Farming Is Not Big Gardening

Farming Is Not Big Gardening PDF Author: Thomas C. Mueller
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 152753457X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
This book is a light-hearted, yet informative narrative that discusses agriculture in the United States from a historical, social and financial perspective. It uses a storytelling technique to share the author’s widely varied experiences on food and farming as he sees it. Written in a somewhat satirical voice, the book contains a wealth of information, presented in fast-moving easy-to-read prose.

Farming Is Not Big Gardening

Farming Is Not Big Gardening PDF Author: Thomas C. Mueller
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 152753457X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 110

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is a light-hearted, yet informative narrative that discusses agriculture in the United States from a historical, social and financial perspective. It uses a storytelling technique to share the author’s widely varied experiences on food and farming as he sees it. Written in a somewhat satirical voice, the book contains a wealth of information, presented in fast-moving easy-to-read prose.

The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables PDF Author: Ben Hartman
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603586997
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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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.

Grow Your Soil!

Grow Your Soil! PDF Author: Diane Miessler
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1635862078
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Growing awareness of the importance of soil health means that microbes are on the minds of even the most casual gardeners. After all, anyone who has ever attempted to plant a thriving patch of flowers or vegetables knows that what you grow is only as good as the soil you grow it in. It is possible to create and maintain rich, dark, crumbly soil that’s teeming with life, using very few inputs and a no-till, no-fertilizer approach. Certified permaculture designer and lifelong gardener Diane Miessler presents the science of soil health in an engaging, entertaining voice geared for the backyard grower. She shares the techniques she has used — including cover crops, constant mulching, and a simple-but-supercharged recipe for compost tea — to transform her own landscape from a roadside dump for broken asphalt to a garden that stops traffic, starting from the ground up.

The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution

The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution PDF Author: Andrew Mefferd
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 1771422726
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Learn how to use natural no-till systems to increase profitability, efficiency, carbon sequestration, and soil health on your small farm. Farming without tilling has long been a goal of agriculture, yet tilling remains one of the most dominant paradigms; almost everyone does it. But tilling kills beneficial soil life, burns up organic matter, and releases carbon dioxide. If the ground could instead be prepared for planting without tilling, time and energy could be saved, soil organic matter increased, carbon sequestered, and dependence on machinery reduced. The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution is the comprehensive farmer-developed roadmap showing how no-till lowers barriers to starting a small farm, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, increases efficiency and profitability, and promotes soil health. This hands-on manual offers: Why roller-crimper no-till methods don't work for most small farms A decision-making framework for the four no-till methods: occulation, solarization, organic mulches grown in place, and applied to beds Ideas for starting a no-till farm or transitioning a working farm A list of tools, supplies, and sources. This is the only manual of its kind, specifically written for natural and small-scale farmers who wish to expand or explore chemical-free, regenerative farming methods.

Vertical Gardening

Vertical Gardening PDF Author: Derek Fell
Publisher: Rodale
ISBN: 1605290831
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Shares methods of growing vegetables, flowers, and fruits vertically with tips on choosing a site, composting, and controlling weeds, pests, and disease.

SPIN-farming Basics

SPIN-farming Basics PDF Author: Wally Satzewich
Publisher: Spin Farming LLC
ISBN: 9780615384092
Category : Family farms
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
SPIN-Farming Basics outlines how to make money growing common vegetables in backyards, front lawns,neighborhood lots or as part of larger acreages in the country. SPIN stands for small plot intensive, and SPIN-Farming Basics provides everything you'd expect from a good franchise: a business concept, marketing advice, financial benchmarks and a detailed day-to-day workflow. It is non-technical, easy-to-understand and inexpensive-to-implement and shows readers how to farm commercially wherever they live, as long as there are nearby markets to support them.

The One-Straw Revolution

The One-Straw Revolution PDF Author: Masanobu Fukuoka
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590173929
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm

The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm PDF Author: Daniel Mays
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1635861896
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
No-till — a method of growing crops and providing pasture without disturbing the soil — has become an important alternative to standard farming practices. In this comprehensive guide to successful no-till vegetable farming for aspiring and beginning farmers, author Daniel Mays, owner and manager of an organic no-till farm in Maine, outlines the environmental, social, and economic benefits of this system. The methods described are designed for implementation at the human scale, relying primarily on human power, with minimal use of machinery. The book presents streamlined planning and record-keeping tools as well as marketing strategies, and outlines community engagement programs like CSA, food justice initiatives, and on-farm education.

Studies in Canadian English

Studies in Canadian English PDF Author: Adam Bednarek
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443814555
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
This publication focuses on vocabulary, which reflects unique Canadian traits; elements that share not only a Canadian origin but also reference to everyday contexts present on both the micro and macro stage. The conducted study aimed to show variation on the lexical level, which may result from a fluid sense of national identity. The Toronto region, due to its extensive multi-cultural and multi-ethnic background bears a sense of diversity both on the social and linguistic ground. The conducted study involved the distribution of questionnaires, which tested speakers’ knowledge of Canadian register, their ability of using them in the context of everyday discourse and the identification of items. Furthermore, the author had obtained two years worth of texts from the Toronto Sun, which enabled the observation of Canadianisms within the written medium of a media context. The resulting data formed a database labeled by the author as the LCTES (Lodz Corpus for Toronto English Study).

Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening

Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening PDF Author: Will Bonsall
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603584420
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
"Society does not generally expect its farmers to be visionaries." Perhaps not, but longtime Maine farmer and homesteader Will Bonsall does possess a unique clarity of vision that extends all the way from the finer points of soil fertility and seed saving to exploring how we can transform civilization and make our world a better, more resilient place. In Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening, Bonsall maintains that to achieve real wealth we first need to understand the economy of the land, to realize that things that might make sense economically don't always make sense ecologically, and vice versa. The marketplace distorts our values, and our modern dependence on petroleum in particular presents a serious barrier to creating a truly sustainable agriculture. For him the solution is, first and foremost, greater self-reliance, especially in the areas of food and energy. By avoiding any off-farm inputs (fertilizers, minerals, and animal manures), Bonsall has learned how to practice a purely veganic, or plant-based, agriculture--not from a strictly moralistic or philosophical perspective, but because it makes good business sense: spend less instead of making more. What this means in practical terms is that Bonsall draws upon the fertility of on-farm plant materials: compost, green manures, perennial grasses, and forest products like leaves and ramial wood chips. And he grows and harvests a diversity of crops from both cultivated and perennial plants: vegetables, grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and nuts--even uncommon but useful permaculture plants like groundnut (Apios). In a friendly, almost conversational way, Bonsall imparts a wealth of knowledge drawn from his more than forty years of farming experience. "My goal," he writes, "is not to feed the world, but to feed myself and let others feed themselves. If we all did that, it might be a good beginning."