Take a hint from Nature's flower gardens
The ideal flower farm is a picture of neatness: straight lines of flowers, identically spaced, each variety in its own bed. Neatness equals ease when it comes to weeding, irrigating, and harvesting. We aspire to neat fields in our current year’s production, and have recently switched to a system of wide beds with grass paths […]
Letters from readers: Plant patents should be respected
Plant patents should be respected I’m greatly disappointed that the Arnosky’s “Sell plants so customers can grow their own cut flowers” gives no mention of honoring Plant Patents and Plant Variety Protection rights. Especially when discussing propagation by bulbs and cuttings, considering legalities is a matter of professional integrity. Growers who make their livelihood selling […]
Letters from the readers: How to get nonprofit status
How to get nonprofit status I’m the manager of the Blacksburg Farmers Market in Virginia. We are looking to apply for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and I wanted to see if you know of other markets that have recently obtained 501(c)(3) status and/or if you know the language they used on their applications to the IRS. […]
Letters from the readers: Digital photos solve problems
Digital photos solve problems Whether it’s a digital camera or a regular camera with a CD of your pictures digitized, the benefits of electronic “pictures” range from showing customers a new product to sending insect damage to the University lab. Yesterday the ability to use and send digital photos saved me at least four […]
Trap crop perimeter deters cucumber beetles
Nelson Cecarelli of Northford, Conn., who often lost an entire season’s cucumber crop to voracious cucumber beetles, planted squash around his field perimeter, sprayed minimally, and harvested a bounty of cukes in 2003 and 2004. Cecarelli was one of about 30 farmers in New England to adopt a perimeter trap cropping strategy recommended by a […]
Spinach is growing in popularity, so market farmers make special efforts to grow it in summer and fall
Spinach has become a big crop for Paul and Sandy Arnold of Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle, New York – so popular, in fact, that they have started growing it in the cold of winter and the heat of summer so they can have spinach nearly every week of the year. “On a typical Saturday, […]
Community college trains students to become farmers in 2-year program
In the heart of central North Carolina, there is a unique, two-year sustainable agriculture program where students can practice farming on campus at the program’s land lab. Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) started offering sustainable agriculture as an associate in an applied science degree program in 2002, and since then it has become a harvest […]
How to treat powdery mildew on vegetables and flowers
As warm, dry weather settles in this month, be alert for the development of powdery mildew on crops. Powdery mildew is a common summer problem on many types of vegetables and cut flowers. But most powdery mildew can be avoided or cured with inexpensive, homemade remedies that have been proven to work as well as […]
Book review: The best book on pest control for market garden
This is the time of year when we often pull out Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower’s Guide to Using Less Pesticide by Mary Louise Flint. This great book was first published in 1990 and revised in 1998. Though not new, it’s still one of the best books available about organic and […]
More hours to work?
A proposal to extend daylight savings time to nine months of the year has been passed by the U.S. House and awaits action by the Senate. Under the House version of an energy bill, daylight savings time would begin in early March and run through November. The effect would supposedly be to save electricity in […]