Dear plant and soil tenders, in the past few issues of this magazine we looked at managing the soil’s micronutrients and pH. Those topics were micro. Now, our goal for deeper knowledge is macronutrients — those nutrients that plants use the most of. How could one writer possibly share some helpful theory and practical tips […]
Understanding macronutrients for macro impact Read More »
Welcome to Part Three of Growing for Weddings. Part Four will run in January. There’s a lot to cover so let’s go. Promotion You’ve done the research, now let’s get you seen. In Part Two, we covered crop planning and partnerships. Now that you know who you’d like to sell to, the next step
Growing flowers for weddings part 3: promotions & marketing Read More »
How to time plantings for regular harvests through the season The following is an excerpt from the new second edition of Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres (New Society Publishers April 2025) and is printed with permission from the publisher. Many vegetable crops can be planted several times during the
Succession planting for continuous harvesting Read More »
Office work is critical but rarely a priority For the first few years at Moonshot Farm in East Windsor, New Jersey, our hiring efforts were focused on physical labor, which translated to more revenue. Tasks like planting and harvesting were a priority for our growing team as they meant more flowers to sell. Administrative tasks
How and why to hire office help Read More »
Two sometimes misunderstood farm essentials There are few farm tools as iconic as the pitchfork and yet when most people come to my farm they don’t actually know how to use one, or even that there is a difference between a pitchfork and a digging fork. It’s small wonder as even just doing a quick
The pitchfork and the digging fork Read More »
Over the past couple of decades, winter-grown greens have increased dramatically in popularity, and subsequently in ubiquity. We are miles beyond the era of my grandmother’s northern Vermont childhood, where the hungry period set in during the end of winter and the beginning of spring, as the supply of stored food in the root cellar
Downy mildew: managing the scourge of winter-grown greens Read More »
Market analysis, crops and partnerships Welcome back, or thanks for joining us. This is part two of a four-part series on growing flowers for weddings. In part one from last month’s magazine, I shared about the changing face of weddings in terms of the new generation of engaged couples, a change of the guard in
Growing flowers for weddings part 2 Read More »
A new invasive pest coming to a field near you First detected in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2015, Allium leafminer (Phytomyza gymnostoma) is native to Europe and a potential threat to all crops in the allium genus. Since its first detection, allium leafminer has rapidly spread throughout the northeastern United States. Every growing
Blue flower magic If you have a cut flower operation, delphinium and larkspur offer that rare and hard to find blue flower. Besides cynoglossum (forget-me-not), bachelor button, and statice, I can’t really think of any other long-lasting, highly productive, and easy-ish to grow blue annuals. Blue flowers are magic when it comes to selling market
Delphiniums and larkspur Read More »
What it is, why you care and how to manage it Soil pH can have a huge effect on your plant health, but because it’s not always a problem it is often one of the lesser things to concern a farmer. Like many of the aspects involved in making a living growing direct-market crops, if
Understanding soil pH Read More »
