Seriously? Straw bale gardens?

With spring in the air I’ve been thinking a lot about this coming gardening season. After not having a vegetable garden last year, as by summer we’d sold our Bakersfield house and were living in the Rio Paseo apartments those last six months leading to Coreys release, and all I had for 'outside space' there was a small walled in patio, not exactly conducive to gardening, THIS spring has found me more impatient than ever to get my hands in the dirt and start planting! ALSO I’ve been reading about straw bale gardening, having come across a particular site on Pinterest that caught my eye. It was actually an article in the NYTimes, dtd March 20, 2013, titled “Grasping at Straw”, to view the article google http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/garden/grasping-at-straw-a-foolproof-vegetable-plot

You can imagine my surprise, I mean, seriously, using a bale of straw as a gardening medium? What next? But as I read further I learned its been a known concept, and a very successful one, for a very long time now. There are books and websites you can check out for details. Apparently straw holds the suns heat very well hastening the growth of the plants, the bales retain water well, and as the bales age they are turning into compost and providing nutrients that your plants can use all season long. More “pro’s” for this type of gardening are its inexpensive, its easy on your back (a virtual ‘raised’ bed), and very easy to weed.

As Rod and I scoured the local Craigslist ads over this mornings coffee (a daily routine of ours) we came across a few sellers with straw bales for sale. It was a chilly, rainy day today, but we headed out in the truck to Deer Park, to a small farm about 30 minutes drive from our house where the young farmer took us to his barn and he and Rod loaded 10 bales of straw into the back bed of our pickup. A few minutes later, and $40 poorer (but more than happy with the price!) we brought home our straw. I’ll post pictures of our straw bale adventure as it begins. But for now, as its still much too early to plant anything outside, I’ll soon be starting my little seedlings in jiffy pots inside, 'impatiently' awaiting the coming of May, the longer and warmer days, when I’ll be able to, at last, start gardening in earnest.

“Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.” ~Author Unknown