Archive

Native plant nursery part 3: Equipment, labor, pricing and restoration projects

This final article in a series of three about a native plant nursery business focuses on equipment, labor, pricing, opportunities, and restoration projects. As with the January and February 2023 GFM articles, it centers on my neighbors, mentors, and dear friends Sandy Roth and Dick Kenton who started Plant Works in 1996 in rural La

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Potting mix remixed: The dark side and solutions for these widely used materials

Potting mix, called “potting soil” in the United States and “potting compost” in the United Kingdom, often contains no soil, no compost, and is not even always used in pots. Instead, the material farmers mix themselves or buy in bulk every winter is actually a sterile, soil-less mix of organic and inorganic materials meant to

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Designing and Building A Passive Solar Propagation House

When we started our farm in 2018, we built a small, unheated greenhouse with plans for something larger the following season, but those plans were derailed by more pressing farm projects, building a website, and, well, farming. We managed somewhat successfully with our cheaply built greenhouse using PVC and greenhouse plastic. Looking back, I can’t

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Farm Bill programs up for review have an impact on market farmers

Part I: Overview, Land, and Markets The market farm I manage has been, like all farms, significantly shaped by programs in the Farm Bill. Some impacts are easy to trace. Our high tunnel, where tomatoes yield three times better than our field tomatoes, and our 8-foot fence, which presents a thin line between lush lettuce

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Native plant nursery part 2: Propagation and growing

This second of three articles featuring a native plant nursery business focuses on propagation and growing techniques. My neighbors, mentors, and dear friends, Sandy Roth and Dick Kenton, started Plant Works native plant nursery in 1996 in rural La Grande, Oregon. We hope these articles encourage others to grow native plants and work in restoration.

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