A very detailed site to get ideas for growing food to feed a family or community.
Starting a sustainable small farm…how much to plant?

I recommend starting small. We started our first CSA on our new farm in the spring/summer of 2005, feeding 26 families on 1/3 of an acre with a troybilt tiller and a hoe. This was the beginning of what turned into a 100 member CSA after two years.

Imagine a ½ acre prepared into 4 foot wide raised beds. All of these beds are roughly 100 ft long and irrigated using T-Tape supplied with water by a 1 inch black poly header pipe (all above ground). Here is a list of what we planted the first season, with planting times for the season. This can all be adapted to your situation, but by keeping the beds all roughly the same, you can easily plan for more or less as you grow each year.

Irish Potatoes (Jan-Feb): 50 lbs. Red La Soda and 50 lbs. White Kennebec. Plant both varieties to see which one will do better for you. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate be 100 ft. row. We try to build the beds back up as they grow and mulch with old hay. We generally do not irrigate our potatoes, but rely solely on the rain.

Head Lettuce, Swiss Chard and Kale (Jan-Feb): direct seed 3 or 4 rows down a whole bed for baby greens or transplant for bunching. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate and 10 lbs. organic fertilizer of your choice.

Beets, Lettuce Mix, Arugula (Feb.): direct seed 3 or 4 rows down a whole bed for baby greens and repeat in 2 weeks. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate and 10 lbs. organic fertilizer of your choice. It basically takes a ¼ lb of seed to plant a whole bed of each (same with the Swiss Chard). You should get 2 cuts off of each bed, and then your second planting should be getting ready to cut.

Radishes (Feb): Choose at least two varieties, and plant a half a bed of each. In the spring we have found French Breakfast, Easter Egg and any of the early round varieties do best. Daikon and others are best planted as winter radishes in the fall. Fertilize and plant the same as the previous greens mentioned.

Tomatoes (Jan-Feb): Start your transplants indoors or in a small greenhouse. Early Girl, Celebrity and Romas are your staple tomatoes; you need 100 plants of each for the CSA. Heirlooms can add some interest, 100 plants would be a good start. This will give you 4 beds of tomatoes, which will all need to be staked and trained, planted in mid-March and early April. Fertilize each bed with 10 lbs Colloidal Rock Phosphate, 10 lbs organic fertilizer, 2 lbs. Epsom Salt. Mulching with straw would be a good idea.

Sweet Peppers (Jan-Feb): Start your transplants and plan for at least 200 plants or 2 beds. Members really like Bell Peppers like Big Bertha but we also like heirloom varieties like Marconi, Sweet Italia, Banana Peppers and Spanish Spice. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate and 10 lbs. organic fertilizer of your choice. Plant out in the beds after frost in early April. Mulching is preferred.

Eggplant (Jan-Feb): Start your transplants for at least 200 plants or 2 beds. Pingtung Long, Florida High Bush and Rosa Bianca are nice. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate and 10 lbs. organic fertilizer of your choice. Mulching is preferred. Plant out in the beds after frost in early April.

Summer Squash and Zucchini (Mar-June): Direct seed one bed of each, and repeat every two weeks. You should have at least 6 beds planted at different dates. This helps manage your harvest, and keeps you ahead of the cucumber beetles, squash bugs and other pests. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate and 10 lbs. organic fertilizer of your choice.

Cucumbers (Mar-June): Direct seed once a month to have at least 3 beds for the season. Fertilize with 10 lbs. Colloidal Rock Phosphate and 10 lbs. organic fertilizer of your choice. Market More is a good selection. Members also like Asian varieties.

Melons (April-May): Direct seed one row in a bed and thin to one foot apart after germination. Fertilize the same as the previous crops. We recommend 7 to 10 beds total. Try Isreali, Honeydew, and other interesting heirloom varieties. Plan at least a ¼ pound for seed and try to get a late planting in again in July for an early fall harvest. Mulching is recommended if possible.

