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 Healthy Vegetable Garden


Book Description

Whether you’re an experienced gardener, homesteader, or market farmer, this A–Z, soil-to-table guide shows you how to reduce chemical inputs; naturally enrich your growing ecology; and create a hardy, nutrient-dense, and delicious crop. "There are few gardeners (or farmers) I know who wouldn’t benefit from reading Sally Morgan’s new book. . . . The Healthy Vegetable Garden is a detailed and indispensable resource."—Hobby Farms In The Healthy Vegetable Garden, expert organic gardener Sally Morgan explains how to use natural approaches to cope with the challenges of a changing climate through principles from regenerative gardening, agroecology, and permaculture—all to help your green space thrive. The Healthy Vegetable Garden shows you how to: Combat disease and keep pests at bay with natural predators, companion planting, and trap and barrier crops Choose the right plants to attract pollinators and pest predators Build a healthy soil full of organic matter, earthworms, and mycorrhizal fungi Regenerate soil through no-dig practices, composting, cover crops, and mulching Boost biodiversity through the use of crop rotations and polyculture Rewild your garden by creating a range of habitats, making use of walls and fences, log piles, water features, and wild corners Understand plant defenses and use biocontrols Make natural barriers, traps, and lures A healthy, productive garden should work in harmony with nature to produce and protect delicious fruits and vegetables and build a rich soil that is full of life. With The Healthy Vegetable Garden, growers of all levels will start reducing incidents of pests and diseases while creating a verdant habitat—all without the need for fertilizers, pesticides, or weedkillers.




The Sustainable Vegetable Garden


Book Description

From the author of our best-selling and widely beloved HOW TO GROW MORE VEGETABLES comes this "quick and dirty" introduction to biointensive gardening that shows it is not only possible but easy to grow astonishing crops of healthful organic vegetables and fruits, while conserving resources and actually helping the soil. A revolutionary approach to feeding ourselves and nurturing the land, this book includes: - Step-by-step illustrations and instructions that make these techniques simple for even the novice gardener. - Everything you need to know about planning crops, composting, harvesting, and more. - Complete resources for seeds, tools, and other garden supplies.Feed a family of four on the bounty of your backyard, or just get more out of your garden with less effort with this wonderful resource.




The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables


Book Description

At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste--of time, labor, space, money, and more--every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include: Using Japanese paper pot transplanters Building your own germinating chambers Leaning up your greenhouse Making and applying simple composts Using lean techniques for pest and weed control Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food--the food your customers want.




Starter Vegetable Gardens


Book Description

Develop your green thumb as you learn to grow your own food. In this introductory guide to growing vegetables, Barbara Pleasant addresses common problems that first-time gardeners encounter. Using simple language and illustrated garden layouts, Pleasant shows you how to start, maintain, and eventually expand an organic vegetable garden in even the tiniest backyard. With handy tips on enriching soil, planting schedules, watering, fighting pests, and more, you’ll quickly discover how easy it is to enjoy your own homegrown vegetables.




Grow Food For Free


Book Description

Huw Richards set himself a challenge - to grow his own fruit and veg for free for a year. He succeeded and now wants to help you do the same. Can't afford a raised bed? Try repurposing an old wooden pallet. Don't want to spend money on buying plants? Look in the fridge and your kitchen cupboards for food that you can plant. Need a particular tool? Barter or borrow from a neighbor. Don't have a garden? See if someone in your area has an untended patch you can turn into a well-loved veg plot. Huw's Grow Food for Free has the inspiration and practical advice you need to start, grow, love, propagate and harvest your own fruit and veg organically and at zero-cost. This is real sustainability!




How to Grow More Vegetables, Ninth Edition


Book Description

The world's leading resource on biointensive, sustainable, high-yield organic gardening is thoroughly updated throughout, with new sections on using 12 percent less water and increasing compost power. Long before it was a trend, How to Grow More Vegetables brought backyard ecosystems to life for the home gardener by demonstrating sustainable growing methods for spectacular organic produce on a small but intensive scale. How to Grow More Vegetables has become the go-to reference for food growers at every level, whether home gardeners dedicated to nurturing backyard edibles with minimal water in maximum harmony with nature's cycles, or a small-scale commercial producer interested in optimizing soil fertility and increasing plant productivity. In the ninth edition, author John Jeavons has revised and updated each chapter, including new sections on using less water and increasing compost power.




