Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK I planted a half segment (500 sq. ft.) of broad beans today. It took less than an hour. Once these initial plantings are up, I will wait for development, and then put in more sub-segment plantings right through June. By...
Courtesy of Adithya Ramachandran, Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, Dundurn SK Most farmers underperform at early spring markets. SPIN-Farming is based on generating strong cash flow early by targeting $1,000 weekly sales – in late April or early May – regardless of your growing zone. To do that you need to ignore...
Courtesy of Roxanne C., Philadelphia PA Farmers get attached to their soil for good reason. No soil, no business. They have to treat it right, and there are lots of groups and movements telling them so. They may be overstating their case, however, if farmers are starting to feel guilty,...
Courtesy of Adithya Ramachandran, Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, Dundurn SK When growing tomatoes in a hoophouse, think about how many plants you would grow on the same amount of space outdoors, divide that by 3, and plant only that number in the hoophouse. This is particularly important for tomatoes because they...
Courtesy of Adithya Ramachandran, Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, Dundurn SK, Canada High tunnels require farmers to become their own weather forecasters. In the Saskatoon area, tonight’s forecast low is -13 C (8.6 F). That’s a little too cold for most cool-season crops, so we spent part of last week laying down...
Courtesy of Roxanne C., Philadelphia, PA When you get serious about production, the first thing to go are those raised beds. Recently SPIN farmer Rex Landings cleared out the last of his. When you turn a garden into a business, you start using time and labor saving tools the average...
Courtesy of Wally Satzewich, Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK Companion planting is a gardening practice that dates back a long time. Traditionally, its purpose was to boost plant health or yields by growing certain plants together. SPIN-Farming puts that practice to use in business. As SPIN farmer John Greenwood...
Courtesy of Wally Satzewich, Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK In planning discussions the question frequently comes up, “If you want to make money, why not just grow the highest value crops?” It’s easy to go through SPIN 2.0 Crop profiles and pull them out – rainbow carrots, garlic, microgreens,...
Courtesy of Bryon Hall, SPIN Apprentice, Saskatoon SK I attended a weekend course to become a compost coach in my city. It was full of useful tidbits I will be using on my compost pile this summer. I’d like to share some of that information in this post! One of...
Courtesy of Jared Regier, Chain Reaction Urban Farm, Saskatoon SK Every bit of advice I encountered about starting a farm suggested not starting with any kind of CSA program in the first year. I did it anyway because it just seemed like the right fit for our farm scale and...
