LIVE OAK – The hum of a tractor’s motor fills the forest as a worker heaves an armful of pine needles into a rusted red baler. He flips a metal lever over the tawny leaves and pushes down sharply, ...

Baling, like eating onions, is something I wasn't fond of as a child, but like much better now that I'm an adult. While I viewed baling hay and straw as an odious chore when I was younger, now I look ...

This raised-bed gardening method uses straw as its primary growing medium. A straw bale garden uses straw as its primary growing medium, plus a small amount of soil or compost. This style of gardening ...

My sister Laura and Grandma Josephine tending the chickens on the family farm. Yes, that is a little genuine Minnesota straw in the foreground. Because the straw bale generates heat as the straw ...

When I moved into my new Philadelphia rowhouse, I was determined to grow the vegetable garden that had eluded me all those years in a cramped Manhattan apartment. But reality struck with the first ...

In this straw bale home, a half-wall has been creatively placed to provide divisions of space without spoiling the room’s spaciousness. Thick, rounded straw bale walls provide ample space for wide ...

CORVALLIS – A lack of space needn’t keep you from a bounty of fresh produce if you turn to straw bales for planting edible gardens. Straw bales take up little space and produce almost anything you can ...

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