I'm starting my organic vegetable garden in my new home this spring, and I plan to use the straw bale method inside of a raised bed for the first year or two to build up organic matter in the soil. After doing some research, I found that many gardeners have inadvertently poisoned their gardens with contaminated straw that had been treated with aminopyralid herbicides like Grazon. To add to the problem, composted manure of livestock that ate this tainted feed also contains the chemicals and can poison gardens.
For Houston gardeners who use the straw bale method or mulch with straw, where do you find reliably "clean" straw bales? And where do you find compost that you can be confident isn't similarly contaminated?
Of course, I plan to do some seed starting tests in whatever I ultimately buy, but I would like to hedge my bets by going to tried and true sources.
Thanks!
