Q: I am interested in straw bale vegetable gardens but I can’t find clean wheat straw bales anywhere. Several folks have told me that big box stores sell bales that are full of weed seeds.

A: Wheat straw bales inevitably contain a few wheat seeds that will sprout as your bales produce vegetables but that’s a normal part of the experience. The bales have few other weed seeds. You can scissor off the wheat sprouts when you see them and they won’t come back.