Trish Helmer

I found Joel Karstens book Straw Bale Garden at our local farm store.  Intrigued I purchased it and set out to put it to the test.   I have gained quite a bit of weight over the years and found it hard to keep up with the garden, watering, weeding and so on.  I have old raised beds that sat idle for quite a few years and I set up my straw bales in those existing beds.  That translated into 65 bales.  My friend Judy Billen joined in with me and WOW were we happy with the results.  Neither of us are seasoned gardeners and this was Judys first time ever.  We planted early and horrified our gardening friends.  They were suprised when every thing worked out as the book said it would.  We are still enjoying the produce that we canned, and preserved.  The only volunteers we had were some dandelions which were welcome, easy to remove and ended up in my tinctures.  Can’t wait to show everyone this amazing process!