About Joel

While still a Horticulture Science undergrad at the University of Minnesota Joel started a small business, planting flowers for his professors and their neighbors. That little business evolved into a full-scale design and build landscape contracting company serving all areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Born and raised on a tree nursery and crop farm in Southwestern MN, Joel has a foundation in horticulture and an entrepreneurial spirit.  He earned a bachelor’s degree and ten years ago became a garden book author and winner of the P.J.Redoute award for practical horticulture in 2014 for his best-selling book “Straw Bale Gardens.” Now an award-winning author of four best-sellers on Cool Springs Press for Quarto Publishing, Karsten is working on future book projects and speaking regularly around the world. His recent TEDx talk, “Let’s end world hunger with the STRAW BALE GARDENS® method,” has shattered records for downloads and received praise from many of the world’s leaders in the fight to end hunger.

Language/s Spoken: English