Growing Tips

There are few things that truly celebrate the summer sun more than a fresh harvested ear of sweet corn. This precious treat, along with the dent, milling and popcorns, is a true nod to what the summer heat and thunderstorms can bring. Corn is a warm-season tender annual that requires high soil fertility to produce uniform ears. Considered a cereal...

When it comes to growing crops, it is easy to look around at all of the living creatures in and around your growing space with suspicion and worry. While it's true, there are many organisms that become pests on farms and in the garden, there are multitudes of other beings that naturally occur in our bioregions that bring many benefits...

The abundant summer heat and sunshine is notorious for drying up soils and baking the life out of tender greens. While it might feel impossible to get your salads at the same time as your okra and tomatoes, growing greens in the summer is an option in almost every region. With a few management techniques, the right varieties and some...

Growing Lettuce in the Winter When we think of winter crops, we think of tough, leafy greens and durable roots that grow close to the ground and survive the low light and cold temperatures of winter, in part due to their robustness and strength. These crops are often delicious, sweetened with the frosts and hardy to the difficult growing conditions of the cool seasons. One crop that...

While we busily harvest the great bounty of fruiting crops, nutritious leaves, roots, flowers and herbs erupting from the garden in mid July, the sneaking thought that winter is coming plays like creepy horror film music in the back of my mind. We're all doing our best to can our tomatoes and make our cabbage into sauerkraut for use in...

There’s a new pest entering the scene and it is wreaking havoc on brassicas crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale. It’s called the swede midge and it's larvae feed off of and destroy the growth point of plants.  As a new and invasive pest that currently has no organic approved pesticides that work to eradicate it, early detection and...

There's no labor of love on the farm quite as time consuming and stressful as attempting to raise a healthy tomato crop. After years of honing in on a system, we find what methods work best for our spaces and what varieties outperform others. This cumulative experience of growing tomatoes, season after season, serves as the wisdom that ultimately leads...

The gardening season is here! It's an exciting time and has been made even more so by all of the new gardeners getting growing as a means of supplying their families and communities with fresh food. Below we've put together some friendly first-timer tips and, as always, we encourage you seasoned gardeners out there to share your wisdom widely and...

When it comes to market gardening, it can be difficult to find a balance between diversity and efficiency. Whether you're hoping to put together a beautiful table at a farmers market, attract restaurant sales, coops or local shops, or satiate the culinary curiosities of a big CSA, having a wide selection of different crops, varieties, and options keeps your operation...

No Till Farming When it comes to farming, there are endless examples of people who have turned their craft into a livelihood through innovations and techniques honed over time to create a system that is truly unique.  Often when someone in the farming community really taps into something special, the practices seep into the collective mind of farmers all over...