Herbs and Flowers: Plan at least one bed of cilantro (Feb-Mar), and basil (April-May, transplants could be started in Feb), direct seeding a bed of sunflowers also makes a nice addition to CSA shares.

If you do not have access to a greenhouse the first year, another market grower in the area may have space to start your plants for you. You could supply them with the seed and have it arranged to be ready when you are.

While all this work is happening, you still may need time to recruit your new CSA members. Plan a Farm Day to show prospective new members the garden you are preparing and share the vision. I will discuss Membership fees and agreements in the next issue.

Also, keep in mind; this is your spring/summer field. It would be good to have another 3 ½ acres in a summer cover crop to get ready for the future, try lablab or iron and clay cow peas in sandy soil (20 lbs and acre), then you want to have another ½ acre ready to plant for your fall garden starting in late September.

Grab a seed catalog and start dreaming!

- Farmer Brad

Follow this link to see the full posting and read more informative tips on sustainable living. http://homesweetfarm.blogspot.com/2008/07/starting-sustainable-small-farm-how.html

Inexpensive passive solar greenhouses heated only by sunlight falling on 55-gallon barrels of water are effective for growing plants year-round, said a University of Missouri Extension specialist. Heat from sunlight is stored in water-filled barrels during the day and radiates at night, replacing use of fossil fuel, said Eric Lawman, an agronomy research specialist at the Bradford Research and Extension Center (BREC) near Columbia, Mo.

“Passive solar greenhouses extend the growing season and allow plant production year-round,” Lawman said.

Temperatures inside an experimental passive solar greenhouse at BREC did not fall below freezing during the past two winters, Lawman said, while daytime temperatures have reached into the 80s. There is a similar greenhouse at the MU Southwest Center in Mt. Vernon.

The greenhouses measure 24 feet long, 12 feet wide and 12 feet high. The 2-1-1 ratio is important for such greenhouses to be effective.

“It allows adequate surface area for sunlight and minimal inside area to lessen heat dissipation during dark hours,” Lawman said.

To capture as much sunlight as possible, the greenhouse has an east-west orientation, with a sloped south-facing wall. Geographic latitude determines the ideal slope angle; for central Missouri, the south-wall glazing should be about 45 degrees. The sloped wall consists of two layers of clear plastic spaced 6 inches apart. A small inflator fan pushes air between the sheets, creating a zone of dead air that serves as additional insulation.

The other walls contain fiberglass insulation sandwiched between metal siding on the outside and particleboard on the inside. The white, waterproof particleboard reflects heat into the barrels.

To extend the growing season, the greenhouse needs 2.5 gallons of water per square foot of glazing, Lawman said. For all-season growing, the requirement is 5 gallons per square foot. Thermostat-controlled shutters and exhaust fans remove excess heat as needed.

The greenhouse at BREC cost about $3,000 to build. “If you can build a shed, you can build one of these greenhouses,” Lawman said.

Throughout winter, growers can produce cold-season crops such as lettuce, carrots and strawberries. Some plants can be started from seedlings, he said. Construction details and photographs are online at http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-greenhouse.php.

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Original article link: http://media-newswire.com/release_1068542.html
How to build your own passive solar heated greenhouse http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-greenhouse.php

Insulated Greenhouse Covering

Wilmington -
Our flag might be red, white and blue, but green has become America’s favorite color.

Green has blossomed from a wee sprout of a vocabulary word to an impressive flowering tree of ideas. You’ve got your greenback dollars and greenhorn newcomers. There are ecological initiatives like Greenpeace supported by the political Green Party, which is fighting to stop the Greenhouse Effect. And countless writers continue to borrow the phrase “The Greening of…” from the original title of Charles Reich’s popular 1960s counterculture book, “The Greening of America.” Now we’re being told to think green, act green, buy green. Have I made my point? So go plant a garden!

 Gardening, in all shades of green, is suddenly huge. Magazine and news articles, TV gardening programs and hundreds of blogs, with headings like “You Grow, Girl!” have sprouted like corn seeds on mega doses of Miracle Gro. Take a fresh look around at local gardens, neighborhood yards, and balcony window boxes. After the long winter, we can feast on an amazing variety of blooms, breathe in the lush plantings, and marvel at the long lines anywhere plants or gardening supplies are sold.  

Joni Mitchell wrote, “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” Well, I don’t think there was much gardening going on at Woodstock but “yeah, man, grow your own, we’re ready for the country,” was definitely a mantra for the times. The more things change…

Maybe it’s the sour economy that’s driving so many of us back to nature. Or maybe it’s because gardening is a human activity that has so many great benefits. The fact is that there is a documented revival of small farms and farmer’s markets, grassroots efforts across the country to set aside land for more community gardens and lots of individuals developing their green thumbs by taking classes, buying seeds and plants, digging their own backyard garden plots.

A recent article in Business Week talks about “locavores,” local food proponents, and how they are being aided by the Government’s latest version of the Farm Bill. The article reports that $2.3 billion is being set aside for small farmers to grow specialty crops like eggplant, strawberries and salad greens, an increase from 100 million in the previous Farm Bill. The number of Farmer’s Markets around the country is up 50 percent from just five years ago. It’s extreme consumerism. More than ever we want to know where the food is coming from and we want fair prices.

Likewise, community gardens are all the rage, bringing people together in a positive way. Growing your own vegetables is a great return on your investment. City folk gardeners pay a small fee for their plots, but 10 cents spent on seeds can yield about a dollar’s worth of produce. Burpee seed packet sales are soaring and the Park Seed Company catalogue has been referred to as the gardener’s Bible.

Full article: http://www.wickedlocal.com/wilmington/news/lifestyle/columnists/x1165649657/Go-green-garden-style

Seed Sales Up, More People Gardening For First Time

Gas and food prices are sky-high and according to the USDA, food prices are expected to go up 6 percent this year.

Those high prices may be creating thousands of new gardeners.

The Burpee seed company has sold twice as many seeds this year than last. The company said half of the increase is from new customers.

Joan Brenckle, owner of Brenckle’s Farm and Greenhouse, said she’s seeing more first-time gardeners this year than ever before. Brenckle said, “They want to grow it instead of paying the high prices at the grocery store.”

Read the full article http://www.wpxi.com/consumer/16559489/detail.html

Food gardens a growing trend
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 06/11/2008 06:09:20 AM MDT

Seed sales are way up. Community gardens are long sold out. Calls for help to convert suburban lawns to lush raised vegetable beds are coming in to extension agents fast and furious.

Folks worried about rising food and fuel prices, and concerned about how and where their fruits and veggies are grown, are investing heavily in home-grown produce.

Soil, it seems, is the new oil.

“I’m not a psychologist, but when times are tough — like the mortgage crisis, the financial crisis and the energy crisis — people tend to think a little bit more about covering their bases and being self-sufficient where they can,” says Jim Dyer, who serves on the board of the Sustainability Alliance of Southwest Colorado and who gardens on

Junior master gardeners work inside the Cripple Creek community greenhouse. “This got started when a woman (from the area) called me and said, ‘People up here are trying to decide whether to eat or heat their homes,’” says Larry Stebbins, who teaches gardening to kids and adults in the greenhouse. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)a ranch west of Durango to feed his immediate and extended families.
Up in Cripple Creek, where the prices of gasoline and home-heating fuel are inching as high as the altitude and the nearest big grocery store is 25 miles away in Woodland Park, a community group commandeered an unused city greenhouse to start a garden.

“This got started when a woman (from the area) called me and said, ‘People up here are trying to decide whether to eat or heat their homes,’ ” says Larry Stebbins, who teaches gardening to kids and adults in the greenhouse.

The greenhouse plots are going fast.

