Starting a vegetable garden can be a rewarding prospect for any homeowner. In addition to having fresh veggies on the ready, digging in the dirt has big health benefits. Though yanking out weeds might ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Imagine you bought some bales of straw to mulch your garden beds in fall. You happily lay the straw down, safe in the knowledge that you're ...

Summer has definitely arrived. With temperatures reaching the high 90s and 100s every day, water is quickly lost from soils and plants. Evapotranspiration is the agricultural term for the total amount ...

There are many ways to plant a garden. In-ground, raised beds, containers, there are choices that work for everyone. One unique type of gardening boasts many benefits and is easy to start and maintain ...

One of the best natural mulches for vegetable gardens is straw. Straw is a by product of grain crops and is made up of the dead stalks and leaves left behind after farmers harvest the grain. It can be ...

There are lots of varied styles and techniques when growing vegetables in the backyard. From simple container gardening to a farming style of roto-till gardening, vegetables can be grown under ...

As a little boy growing up on a Minnesota farm, Joel Karsten wondered why the healthiest weeds seemed to be ones growing out of broken down straw bales. Years later, after earning a degree in ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. One of the decisions that can have a surprisingly big impact on your plants is what you put around them. Cover is important for suppressing ...

Straw bale gardening is a different technique for planting vegetables, flowers or herbs. The bales become a kind of organic container to hold your soil/compost mix and into which you plant your seeds ...

In some areas of the country, the choice between mulching with pine needles and wood mulch is a tough one. Since the 1980s, pine straw has been the favorite mulch in the South. It is inexpensive, ...

Straw bale gardening? What will they think of next? Actually, straw bale/mortar home construction is a big industry. In the garden, straw bales are big, too. Straw (not hay) bale gardening is a ...

Nowadays people use the terms hay and straw interchangeably, and in most cases, it makes no difference whatsoever. For example, we say we were on a hayride at a get-together even though the wagons are ...