Hoop Houses for Every Grower


Book Description

**Hoop Houses for Every Grower Unlock the Secrets to Year-Round Gardening Success!** Unveil the transformative power of hoop houses with this comprehensive guide designed for growers of all experience levels. **"Hoop Houses for Every Grower"** demystifies the art of building, maintaining, and maximizing the use of hoop houses, ensuring your green thumb stays productive in every season. **Discover the Essentials** Begin your journey with an insightful **Introduction to Affordable Hoop Houses**. Learn the basics, understand the benefits, and explore how hoop houses can extend your growing season, providing a significant edge for your garden or farm. **Plan with Precision** Successful gardens start with meticulous planning. Dive into **Planning Your Hoop House** where you'll master site selection, determine the perfect size and shape, and gather all the materials and tools necessary for your build. **Construct with Confidence** Build a solid foundation with our step-by-step guidance in **Constructing the Frame**. From selecting the right PVC pipes to assembling a sturdy structure, you'll find all the tips and techniques needed for a reliable hoop house. **Protect Your Plants** Ensure your plants thrive by learning about **Covering Your Hoop House**. Choose the best greenhouse plastic, install it efficiently, and secure it effectively against the elements. **Optimal Environment** Control your growing environment with ease through **Ventilation and Temperature Control**. Explore both passive and active systems to manage temperature and humidity, keeping your plants in optimal condition. **Light and Soil Mastery** Maximize natural light and manage shade efficiently in **Optimizing Light and Shade**. Enhance your soil quality with **Soil Preparation and Amendment**, ensuring your crops get the best start possible. **Planting and Care** Dive into the specific needs of planting within hoop houses with chapters on **Planting in Hoop Houses**, **Irrigation Systems**, and **Pest and Disease Management**. Learn organic control methods and integrated pest management strategies to keep your garden healthy and productive. **Extend and Maximize** Extend your harvest with techniques found in **Extending the Growing Season**. Ensure efficient seasonal maintenance and uncover **Maximizing Productivity** with succession planting, intercropping, and high-yield crop selections. **Harvesting Know-How** When it’s time to reap the fruits of your labor, rely on the insights from **Harvesting and Storage**. Learn best practices for post-harvest handling and explore effective storage solutions. **Economics of Growing** Finally, make informed financial decisions with **Cost Analysis and Budgeting**. Break down your initial investment, understand annual maintenance costs, and calculate your return on investment with clear, practical advice. **Success Stories** Be inspired by real-world **Case Studies** showcasing small-scale farms, urban gardens, and educational projects that have flourished using these techniques. Embrace the full potential of your growing space with "Hoop Houses for Every Grower" - your go-to manual for year-round garden success. Secure your copy today and transform the way you grow!




The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower's Handbook


Book Description

The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower's Handbook shares best practices for both large- and small-scale production of the eight most profitable crops - tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, leafy greens, lettuce, herbs, and microgreens. Every year, more growers are turning to protected culture to deal with unpredictable weather and to meet out-of-season demand for local food, but many end up spinning their wheels, wasting time and money on unprofitable crops grown in ways that don't make the most of their precious greenhouse space. This book levels the playing field with decision-making framework that goes beyond a list of simple dos and don'ts. With comprehensive chapters on temperature control and crop steering, pruning and trellising, grafting, and more, Andrew Meffer's book is full of techniques and strategies that can help farms stay profitable, satisfy customers, and become an integral part of relocalizing our food system. From seed to sale, this book is the indispensable resource for protected growing.--COVER.




The Year-Round Hoophouse


Book Description

Design and build a hoophouse or polytunnel, and grow abundant produce year-round in any climate The Year-Round Hoophouse is the comprehensive guide to designing and building a hoophouse and making a success of growing abundant, delicious fresh produce all year, whatever your climate and land size. Chapters include: Hoophouse siting, size, style, frame construction, and tools Bed layout, soil, crop rotations, and extensive coverage of various crops for all seasons Organic solutions to pests and diseases Disaster preparation Tested resources for each chapter. The Year-Round Hoophouse is ideal for farmers who wish to move into protected growing, as well as beginning farmers in rural and urban spaces. It is an essential reference resource for professors and students of courses in sustainable agriculture, as well as interns and apprentices learning on the job. Growing in hoophouses – also known as high tunnels or polytunnels – reduces the impact of an increasingly unpredictable climate on crops, mitigates soil erosion, extends the growing season, keeps leafy greens alive through the winter, and enables growers to supply more regional food needs.




