Straw Bale Gardens Complete

I seldom write book reviews, particularly for books that already have as many reviews as this one, but this book is so good it deserves comment. Straw bale gardening is a fairly new technique that has swept the gardening world by storm in recent years and there are a number of books about it available for Kindle. Joel Karsten, the author of this book, is the foremost authority in the field and this is a new completely revised edition of his original book about straw bale gardening published in 2013.The attractions of straw bale gardening are that (1) It can be done successfully by almost anyone, from beginners to experienced experts, no matter where you live or how much space you have available for planting. It can even be done on driveways, patios, rooftops or balconies. (2) It's very inexpensive to get started. All you need are one or more bales of straw, sunlight, water, a little fertilizer and potting mix, and your plants or seeds. (3) It requires very little labor. You can easily set up your garden in a couple of hours. Weeds and pests are almost non-existent, and correct watering is simple, particularly if you set up soaker hoses with a timer as the author recommends. Overwatering is almost impossible since excess water quickly drains through the bales. (4) Straw bale gardening can be done in any climate zone and you can grow almost anything in your straw bale garden. (5) It's particularly good for people with limited mobility. Because you plant on top of the bales, there's little or no bending or stooping required. The author also gives tips on how to inexpensively elevate the bales even higher by placing them on stacked wooden pallets. If you space your rows correctly and provide some sort of hard surface such as plywood or even cardboard, it's even wheelchair accessible. (6) Existing soil conditions are irrelevant since all the root system is contained within the straw bales. By placing the bales on landscape fabric, you can even plant on contaminated soil.This book provides complete information on the technique and on planning and designing your garden, as well as information on particular plants and how to cultivate them in straw bales. I give it my highest recommendation. There are other books available on Kindle about straw bale gardening and I've read several. Karsten himself has a short book available through Kindle Unlimited or for purchase. It's excellent but doesn't cover all the details as this one does.Unlike many similar Kindle books which aren't well-formatted to display on small screen e-ink Kindles, this one displays very well on my Kindle Voyage. However, it contains numerous color photos and illustrations which display much better on a larger color screen. I have it loaded in Kindle for Android on my 9" tablet, as well as on my Voyage so I can view the graphics better. Kindle For PC should also display them well. Although it's the text that's most important and an e-ink Kindle is fine for reading it, I recommend that you also load it onto a tablet or computer so you can see the photos and illustrations in all their glory. It's worth the effort to do so because they're really excellent and are a part of what makes this book so good..If you're interested in straw bale gardening, don't waste your time and money on any other book. This is the one you want and it's more than worth the $11.99 purchase price.

Very informative book with numerous photos and illustrations. I will try this method next spring.

As a dairy farmer for most of my life, a garden was an automatic. As I age I realize I need to work smarter not harder. Learning about straw gardens from this book has saved me time and energy. My product is as beautiful and delicious as ever, and my back is straighter with less aches and pains.

I plan to try to garden with straw bales this year and I had many questions

first season grew beans.lettuce,onion etc with great luck- used old hay bales!

This book details how to straw gardening from start to finish. It includes many details to help you grow a great garden in straw. It's nice not yo have to bend down to plant. This is my first time in using this method...only time will reveal how the garden grows.

This book was a short, quick and enjoyable read. A practical method to plant and it was explained well in this book. The cost to garden with straw bales is similiar to purchasing soil. At $4.00 straw bale - I actually saved money from my usual container method (My soil is rocky/compacted). It was also easy on the joints to garden this way with elevated bales. I plan to use this for other crops / herbs like basil.I used this method to grow potatoes this year. Wow it was a potato explosion! I loved removing clean, smooth / unblemished potatoes. None were mis-shappen. Harvesting took minutes for the 4 bales. The whole vine was removed at once with clean potatoes clinging to the roots.Early and mid summer went well with watering every other or once a day. However, the end of August when the plants were full I felt they needed extra water much like my container gardening. Depending on where you live, you may want to be prepared to water frequently in August only....I am in Southern NJ and in August the bales dried quickly and required twice a day watering. The book details pitfalls you might face using this methodolology. For example they explained the different types of bales you could purchase. I definately asked for "straw" bales where I purchased these in a farm market. However, some grass sprouted out of the side of the bales; this was OK for me but might look objectionable (not neat) for others. The "grass" was easily removed.As a bonus, I added the disintegrating straw bales to the compost pile.

Processed this sale and delivery in a lightening fast manner. What a pleasant surprise I got in my mailbox yesterday! Thank you! I read this book over the course of one day - great read and very informative. Complete step-by-step description of the process involved in growing a Straw Bale Garden. Book includes great photographic illustrations and all equipment needed for growing a garden using rectangular straw bales. Basic idea is that while the bale is held together by the twine on the outside, fertilizer is added to the center of the bale causing the straw to compost into perfect medium for the plant roots. This creates a raised bed which is clean and weed free (for this reason it is important to use straw bales and not hay which would have grass seeds in it). The bales are positioned to catch maximum sun and with soaker hoses and trellises to water and support the plants. At the end of the growing season, the bales themselves are composted. Author is a degreed horticulturist who has experimented with many methods. He appears to have developed a very nice system which will work well for people who have poor soil, location issues, lack of soil, difficulty bending or plowing, etc. The book is easy to read and practical. It includes lists of all materials needed and where to find them, and then illustrates how to use the materials. There are step by step instructions for how to install soaker hoses and how to build trellises. Later chapters also include suggested plant layout and garden designs for planning gardens meeting specific size requirements or to feed x numbers of people. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in vegetable gardening.

I bought this booklet after reading about Straw Bale Gardening online, via a link to Karsten's website from a facebook page article. I like the idea as have just taken over a garden with thin, acidic soil at 850 feet on Dartmoor. The book seems a good overview of the method, instructions are clear, it's an easy read (one sitting) but being me .. I am just using it as a kicking off point from which to adapt to local conditions. Be aware it is written for American gardeners; fertilizer measurements, for example, are in US cups, temperatures in Farenheit. Also it's turning out a fairly expensive method with 20x bales at £4 a pop locally at this time of year, high-nitrogen fertilizers etc. Use for inspiration like a basic cookery book.. then go your own way.

This book is the pay dirt on SBG if you are just looking to get started with a minimum of problems. J. Karsten gets around all the things you need to start and more important how to in a very explicit and easy to understand way.He covers most of the issues you can run into from start to harvest.I gave it four stars and the only reason I didn't give it the last one too is because I would have liked to see more elaborate options in his choices of things like the water system and other nitty gritty parts of SBG.I'm def. going into SBG and this is about the best help I could wish for.

I was very disappointed that there was so much repetition of the benefits of this type of gardening, and so little actual information - it took over 25% of the book to reach the list of tools required.This disappointment was increased by the fact that, reading it on a (admittedly not new) kindle, the photographs were little more than splodges in shades of grey. This didn't help at all in the grand scheme of things, merely adding to the 'filler' effect.Overall, I feel that the book was not good value for money, even though the subject matter should have made it so.

An excellent book to guide a newcomer to straw bale gardening. I am trying the scheme for the first time this year and this book has been invaluable to me.As far as I am concerned, straw bale gardening is a win win situation; If it works ... Great, if it doesn't (no reason why not) .... you still get some rotted straw for composting the rest of the plot !!

An excellent resource, filled with practical tips, clear guidance and helpful photos.While the idea of using straw for gardens isn't itself revolutionary, Joel has neatly "packaged" the idea in a way that is very approachable for even the novice gardener.Even as an experienced gardener, it inspired me to immediately go out and buy some straw bales, and I'll be planting it out this weekend :-)