Karen Hall

My name is Karen Hall and I live in Seymour in east TN. This is my 4th year growing a Straw Bale Garden. Living in an area where the soil is mostly red clay growing a productive garden was always a challenge. It required a lot of digging and supplementing to try and make it work. I started to do some research to try and find an easier way to have the garden that I wanted. My searching led me to information on Straw Bale Gardening…..I liked the idea and got a copy of Joel Karstens book and in my first try I grew about 6 bales and liked the results. Each year I have increased the number of bales, last year I had 23 bales and was very happy with the results. I hope to have at least 25 bales this year.
Last year I had some raised bed gardens as well as my straw bales. My straw bales started producing at least a week earlier and produced up to 4 weeks longer….this was the sort of result I was looking for. I still have raised beds for my perennials and flower beds and my decomposed straw each season revitalizes both my compost bins and my raised beds. I encourage my friends who are interested in gardening to try the straw bale method and see the results for themselves.