At my flower farm in St. Louis, Missouri, I grow more than 150 varieties of flowers exclusively from seed. I know that sounds strange in an era where many flower farmers get product to market faster by ordering plug plants, but I personally love the whole cycle of growing. It takes longer, but I really […]
Propagate your own dahlia insurance policy with "Pinchlings" Read More »
Talking yourself into sacrificing a cash crop for a cover crop is a hard thing to do on a small-scale operation where every square foot counts. When done well, cover crops can have multiple benefits like improved soil, fewer weeds, and reduced pest pressure. But there are risks with cover crops when they don’t germinate,
Quick-turn cover crops on an intensive market farm Read More »
A method for increasing your production on a small footprint Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Ben Hartman’s new book The Lean Micro Farm (Chelsea Green Publishing, November 2023) and is printed with permission from the publisher. In the book, Ben talks about shrinking his own farm’s footprint from an acre down to 1/3
Two-step bed flipping Read More »
This excerpt from the new book, The Winter Market Gardener, is reproduced with permission of New Society Publishers. All subscribers can get 20% off The Winter Market Gardener and all the books sold at growingformarket.com/. While the cold is certainly one factor limiting winter growing, it is not the only one nor is it the
Winter crop planning Read More »
How to work with its difficult characteristics and beneficial properties I grew up on a small farm about 12 miles from where I now farm in the high desert of Oregon (zone 6b). That farm was in the middle of the Grande Ronde Valley where there are 200 feet of “topsoil.” If asked about
Strategies for farming in clay Read More »
Back in the mid-1990s, I was at a SSAWG (Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group) conference in Austin, Texas. I’d been hired by Potomac Vegetable Farms (PVF) in Virginia to develop a satellite property with organic sweet corn as the main crop. That goal daunted me: 15 acres of organic sweet corn on ground that had
Making great compost at scale: The tried and true windrow system Read More »
Slowing down before returning to work On a busy September harvest day in 2012, our farm’s two employees drove in and out of the fields with totes. Meanwhile, my husband, Casey, and I were shut up in our farmhouse, curtains drawn, focused on a different project: the birth of our second child. Giving birth during
Birth and postpartum healing for the farmer Read More »
Three years after starting up our Oregon farm, my husband, Casey, and I decided it was time to grow our farm family. In April 2009, I found out I was pregnant with our first child. Looking at the pregnancy test double lines felt like the start of a whole new adventure in our farming life,
Farming and pregnancy: Balancing the physical and emotional demands Read More »
Growing lettuce in the summer is a challenge almost anywhere. The heat stifles growth and kills germination rates. The sun scorches leaves and rapidly wilts the fresh harvest. Summer is just not lettuce’s season. But fresh, local lettuce is as in-demand in the summer months as any time of the year, maybe even more so.
Summer lettuce lessons from Southern growers Read More »
Some flowers are more difficult to deal with than others. They may be hard to hydrate, particular about the time of day for harvest, or have an ideal harvest stage. We have eliminated some flowers that are overly difficult, such as basil and euphorbia, but there are some that we just can’t live without, so
Cater to the special needs of flowers at harvest Read More »
