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For those of you thinking of extending your season, you might like to give some thought to growing ecologically conscious Christmas trees. From my experience of growing trees for some 23 years, it is a challenging, creative and sometimes profitable venture that fits in nicely with vegetables, fruit and flower production. And once production is […]

Last year, we rented an Allis Chalmers G to cultivate our eight acres of organic vegetables. It came with a gang of four Planet Jr. seeders set up on ten-inch centers. Convinced that seeding from a tractor must be more efficient, we attempted to put the seeders to use, but we discovered – not nearly

A few years ago farmer friends decided to relocate to South America and sold all their farm equipment, including several rolls of landscape fabric. I was curious about this material but too frugal to buy a whole roll. We tried it, found it very helpful, and now own enough to cover our market garden. The

Some may believe that the groundhog foretells the coming of spring, but here it’s the pocket gopher that does so—and his arrival’s not nearly as celebrated. Before the ground has fully thawed and dried sufficiently for the tractor or hoe, the gopher has already begun nesting with young, pushing to the surface the detritus accumulated

Buffalo Organics, our farm in East Aurora, New York, has been a CSA since 1997. About 75% of our sales are to our CSA, the rest to two farmers’ markets and the local natural food cooperative. Our basic philosophy is that shareholders come first, and excess production is sold elsewhere.Our income, however, is inadequate and

When flower columnists Pam and Frank Arnosky wrote their last regular column in September 2001, Frank promised that he would send something occasionally “preferably from a bar in Costa Rica.” I happen to know that the Arnoskys are in Costa Rica, and I have checked my fax machine and email Inbox every day, hoping for

Although no-till production has been widely adopted by row crop farmers, reports of poor weed control and delayed spring planting may have deterred many organic vegetable growers from using this soil-conserving practice. We have found that ridge-tillage is an alternative that solves both of these problems by allowing for cultivation and providing a warm, residue-free

I came to be an owner and manager of a community supported agriculture (CSA) program completely by accident. My husband, Andy, and his business partner, Greg, operated a small organic farm. All of their produce was sold each week through a network of more than 20 farmers’ markets that ring the San Francisco bay area.

Greenhouse pest control using beneficial insects has become commonplace and much simpler in recent years. Availability of many beneficials has expanded significantly, and price has come down. In addition, research has established best control methods for many common insect pests. If you have never tried biological control in your greenhouse, this spring might be a

Greenhouses can arguably be considered an essential component for market gardens. Ten years ago we started off with a simple 10’x12’ homemade greenhouse for starting our transplants. We now have six commercially built, steel framed houses (12,500 sq.ft. in total) with another 30’x96’ poly covered steel structure planned for early next spring. At present, we