(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
Straw bale gardening is a way to grow food above the ground. Straw is what remains of the plants stems after grain harvests, the long dry tubes are gathered into bales. Bales are often about a meter long and half a meter high and wide. Straw is different from hay. Hay is made from whole plants and used for animal feed, straw is used mostly for animal bedding.
Joel Karsten wrote a book called "Straw Bale Gardens". He explains that this ancient and now increasingly popular idea is a form of container gardening.
"Container gardening makes life easier, these is no weeding, less issues with drying out. We don't have insect problem, we don't have disease problems that linger in soil from one year to the next."
Straw bale gardening
He says straw bales can require less water, and prevent plant diseases caused by too much water in soil.
"It is really impossible to overwater a bale of straw, because there is too much water in it, the excess water just runs out the bottom."
In areas with polluted soil, growing food in straw bales is easier than building above-ground containers for dirt.
Joel Karsten says his Facebook page has received a lot of comments, "Too moreover, the planted, it is kind of interesting, be heard their feedback from the Antarctic Circle, and New Zealand, and ones in the ? and ones in the desert, like Dubai, and Saudi Arabia."
Oats and wheat are the most common leading baled grains in the United States. Rice straw is also good for baling and gardening.
"We also have some people in different part of the world that use just baled up of grasses. Any type of organic material that you can bale up, very tightly into a bale form, will work for the massive of gardening."
The straw bales becomes both the container and the growing material. Preparing the bales takes about two weeks. The first step is to add water and fertilizer to the center of the bale everyday for three days, this begins the process of bacteria -- breaking down the straw into a growing medium. Once this happens, the bales are ready for seeds or young plants.
Some experts say planting seedling is better than growing from seeds. As the fertilizer and water break down the straw, the straw produces heat. This heat creates an environment that lets straw bale gardeners plant and harvest earlier in the growing season.
Joel Karsten tells the story of a women in the American South, Luna Dargosin of Tennessee used to grow food in the ground. Now she grows it in 2,000 straw bales.
"She used to spend 75 percentage of her time growing the crops, and 25 percentage of her time marketing and selling the crops. But now, she spends 25 percentage of her time growing the crops, and 75 percentage marketing and selling."
You can find plenty of advice about straw bale gardening on the Internet.
And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English, written by Anker Decker, I am Steve Ember.
译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.bale n. 大包，大捆；货物
I sat on a bale of straw near the fire.
我坐在炉火边的一捆稻草上。
2.linger vi. 徘徊；苟延残喘；磨蹭
The beautiful music is still lingering in my ears.
美妙的音乐依然在我耳际萦绕。
3.overwater vt.给…浇过多的水，给…浇水太多
The old lady advised the gardener not to overwater the plants.
老太太建议花匠不要给树木浇水太多。
4.seedling n. 秧苗，幼苗；树苗
She cut down the seedling with one chop.
她一刀就把小苗砍倒了。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
禾捆园艺是在地面上种植食物的方法，稻草是谷物收获后剩下的秸秆，长的秸秆包装成捆。禾捆通常一米长，半米高半米宽。稻草与干草不同，干草是整个植株，用来喂食动物，而稻草大多用作动物垫料。
乔尔·卡斯滕写了一本书，名叫《禾捆园艺》，他说这种古老的方法如今越发流行，是一种容器苑艺。
“容器苑艺种植很简单，没有草，作物不容易干掉。还没有害虫问题，不像土壤种植那样年复一年地出现疾病问题。”
他说禾捆需要的水不多，能预防土壤中水分过分引起的植物疾病。
“禾捆里的水不可能太多，因为一旦过多，多余的水就会从底部流出来。”
在土壤受到污染的地区，在禾捆里种植食物比在地面建造装土壤的容器更容易。
乔尔·卡斯滕说自己的Facebook页面有很多留言，“能看到来自北极圈、新西兰、以及迪拜和沙特这样沙漠地区朋友的反馈，真的很有趣。”
燕麦和小麦是美国最常见的禾捆谷物，稻谷的稻草也可做禾捆和园艺。
“世界各个地方都有人用杂草做禾捆，任何有机材料都可以用，把材料紧紧地扎成捆状，可以用作大规模园艺之用。”
禾捆可以做容器和种植材料，准备禾捆需要大约两周时间。第一步是，前三天里每天向禾捆中心添加水和肥料，这样细菌就开始生长了，将稻草转化为生长媒介。一旦进入这个阶段，禾捆就为播种和长幼苗提供了条件。
有的专家说，种幼苗比播种子要好。由于化肥和水将稻草分解，稻草会产生热。这些热量创造了使禾捆作物成长和收获提前的环境。
乔尔·卡斯滕讲述了美国南部田纳西州妇女Luna Dargosin的故事，她以前在地面种植食物，如今在2000个禾捆上种植。
“她以前花了75%的时间来种作物，25%的时间逛市场和卖作物。但现在，她只要25%的时间来种作物，75%的时间逛街和出售。”
你可以在网络上寻找很多有关禾捆种植的建议。
这就是美国之音慢速英语农业报道，作者安加·德克，我是斯蒂夫·恩伯。
