Profitable Market Gardening - Start the Right Way

There's never been a better time to start market gardening! Demand for fresh organic produce is soaring, driven by food 'scares' and movements like Slow Food and the 100 Mile Diet. When you add in the impact of modern tools and technology, and the use of the Internet as an information resource, it's clear this is a great time to be a market gardener!

However, as with any opportunity, there are some approaches that work better than others. I will let you in on a little 'secret' about an incredibly powerful method to start-up a market garden - Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

\"Organic Vegetable\"

What is Community Supported Agriculture? The government farming organization ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas) - has this definition of a CSA on their website:

Profitable Market Gardening - Start the Right Way

"In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production.

Members or shareholders of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land. Members also share in risks, including poor harvest due to unfavourable weather or pests."

It might be easier to say, 'customers subscribe to the farm, paying in advance to receive a share of vegetables each week throughout the growing season'.

Why is this a powerful model? Here's a few key points:

• Since customers pay in advance for the season, the farmer gets a guaranteed cash flow to help pay for start-up costs e.g. seed, supplies, equipment;
• Customers are 'locked in' for the season - once they sign up with your CSA, no other marketing required;
• This 'captive market' may also buy other products that you can provide
• No price competition - it doesn't matter what your neighbouring gardener is selling his produce for - yours is already sold (in advance!)

This is an incredible approach to launching a market gardening business. The advance cash you receive from customers could allow you you 'bootstrap' your business, with no money out of your pocket (except for the costs of finding those customers in the first place.)

How do you start a CSA? There are a few steps you should follow before you throw some seed in the ground.

1. Plan your business - set targets for number of customers you want to have, your desired income, and estimate your start-up and operating expenses.
2. Plan your garden - how much of each crop will you have to grow to satisfy your customers? How big will the garden have to be?
3. Market your garden - find a likely pool of prospective customers, and get your message out
4. Manage your garden - put in place the tools, methods and labour to grow and harvest your crops
5. Manage your business - set up a system to keep good records, track income and expenses, and garden production. This will help with planning for next year.

If this is your first attempt at market gardening, its a good idea to 'start small'. Perhaps just approach a few friends and neighbours, and ask them if they would like to receive a basket of farm-fresh veggies from you every week. Then follow the steps above to start up your own bootstrap market garden!

Profitable Market Gardening - Start the Right Way

Scott Kelland is the owner of New Terra Farm and author of several books on market gardening and business management. In 2006 New Terra Farm won the Premier's Award for Agri-food Innovation for their unique small farm marketing and management model.

You can download FREE e-books on market gardening and business building at New Terra Farm free downloads [http://www.new-terra-natural-food.com/download-SBI-books.html]

Mushroom Compost - 7 Organic Vegetable Garden Benefits

Spent mushroom compost, also know as "spent mushroom substrate" or "mushroom soil," is fast growing in popularity for organic soil amending. Crops thrive with 7 organic vegetable garden benefits of mushroom compost. Generally containing coconut hulls, hay, corn cobs, cottonseed meal, poultry manure and straw horse bedding, the pure compost is dark, rich and odorless.

1) Completely recycled
This compost is the discarded after mushrooms have grown in it. Fresh compost can only be used once to grow mushrooms, so the used or spent compost must be disposed of. One excellent way to recycle these "leftovers" is to nourish your vegetable garden. Considered a renewable alternative to peat moss, recycled compost can also help save the peat bogs' delicate ecological balance.

\"Organic Vegetable\"

2) Adds organic matter to the soil
Just like regular organic garden compost, microbial activity is created as it breaks down, creating humus. Excellent at breaking up clay soil, amend generously in your soil to create a rich loamy texture. Remember that all organics continue to break down. After a few months you may need to add a top layer to container plants. A 3 to 6 inch outdoor application is expected to last 2 to 5 years.

Mushroom Compost - 7 Organic Vegetable Garden Benefits

3) Drought resistant
Compost conserves moisture to plants by increasing the capacity to hold water, while aerating the soil at the same time. The fungal activity of previous mushroom growing creates a moist barrier against drought and searing heat. This is excellent for vegetable gardens by improving soil structure and saving water costs, especial in arid zones.