Sustainable Market Farming


Book Description

Growing for 100 - the complete year-round guide for the small-scale market grower. Across North America, an agricultural renaissance is unfolding. A growing number of market gardeners are emerging to feed our appetite for organic, regional produce. But most of the available resources on food production are aimed at the backyard or hobby gardener who wants to supplement their family's diet with a few homegrown fruits and vegetables. Targeted at serious growers in every climate zone, Sustainable Market Farming is a comprehensive manual for small-scale farmers raising organic crops sustainably on a few acres. Informed by the author's extensive experience growing a wide variety of fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to feed the approximately one hundred members of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, this practical guide provides: Detailed profiles of a full range of crops, addressing sowing, cultivation, rotation, succession, common pests and diseases, and harvest and storage Information about new, efficient techniques, season extension, and disease resistant varieties Farm-specific business skills to help ensure a successful, profitable enterprise Whether you are a beginning market grower or an established enterprise seeking to improve your skills, Sustainable Market Farming is an invaluable resource and a timely book for the maturing local agriculture movement.




The Year-Round Hoophouse


Book Description

Design and build a hoophouse or polytunnel, and grow abundant produce year-round in any climate The Year-Round Hoophouse is the comprehensive guide to designing and building a hoophouse and making a success of growing abundant, delicious fresh produce all year, whatever your climate and land size. Chapters include: Hoophouse siting, size, style, frame construction, and tools Bed layout, soil, crop rotations, and extensive coverage of various crops for all seasons Organic solutions to pests and diseases Disaster preparation Tested resources for each chapter. The Year-Round Hoophouse is ideal for farmers who wish to move into protected growing, as well as beginning farmers in rural and urban spaces. It is an essential reference resource for professors and students of courses in sustainable agriculture, as well as interns and apprentices learning on the job. Growing in hoophouses – also known as high tunnels or polytunnels – reduces the impact of an increasingly unpredictable climate on crops, mitigates soil erosion, extends the growing season, keeps leafy greens alive through the winter, and enables growers to supply more regional food needs.




Four-Season Harvest


Book Description

"Eliot is the reason I’m cooking. . . . I’ve followed that path because Eliot made it possible, and exciting, to farm in the four seasons."—Dan Barber, chef "There is hardly a more well-known or well-respected name among organic farmers than Eliot Coleman."—Civil Eats Learn season-extending techniques and eat the best food—garden fresh and chemical free—all year long, with little effort or expense. If you love the joys of eating home-garden vegetables but always thought those joys had to stop at the end of summer, this book is for you. Eliot Coleman introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. He shows how North American gardeners can successfully use that sun to raise a wide variety of traditional winter vegetables in backyard cold frames and plastic covered tunnel greenhouses without supplementary heat. Inside, you’ll also learn: Composting techniques Simple Mineral Amendments Planning and preparing your garden site Seeds for four seasons How to build cold frames, high tunnels, and mobile greenhouses How to cope with snow How to create a root cellar and other storage techniques And much, much more! Coleman expands upon his own experiences with new ideas learned on a winter-vegetable pilgrimage across the ocean to the acknowledged kingdom of vegetable cuisine, the southern part of France, which lies on the 44th parallel, the same latitude as his farm in Maine. This story of sunshine, weather patterns, old limitations and expectations, and new realities is delightfully innovative in the best gardening tradition. Four-Season Harvest will have you feasting on fresh produce from your garden all through the winter. "The man, the farmer, the legend, is Eliot Coleman."—The Atlantic To learn more about the possibility of a four-season farm, please visit Coleman's website www.fourseasonfarm.com.




Market Growers Journal


Book Description




Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden


Book Description

#1 Amazon Best Seller — Welcome to the farm! The Cut Flower Garden: Erin Benzakein is a florist-farmer, leader in the locaflor farm-to-centerpiece movement, and owner of internationally renowned Floret Flower Farm in Washington's lush Skagit Valley. A stunning flower book: This beautiful guide to growing, harvesting, and arranging gorgeous blooms year-round provides readers with vital tools to nurture a stunning flower garden and use their blossoms to create show-stopping arrangements. Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden: Cut Flower Garden is equal parts instruction and inspiration—a book overflowing with lush photography of magnificent flowers and breathtaking arrangements organized by season. Find inspiration in this lush flower book: Irresistible photos of Erin's flower farm that showcase exquisite blooms Tips for growing in a variety of spaces and climates Step-by-step instructions for lavish garlands, airy centerpieces, and romantic floral décor for every season If you liked Paris in Bloom, you'll love Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden.