This is the story of the Bayless Garden. Well-known restauranteur Rick Bayless grew up in Oklahoma City, was closely involved in the family barbecue restaurant, went on to study the regional cuisines of Mexico and opened the wildly popular Chicago restaurants Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. Seeking sources of locally grown foods, Rick was instrumental in building a local food movement in the Upper Midwest. Ever moving forward, Rick sought out and found the perfect Chicago residential space to have a working organic production garden in his own backyard. The Bayless Garden was born!

For vegetable gardeners, straw bale gardening may be the best innovation since sliced bread.

Straw bale gardening essentially turns a bale of straw into a raised bed. It requires no digging or soil preparation. Because you’re not planting in the ground, you don’t have to worry about soil-borne diseases, and weeding is minimal. It doesn’t even matter if your soil is crummy or if the sunniest place in your yard is covered in concrete. You can achieve optimal growing conditions for a vegetable garden in a humble bale of straw.