4) Controls Garden Pests
Mushroom compost is organic matter that creates good microbial action. Beneficial microbes in turn encourage beneficial insects, earth worm activity and discourage diseases. All these natural controls help gardeners avoid the use of potentially dangerous garden chemicals that can harm our earth and threaten our family and pet health.

5) Fast growing plants and vegetables
Research shows beneficial fungus or mycorrhizae work with plants to produce synergistic energy that results in rapid growth. Since spent mushroom compost used to host mushrooms, it is full of this good fungus and reports abound about fantastic plant growth. Naturally low in nitrogen, mushroom compost does not encourage over leafy growth, making it ideal for flower bearing plants like vegetables.

6) Weed free
Mushrooms must be grown in medium that has been sterilized and composted, so the left over compost is weed and plant pathogen free. This makes perfect mulch for vegetable and flower gardens, trees, shrubs and top dressings for existing lawns. With this compost you can be confident you are not bringing in unwanted weed seeds to compete with your plants.

7) Pleasant smelling
Properly made and stored, this compost does not smell bad. In fact, it has an almost sweet smell when fresh. Even that odor quickly dissipates once put in the ground. A refreshing relief for gardeners every where who may be used to cow or poultry manures as organic fertilizer. No longer will your neighbors shoot you dirty looks for growing organic. If spent mushroom compost has a foul odor, don't use it unless you re-compost.

Mushroom Compost - 7 Organic Vegetable Garden Benefits

Rhonda Abrons bags spent mushroom compost in Austin, Texas. For more information and a free sample of 100% spent mushroom compost, visit [http://mushroomcompostblog.com]

Organic Gardening - Do Grass Clippings Make a Good Garden Mulch?

The topic of grass clippings to be used as a mulch is a very common question. It is an organic matter and will add benefits to the garden if used properly, but there are things to watch out for.

Understanding the basic function of mulching is very important when choosing a mulch. When applied properly it conserves moisture from both rainfall and other watering practices. You need a mulch that won't mat down and shed water, it needs to be a loose, course texture and a structure to allow water to penetrate through to get to the soil. It also needs to be able to maintain a thickness of about three inches without matting to be effective. A three inch layer of mulch is a good thickness to apply for weed suppression along with serving as an insulator to keep the garden soil warmer in the cold weather and cooler in the hot seasons to protect the root system of especially shallow rooted plants.

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Organic mulches are a beneficial mulch to use because of there ability to add nutrients back into the soil as they decay, along with helping to improve the soils structure by creating an environment for the organisms that are beneficial to your gardens soil to survive.

Organic Gardening - Do Grass Clippings Make a Good Garden Mulch?

Grass clippings are a common yard waste that shouldn't be or shouldn't exist if proper lawn care is practiced. Mowing a lawn at the proper height, 2/12 inches to 3 1/2 inches in with cool season grass and 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches for warm weather grass and mowing frequently by only cutting one third of the grass plants total height with a mulching blade on the lawnmower will allow the clippings to be fine enough to decompose in place.By allowing these clippings to decompose in place they will add nutrients back into the soil for your grass to benefit from. Grass clippings alone will provide about twenty five percent of the nutrients that grass needs alone, they contain about four percent nitrogen, two percent potassium and one percent phosphorus.

Now about using grass clippings for mulch in your garden. The first concern is contamination from insecticides, weed killers and other chemical fertilizers, especially if they have been applied to the grass within a three week period of when you want to use them. There are insecticides that are not to be applied to vegetable plants. Compaction is another problem with grass clippings. They tend to compact tightly and get soggy. They don't have a loose structure to allow for water to penetrate to the soil easily. When applied in a thick layer, grass clippings will heat up during the process of decomposing. This can damage the root system of certain plants, change the soil temperature that can lead to poor plant growth, and the possibility of disease development. The best method when using grass clippings as a mulch is to compost them first by the method of hot composting.

Organic Gardening - Do Grass Clippings Make a Good Garden Mulch?

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

[http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com]