I’ve been thinking a lot about goals lately. I always get a little anxious this time of year. Winter provides a little break for us, since the ground is frozen and our outside activities are limited to caring for the animals. But its a bittersweet kinda break because winter is my least favorite season. So
It’s important to set goals. When it comes to our market garden, I try to have a few clear objectives to work toward each season. We grow on 3 acres, partially for profit as well as for our own consumption. Every year, our desire is to get better at what we do. Better systems. Better
Ever struggle with not having enough time to do all the things? Yeah, I know how that feels. There are so many things that we want or need to do, fix, grow, build…and there never seems to be enough time to do it all. So projects get pushed out, or simply not done at all.
One thing is certainly true about all weeds. We hate them! I know you’re with me on this. It’s not necessarily the labor of pulling weeds that gets under my skin. It’s the time it takes to do it. When I’m pulling weeds it means I’m taking time away from other jobs that are more
Market Gardening has become the craze. Do a quick search on the subject and you’ll probably find someone boasting about how you can make six figures growing vegetables in your front yard. Thousands of YouTube videos have been made on the subject. Advocates like Curtis Stone and JM Fortier have made the idea of
When we were still in the dreaming phase of starting our market garden, the visions we painted in our head always seemed to include a few greenhouses. Large, beautiful caterpillar shaped vessels filled with flower and vegetable starts. Can you picture them? But as we moved into to our first year of production, we quickly
Here in Iowa its 10 below and everything has been frozen for a week now. Its times like this that April can seem so far away. But January is an important month for us, as its when we do much of the planning and initial prep-work for our market garden. Plots and crop rotation are
The warm days of summer might very well be behind us for now, but there are still plenty of things that need to be done in the garden. And if you’re like me, this is good news! I love the fall months for their rich change in color, crisp evenings and moderately warm afternoons. But
Well, spring arrived here in Iowa…and then it quickly slipped back into winter. The last couple days temps have plummeted back down to the high thirties. It was seventy-five last weekend, just to give you perspective. And while the rain is keeping us out of the fields, it is a necessary blessing. The radish, carrot
I’ve been thinking about ways we can extend our growing season. Why wait to plant in May when we can plant lettuce and other cold weather crops in March? And what about harvesting kale and Brussel sprouts in December or January? So I started building these cold frames that fit over the raised beds. They