.

FEBRUARY 6 -8, 2015.
AMERICAN ROYAL CENTER.

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How Does Your Garden Grow? Straw Bale Gardening with Joel Karsten

Recenlty, Joel Karsten, garden author and horticulturist, visited our Denver Home Show (March 14 - 16). Joel demonstrated the soil-free fruit and vegetable growing technique of Straw Bale Gardening. This method, created and perfected by Karsten, allows gardeners to grow a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables with the advantages of a raised bed garden but without the expense and time commitment.

The Benefits of Straw Bale Gardening:

• All the advantages of a raised bed garden including the raised height, less compaction, easier planting and harvesting – but without the major expense and commitment that a “normal” raised bed garden involves.
• Fresh growing media every spring with a new bale of straw means no lingering insect or disease problems that can accumulate in traditional soil or previously used planting mix.
• Earlier Planting: As new straw decomposes, it releases heat. This emission of heat greatly encourages the growth of young seedlings and transplants as they are establishing in the bales early in the year. This heat also allows much earlier planting into the bale versus the much colder soil, which cannot be planted until later in the season when it finally warms up.
• NO WEEDING, NO WEEDING, NO WEEDING!

The net result of these advantages is simple - Bales brimming with a harvest as diverse as peanuts and cabbage; gangbuster strawberries, tomatoes, carrots, beets, radish, potatoes, and lettuce. Organic practices fit the model perfectly and newbie gardeners are treated to success rather than the small and large failures of traditional veggie gardening. But the kicker according to Karsten is what is not in the straw. “Weeds are like kryptonite for most well-intentioned super gardeners, sometimes swallowing the ambition of a rookie gardener in only a few hot July days.” says Karsten. “Straw Bale gardens are as rewarding and bountiful as they are easy and efficient to grow.” With weeds feeding on hotter summers, wet winters, and higher levels of Co2, thick carpets of rooted weeds are deal-breakers for many not willing to invest the sweat equity. Straw Bale gardens are as extensive as the mind; labor minimal; and can be practiced literally anywhere sunlight and access to water exist. Rooftops, backyard patio, asphalt parking lot, or over an existing patch of lawn… the options are many. 

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