10/19/2026
Hi, Friends! As many of you know, we have a Demo Garden at Shortline Produce Co. This year, we grew tomatoes, onions, potatoes, radishes, spinach, beans, carrots,
flowers, cucumbers, peppers and sweet potatoes. It is an extension of our personal garden, where we've gardened this way for about 20 years.
We use STRAW BALES as the growing medium, and use the little demo garden as a teaching garden, offering it as inspiration, and hosting gardening classes for whoever wants to learn.
Today, we harvested one of the sweet potato plantings, amounting to an area 24" x 38", six plants total, of Beauregard sweet potatoes planted as slips on June 16.
Those 6 plants, which grew in 2 bales of rotten straw, gave a yield of a bit over 49 lbs of tubers.
There was no bending, no weeding, no cultivation, and the plants were fed 3 times during the growing season.
It was a spectacular yield of nutritious food for very little expense or input of labor.
We are pleased and happy to share a system that has been great for us, allowing us (in rocky ol' Cherokee
County) to garden on a productive level in a very budget-conscious manner. These IBC tote beds have been in use for 15 years, and show no signs of wearing out yet.
We're located at 26834 Hwy 82, just outside of Keys, OK. For now, we're open Saturdays and Sundays 10-4, until Nov. We will close for a winter break starting Nov 2.
