How to Beat the Weeds in a No-Till Landscape
Reducing your tillage or switching to an entirely no-till system can offer numerous environmental and economic benefits. Leaving the soil undisturbed reduces erosion and runoff, while also saving costs associated with labor and fuel required for tillage events. However, no-till also presents challenges, including increased weed pressure and nutrient stratification. If you’re practicing no-till or […]
9 Disease-Resistant Vegetable Varieties You Should Be Growing
The long, warm days of summer cause veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash to jump into overdrive. They seem to grow a few inches each day and begin cranking out fruits that demand near-daily harvests. Unfortunately, summer also brings unwelcome diseases. Pruning, trellising, fertilizing, and properly watering your plants decreases the likelihood they’ll become infected, […]
The Sweet Superfood You Should Be Growing
Sweet potatoes are great. It doesn’t come down to much more than that. Classified botanically as Ipomoea batatas, this crop has a longstanding history among people of the Americas, and that is largely due to its reliability and adaptability to changing conditions. As the climate shifts, more and more farmers find this crop is worth […]
How to Start a Permaculture Farm
Permaculture is an agricultural system that looks to the natural environment for inspiration and guidance. There are many different ways to implement permaculture principles, from mixing flowering annuals and leafy greens in a backyard garden to working with neighbors to collect organic materials for composting. If you want to implement these practices on a larger […]
Nutrient Cycling on the Farm: 5 Practices to Implement Now
Regenerative practices on farmland are not new. They have been carried out by people across the world for centuries. One important aspect of maintaining a regenerative agricultural system is nutrient cycling. It’s a closed system that emulates natural cycles inside the bounds of a farm or pasture. Most literature about nutrient cycling is related […]
Success at the Farmers Market: 7 Vendor Tips
The first year I worked at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market in Washington, DC, I was enthralled by the atmosphere and the dance between customer and farmer. I’d been to many markets before as a customer, but being on the other side of the table brought this experience into a new light. Since then, I’ve […]
5 Benefits of Growing Shorter Corn
Weather events and latent environmental stressors are making it increasingly difficult to produce good yields of corn every year. With these added pressures, scientists are working hard to develop new varieties that continue to produce despite them. One such development has been the genetic modification of corn plants to produce shorter varieties. Although they’re still […]
Protecting Crops from Heat Stress: 5 Pro Strategies
Careful timing ensures crops can handle a little heat. But recently, sudden heat waves and long-lasting ones in already warm regions have become more common, with predictions saying there’s more to come. For some crops, these shifts cross the line between stress and a fraction of normal yields. This is why adapting to the climate […]
Growing and Grinding Your Own Wheat: A Beginner’s Guide
When you think of lowering your grocery bill with homegrown food, wheat probably isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind. Tomatoes, lettuce, and perhaps a flock of backyard chickens often make the list, while this staple crop is often left to large-scale growers. The truth is that you can grow enough to make […]
How to Dry Farm Tomatoes for Improved Taste
If you live in an arid climate without easy access to water or just want to skip the work of running drip lines, it’s worth exploring if you can dry farm tomatoes. This type of growing involves producing tomatoes with no supplemental water. Since the top layer of soil dries within a month after planting, […]