Gertrud Wuellner, 41, a school bus driver, brought her four kids to a Wednesday morning class at the greenhouse because her sprouts are enthused about the garden the family started at home.

Read the full article http://www.denverpost.com/dnc/ci_9544778 

Growing in a greenhouse without any heat is sometimes risky, but with the right planning it can be done to extend your growing season by several weeks or even months. The article below is from a 1978 article in Mother Earth Magazine, but the lessons from decades ago can still be applied to our greenhouse in the 21st century….. 

We began our winter gardening in an unheated greenhouse almost by accident. A small seedling (or seed) got lost under a bench, and in early January, going by chance into the ice-cold building, we found a flourishing, lush, and sizable lettuce plant growing through a clump of dry leaves. It had survived, unwatered and untended, through several months of outside freezing, in a sheltered but chill corner of a cold glassed-in building.

If this could happen, uncared for and unbeknownst, why could not more lettuces, and other plants, survive, under better conditions, still without artificial heat? We were launched on an experimental period of greenhouse building and planting that has provided us with fresh green things through thirty winters of freezing and below-zero weather.

Without question, plant germination and growth is checked by cold weather, and only certain plants can survive. Very low temperatures will kill almost any growing thing eventually. But there is a wide margin, and our experiments pointed up the plants that will not be killed by low temperatures.

Almost all of our gardening experience has been in the North Temperate Zone, taking advantage of summer sunshine when we can get it, and taking cover as cold blasts from the north and east strip the foliage from trees and crumple down green crops in the garden. One of our chief aims in gardening is to find those plants that can remain succulent and edible throughout the coldest weather.

Read the full article here http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1978-01-01/Our-Sun-Heated-Greenhouse.aspx
 

Spring may be the time of year when our daffodils bloom, but with a little creativity and know-how, you can enjoy beautiful floral arrangements all year long whether you have a greenhouse or not…

Beutler also offers some great tips for cutting flowers to prolong their staying power. For example, some flowers like daffodils have sap in them that’s actually poisonous to the cut flower, as well other flowers in the same vase. Beutler says the secret is to flush the sap out of the flowers. “You need to put them in a vase of water for 10 to 15 minutes, then take them out. The cloudy water in the vase is because of the sap. Put fresh water in the vase and soak them again, until the water is clear.”

Foliage and branches also add interest to arrangements, she says. - Witch hazel and other winter branches can be cut early in the season, brought inside, and “forced” - coaxed to bloom early - by putting their stems in warm water for a few days.

Another favorite of Beutler’s is sambukus, or elderberry. “I like sambukus gold. The new growth is chartreuse. If you don’t keep cutting it, by mid-summer, it’s an average green. But if you keep cutting it, that new growth will be a lovely bright green.”

The Forest Grove News-Times, By Carl Grimm read the full article here http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/features/story.php?story_id=121078495991907500

It’s 9:30 on an early May morning, already well into the day on Lindentree Farm in Lincoln. A crew of five is planting cauliflower and broccoli in the field, while in the barn basement Susan Viskin and Marilyn Hughes, both of Concord, are planting tomato seeds in small pots.

Supervising the work is farm owner Ari Kurtz, a tall, fit man with gray hair peeking out from under a North Face cap. “A lot of this is like baking,” he says of planting, and true to his analogy, the pots will be placed on heated mats to germinate.

First, though, the seeds are watered in an adjacent greenhouse, which is filled with neat rows of what will soon be tomatoes, summer squash, melons, and herbs like Genovese basil. The food will help feed the farm’s crew and 275 members, including Viskin and Hughes, who have paid for a portion of the farm’s harvest.

