312. No more weeding! | Straw Bale Garden Club | Joel Karsten | Roseville, MN

https://www.strawbalegardenclub.com/ [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/learntogrowastrawbalegarden 800-901-9902 • 651-470-2096​ Minnesota, Roseville Minn- St Paul Tell us a little about yourself. 12 days straight. I'm 3/4 of the way through a paitn job. Roseville, MN between St. Paul Tuesday March 24, 2020! The beginning of a crazy time! We are on spring break so I hope youare getting outdoors. HEre's Joel Karsten from stra balegardening I'm in Minnnesota I grew up in Southern Minnesota on a crop and dairy farm grew up on a farm moved to the city in college Was gonna go back to the farm but I met a girl, never made it back to the farm author writer speaker gardener involved in several community gardens travel around esp. in the winter and spring speaking at home and garden shows here in the US and some in Europe as well about the straw bale garden method 29 springs Where do you want to start Pioniering this method, one thing my shuanbend who grew up on a ranch is there is a difference btwetn straw and hay. straw is what remains cereal grains are harvested like Wheats and oatmeal bale up the stalks bedding for livestock has hollow stalks stems are hollow hold air acts like insulation livestock can lay on the bed of straw has this amazing path to suck up and hold on to moisture that’s what makes it so good at holding on to large capacity moisture inside a bale which will hold 5 gallons of water acts as a reservoir for urine for son or pitchfork in the manure spreader so it's like a diaper for livestock hay is food ~ Fodder if you say I’m feeding my dairy cows a hay bale that usually means alfalfa clover if your are feeding horses it could mean alfalfa or clover but it could be grass hay bale up grass that has seed heads nutritional value alfalfa has lots of proteins so it's a very valuable crop it's easy to grow grow it to bale it and feed it to livestock not a byproduct of oats or wheat straw is a by-proudct reasons you grow hay is to feed it to livestrock more expensive heavier has a lot of protein in it protein breaks down into the could use a hay bale but it's more expensive breaks down quicker doesn't hold moisture as well hay bale you only get one seasons of growth he uses it mostly for mulch, he says you get weed seeds in the garden the if depends on when you cut the crop when you get to 3 times 4 times 2 times cut when you get to 1/10th flower so when one in ten plants has a flower with seeds are mature weeds that have mature seeds hopefully not too many weeds if you are balling like grass hay usually it depends becuase if you cut it a couple of times a year the seed has won’t mature If you don't cut it at all and you just cut it in the fall and bale your ditch grass, that could have all kinds of seeds in it sprouting standpoint depends sometimes same with straw if you get a really good combine that gets all seeds off when harvesting but if you have a combine that is not adjusted right you can get a bale of straw that has lots of seeds in it too happens early in the season prepping the bales getting to plant spray with a little vinegar and knock them back, then you don't have to deal with the weeds delights of straw bale gardening is you don't have to deal with weeds How does somebody...