Resources

Books:

Grow Your Soil!: Harness the Power of the Soil Food Web to Create Your Best Garden Ever By: Diane Miessler 

This short but full of information book is a great one to dip your toes in the No -Till world. Learn about how to improve your soil, what makes up your soil and why we should be paying more attention to it. 

The Living Soil Handbook  By Jesse Frost

This a must read if you really want to go No-Till. Jesse is a wealth of knowledge. Learn about living pathways, cover cropping, interplanting and more. 

Podcasts:

No-Till Growers Network

No- Till Flowers with Jennie Love 

YouTube/Websites:

https://www.notillgrowers.com/

If you are a visual learner like I am, check out Jesse Frost's youtube channel for so many good videos regarding, soil health, cover crops, amending soil, composting and more. 

While we are not certified organic, we will never use pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or chemical fertilizers here on the farm. If you ever see us spraying, you can rest assured it is an all-natural fertilizer. We are working more and more to use homemade foliar sprays with resources we either have on hand or that we can sustainably source. You also might be surprised to see some of our beds filled with grass and weeds. The reason for this? Because they’re serving a wonderful purpose: covering bare soil when the beds aren’t in use or decaying in order to give back to the soil’s food system. Here on the farm, we’re always looking to learn new ways to improve our practices. 

Books:

Podcasts:

YouTube/Websites:

We are always looking for ways to help our planet. Some of the ways we do this on our farm are reducing our plastic use, reusing resources, finding ways to help our pollinators, and planting native plants whenever possible. We have been working hard to get rid of any invasive species on our property. Although we have made excellent progress since moving in, there are still some that continue to grow. Grrr. 

Books:

Lawns Into Meadows, 2nd Edition: Growing a Regenerative Landscape By: Owen Wormster

Podcasts:

YouTube/Websites:

https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/

Products:

Soil Blocker

Worm Bins for Vermicomposting

Seed saving is easier than you think! If you want to give it a try yourself or do to as an activity with a little one, start with some easy flowers. 

Easy seeds to identify and save: Sunflowers, cosmos, dahlias, zinnias, poppies, celosia, marigolds.

When do I know the flower is ready?

If you need to wait until the flower is starting to fade so that the seeds have time to mature. So if you want to save flowers from a cut flower garden you will have to leave a few stems behind. Once the flower head has his time to mature and start to fade still in the garden, pick the flower head and let it dry out on a tray or container. Anything will do, just make sure to not add a lid. HOW LONG?

What able the wind or animals stealing seeds?

The flower does have to be pollinated to have viable seeds. Make sure you have plenty of pollinator plants near by for abundance of food and shelter for our favorite pollinator friends. Once you know the flower has been visited by plenty of pollinator friends, use an organza bag around the flower head. If you are anything like me you have at least one floating around the house whether in with your jewelry or gift wrap!

I have a dried flower head... now what?

Once you have allowed the flower head to dry out you can how harvest the seeds. You can discard any petals or stem debris that is still left. On a cookie tray or a terracotta saucer started to pull apart the flower head letting seeds and other debris fall into the tray.  Some seeds are easier to identify than others. You can always do a quick google search to seed see what the seed should look like. For bigger seeds like sunflowers you can most likely just pick out the seeds leaving the other parts behind. For smaller seeds like celosia for example using a terracotta saucer is helpful to sift out the extra debris. Gently blow on the seeds letting the flaky parts fall out of the saucer. The seeds will be heavier and will be left behind. (This may take a little practice but trust me it works!)

Seed Storage: 

If you remember you can save your previous seeds packages and reuse them for your saved seeds. Envelops, baggies, old PJ or jelly jars will also do! Just like any other seed, make sure to store in a cool dry place. 

And there you have it! You saved yourself $5.00 on seeds. Which if you are anything like me is $5.00 x 20... andddd then add the 20 more packets I casually see here and there that I NEED! :)