Sustainable Gardening for the Southeast


Book Description

"A timely, accessible guide to responsible landscaping that convincingly explains how and why our home landscapes must participate in local ecosystems."--Douglas Tallamy, coauthor of The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden "By explaining the importance of individual decisions, presenting relevant facts, sharing personal experience, and providing specific strategies, Varlamoff inspires readers to transform their yards into planet-friendly landscapes."--Lucy Bradley, coauthor of Earth-Friendly Desert Gardening "Captures in clear, easy-to-understand language how our gardening choices impact the environment--from water to soil to the creatures that inhabit them."--Linda Nelson, president, National Garden Clubs, Inc. While issues such as climate change, pollution, and water shortages become increasingly difficult to ignore, the movement toward sustainability continues to grow. Even though most gardeners are attuned to nature, some common processes of garden maintenance can take a toll on the environment. Sustainable Gardening for the Southeast is a vividly illustrated guide that offers simple techniques to help conserve water, reduce pollutants, and mitigate climate change while increasing biodiversity and attracting pollinators and wildlife. Gardeners will be inspired and empowered to protect and enhance the local ecology as they cultivate a resilient landscape featuring native plants, colorful flowers and trees, and even organically grown fruits and vegetables. And for those who cherish their emerald lawns, Susan Varlamoff provides tips for keeping it green and environmentally sound. Gardeners in the Southeast--whether amateurs or professional landscapers--who want to implement sustainable strategies will find this book the ultimate resource for cultivating a garden that gives back to the earth.




A Greener Life


Book Description

'This is a clearly presented work, with accessible topic headings and plenty of good advice sprinkled with engaging personal anecdotes. The message at the book's heart is to adopt a greener way of being and to see oneself as part of nature, not removed from it. On this point it is exceptional, distinguishing itself from many of the green gardening books written in recent years.' The English Garden magazine 'Conversational, interesting, and personal ... it reaffirms the link between what we love to do and why we should be doing it with nature, the planet and our health in mind.' RHS The Garden magazine If you want a sustainable garden and a better relationship with nature, A Greener Life is the guide you need. Packed with inspirational images and practical tips, the book covers garden planning, organic composting and vegetable growing, as well as sustainable planting, rewilding and wildlife-attracting environments. Learn traditional gardening techniques like propagating and growing from cuttings to make your garden self-sustaining, and discover plants that attract hover flies, bees and butterflies. With Jack Wallington's warmth and expertise on every page, this is an ideal book for new gardeners seeking greener practices.




The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food


Book Description

The first graphic novel guide to growing a successful raised bed vegetable garden, from planning, prepping, and planting, to troubleshooting, care, and harvesting. “A fun read packed with practical advice, it’s the perfect resource for new gardeners, guiding you through every step to plant, grow, and harvest a thriving and productive food garden.”—Joe Lamp’l, founder and creator of the Online Gardening Academy Like having your own personal gardening mentor at your side, The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food is the story of Mia, an eager young professional who wants to grow her own vegetables but doesn't know where to start, and George, her retired neighbor who loves gardening and walks her through each step of the process. Throughout the book, "cheat sheets" sum up George's key facts and techniques, providing a handy quick reference for anyone starting their first vegetable garden, including how to find the best location, which vegetables are easiest to grow, how to pick out the healthiest plants at the store, when (and when not) to water, how to protect your plants from pests, and what to do with extra produce if you grow too much. If you are a visual learner, beginning gardener, looking for something new, or have struggled to grow vegetables in the past, you'll find this unique illustrated format ideal because many gardening concepts--from proper planting techniques to building raised beds--are easier to grasp when presented visually, step by step. Easy and entertaining, The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food makes homegrown vegetables fun and achievable.