Lindentree Farm’s community-supported agriculture program, or CSA, is one of more than 80 such programs in Massachusetts, according to localharvest.org, an organic and local food website that maintains a directory of CSAs nationwide. For an annual fee ($650 for a small share or $800 for a large, which can be split) and a work commitment of four hours during the March-to-November season, members earn a weekly allotment of organically grown vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. Members are vital to the farm’s success. In turn, they experience how food is produced.
By Ami Albernaz

Boston Globe Correspondent, May 22, 2008

Read more here http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/05/22/a_growing_interest/

More people are growing their own vegetables because of rising food prices.

Driving to the supermarket burns gasoline that is approaching $4 a gallon. And, once at the store, food prices are much higher than they were months ago.

So, some people are staying home and growing food themselves.

It’s the kind of thinking that is leading to a big year for companies that sell to fruit and vegetable gardeners.

Interest in growing fruits and vegetables picks up during economic downturns, experts say. Seed companies say a dime spent on seeds yields about $1 worth of produce.

Bad economic times can also mean more time to garden. For instance, people who cancel their summer vacations are around to water their tomatoes. The housing crunch also works in favor of vegetable gardens: If you can’t sell your home, you can replant it.

By BRENT BURKEY
Daily Record/Sunday News, Read the full article here http://ydr.inyork.com/ydr/businessfull/ci_9327843

Mindy Joy Schwartz is growing 95 varieties of tomatoes this spring at her urban farm and nursery in Wilkinsburg.Lenore Schwartz is sitting at a picnic table under a towering Norway maple tree, smoothing printed labels onto plastic plant sticks: Sungold, Chianti Rose, Mortgage Lifter, Indian Moon, Red Calabash, Green Zebra.

“How many varieties is it this year, honey? 86?”

“95 this year,” her daughter answers. “Next year it’s the Pittsburgh 100.”

Mindy Joy Schwartz believes she has discovered one of the keys to urban renewal, and it’s not government money, massive demolition or tax incentives for developers.

It’s small and red, unless it’s pink, purple, orange, yellow, white or green.

“The heirloom tomato is the draw that pulls them,” Ms. Schwartz said. “It’s the bait on the end of my hook.”

What she wants to hook people on is living sustainably on their own patch of Earth. It starts with growing their own food, which she already is doing using organic methods at Garden Dreams, her urban farm and nursery in Wilkinsburg.

Read the full article here http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08138/882540-47.stm

Saturday, May 17, 2008
By Patricia Lowry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When the first warmth of spring came calling, soft delicate heads of curly, wavy and frilled lettuces in bright sunset colors and tender green were sprouting all around Kris and Steve Van Haitsma’s Mud Lake Farm.

The farm’s two biomass-heated hydroponic greenhouses sit on the Ottawa-Allegan county line on land that has been in Steve Van Haitsma’s family since 1904.
 
Year-round, they grow more than 30 varieties of hydroponic lettuce, available through their community-supported agriculture farm, West Michigan Cooperative and area stores, including Sister’s Natural Foods, Grand River Grocery and Bill’s Best Market in Delton….

….Lettuce likes daytime temperatures below 80s and nighttime temperatures in the 50s. You can plant your seeds outdoors or, if you like, start your seeds indoors in containers — go for wide, shallow containers.

Treat them lightly — always tear with your hands. Salad greens with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar make the tastiest and easiest salad. An herb vinaigrette is another simple option. These lettuces are too pretty to wilt or puree, so use as a wrapper for fish and shellfish, in Asian summer rolls, as a bed for chicken salad and in fritattas and egg salad.

“Growing lettuce in your soil makes cleaner, tastier lettuce,” Van Haitsma said. “With grocery store lettuce, they take off so much of the plant that you only get the tight center. They take off the outer leaves wherever there are bugs or dirt, and sometimes that doesn’t leave you with much.”

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
By Jaye Beeler
Grand Rapids Press Food Editor

Read the full article here http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grpress/index.ssf?/base/features-2/121077093610091.xml&coll=6

A good soil-less system for growing lettuce is Emily’s garden and Solexx Greenhouses are durable, insulated greenhouses to grow lettuce throughout the year.