Israel Drip Irrigation System

Understand your results. Remember, healthy soil reflects the fundamental principle of organic gardening: Feed your soil well with natural inputs and let that nutrient-dense soil feed your plants.

These populations are a little harder to nail down, but if Leslie's new book, with more 60 contributors, is any indication, there are more young horse-powered farmers starting up every year—hundreds, perhaps.

With adequate rainfall, you'll be set for success this winter. A cool-season pasture can dramatically reduce your need for stored feed and extend your grazing season through the winter months.

Rubber boots will also be useful—after all, you're working around a puddle!— and I personally advise wearing safety goggles if digging in hard or rocky ground. These channels, which don't necessarily have to be large or permanent, are designed to...

In the barn, fly-dirt left behind on virtually every surface is ugly, unsanitary and difficult to remove. Because both species reproduce in warm, damp environments, eliminating those types of favorable conditions is the first step toward keeping their...

Wetlands help to prevent flooding, improve water quality and sequester carbon. It includes such principles and farming methods as permaculture , agroforestry and, of course, sustainable agriculture.

Christmas trees need to be well composted at high heat if they were treated with herbicides, otherwise the herbicides could still be active and damage your garden plants. Additionally, live trees can be sold to landscapers and homeowners.

Rick Gordon/Flickr The main reason to join a farming cooperative is to pool your power and/or influence with other farmers to get better results in purchasing power, sales or marketing expenditures.

Sandy Soil Sandy, large-pored soils present their own challenge. Ideally, pores in the soil should hold equal amounts of water and oxygen, which are both essential for seed germination and growth.

Don't stack hay higher than you can safely move it—this is especially important when stacking large round bales. Store hay where it's accessible. Tags hay bales , hay storage , how to store hay , putting up hay

Fallen logs or timber might be useful for cultivating oyster or shiitake mushrooms. Farm landscapes are hardly boring—everything from your new goat shed to the chickens strutting across the yard to the neat rows of your garden tells a story of rewarding,...

New plantings need rapid, deep watering that is best done by hand. Apply water to slopes more slowly than to flat surfaces. This minimizes water loss due to runoff, wind and evaporation.

If you've ever seen a pig root out a mouse nest, you'll understand how this inclination can be beneficial, especially considering the animal's proficiency at clearing soil of grubs, grass, roots and rhizomes.

In contrast to more common agricultural ventures, many see the rise of aquaculture as a contemporary phenomenon. Aquaculture's ecological footprint is pretty small. Faced with the possibility of loosing his entire crop Nat says, “We didn't know what...

Tags hobby farm To wrap your head around the construction of an aquaculture pond, use the diagram below to jog the pond-construction thought process. Use this visual diagram of an aquaculture pond to consider the best way to build your operation.

American persimmons will ripen in late fall and drop when the weather turns cold, so if you can get your pigs close to a stand of persimmons at the point you need a jacket for morning chores, do it.

This isn't hard with baby greens and lettuces that bring in a high yield per square foot, but it can be a challenge for longer-season crops like broccoli, cauliflower, corn and onions, which take up a lot of room for a relatively small amount of payoff.

An easier route is to use the charts provided by seed companies (like those from Johnny's Selected Seeds ) and guides from your state cooperative extension (like Colorado State University's “ Sample Planning Guide for Raised-Bed Garden “).

The remaining preparations employ plants like stinging nettle, chamomile and dandelions. You can read the translation of Steiner's original lectures in his book, Agriculture Course: The Birth of the Biodynamic Method.

Go one step further and prevent rainwater from washing off of buildings and into the sacrifice area. Build The Footing The best sacrifice areas aren't just former pastureland that's being thrown into destruction.

“By going to the silvopasture system, I've been able to generate four or five incomes per year simultaneously on each acre of land,” he says. Forestry Management It's equally important that landowners are well versed in forestry management .

Going Organic: Rewards & Challenges With maximum production of monoculture crops as its goal, conventional commercial farming relies heavily on purchased “inputs” of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

“I [saw] an ad where someone had one horse; they stated in their ad that if you brought a container, they would fill it and call you to come pick it up. The stockpiling area needs to have a slope of 1 to 3 percent so runoff from the roof and any leaching...

Wait another few weeks before planting, so that decomposing greens won't tie up nitrogen in the soil. When you plan your garden, situate these plants in the sunniest spot, and near a wall or fence to act as a heat sink.

Mow Rotationally To reduce grassland-bird mortality, mow fields and pastures outside of nesting season, which runs from April to August for most species. Because these species nest on the ground and so much of their habitat is not in the public sector,...

Slimy film can still build up in the trough even if there is no visible algae. Water is an essential part of your livestock's diet. Obviously these situations aren't always possible, but if you can implement at least a few of them you'll save some time...

Planning different pastures with different grasses for cool and warm weather can keep animals grazing nutritious green grass longer. My uncle raises cattle, and it's a family joke that, when he can't be found, he's probably out talking to the cows.