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The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers
Acre-for-acre, flowers are the most profitable--as well as the most beautiful--crop on the farm. In "The Flower Farmer" expert flower grower Lynn Byczynski provides a complete introduction to raising a cornucopia of cut flowers for home use and for sale to retail customers, florists, and other markets. The book offers detailed, manageable plans for flower growing on a scale ranging from a backyard border to a half-acre commercial garden. It will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, including: Home gardeners who want growing tips from professionals, so that they can enjoy an abundance of flowers year-round in fresh and dried bouquets Passionate gardeners and small-scale growers who want to raise and sell cut flowers in season for additional income Small commercial farmers who want to increase farm revenue or even make a living from selling field-grown, specialty cut flowers. "The Flower Farmer" provides a clear, realistic look at both the benefits and the challenges of growing flowers organically for local markets. Chapters include information on: The best varieties of cut flowers--an A-Z list of more than one hundred recommended annuals and perennials, spotlighting the cultivars that are grown by professional flower farmers How to cut, store, and preserve flowers for long-lasting beauty How to dry flowers for crafting or for a dried-flower business Flower-arranging basics from a designer's perspective Extending the season with woody shrubs and trees Marketing options for commercial growers, including sales at farmer's markets, supermarkets, florists, and wholesalers. Sprinkled throughout are profiles of successful flower farmers--from Vermontto California, Texas to Wisconsin--each of them providing a unique perspective proving that growing flowers can be as profitable as it is satisfying.
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The Organic Gardeners Handbook
The Organic Gardeners Handbook" tells you everything you need to know to create a highly productive vegetable garden. Combining European tradition with American creativity it covers the art and science of organic gardening with a depth that is rarely seen in contemporary books. There are chapters on every aspect of organic vegetable gardening, soil dynamics, soil management, cultivation, composting, crop planning, raising seedlings, watering, harvesting, seed saving, greenhouses and much more. Whether you are a complete novice and need your hand holding through every step, or a veteran gardener with a permanent layer of soil under your fingernails, you will find this book both helpful and informative. A book that will soon be covered in dirty fingerprints. "The Organic Gardeners Handbook" is a companion to "The Vegetable Growers Handbook.
The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener's Supply Book)
With more than 80,000 sold since 1988, The New Organic Grower has become a modern classic. In this revised and expanded edition, master grower Eliot Coleman continues to present the simplest and most sustainable ways of growing top-quality organic vegetables. Coleman updates practical information on marketing the harvest, on small-scale equipment, and on farming and gardening for the long-term health of the soil. The new book is thoroughly updated, and includes all-new chapters such as:Farm-Generated Fertility—how to meet your soil-fertility needs from the resources of your own land, even if manure is not available.The Moveable Feast—how to construct home-garden and commercial-scale greenhouses that can be easily moved to benefit plants and avoid insect and disease build-up.The Winter Garden—how to plant, harvest, and sell hardy salad crops all winter long from unheated or minimally heated greenhouses.Pests?—how to find “plant-positive” rather than “pest-negative” solutions by growing healthy, naturally resistant plants.The Information Resource—how and where to learn what you need to know to grow delicious organic vegetables, no matter where you live.Written for the serious gardener or small market farmer, The New Organic Grower proves that, in terms of both efficiency and profitability, smaller can be better.
The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses
Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend thatas taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with "The New Organic Grower" published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine.Now, with his long-awaited new book, "The Winter Harvest Handbook," anyone can have access to his hard-won experience. Gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from "The New Organic Grower" and "Four-Season Harvest," this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.Coleman offers clear, concise details on greenhouse construction and maintenance, planting schedules, crop management, harvesting practices, and even marketing methods in this complete, meticulous, and illustrated guide. Readers have access to all the techniques that have proven to produce higher-quality crops on Colemanas own farm.His painstaking research and experimentation with more than 30 different crops will be valuable to small farmers, homesteaders, and experienced home gardeners who seek to expand their production seasons.A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it ajust canat be done.a
