High-Value Vegetables
High-Value Vegetables

Author: Mel Bartholomew

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 1591866790

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Which vegetables should you plant in your garden? The answer really comes down to maths. It doesn't matter where you garden - in an allotment, in containers, in raised beds or straw bales, or in a Square Metre Garden - deciding which vegetables to plant is perhaps the biggest factor in whether or not your garden succeeds. While success means many things to many gardeners, there's no avoiding the issue of cost versus payback. Does it make sense to spend GBP3 and use up almost a metre of garden space to grow one cabbage when you can buy a beautiful one at the farmers market for GBP1? Author Mel Bartholomew has been a gardener and engineer for many years and he has learned this: Even in the garden, maths is your friend. In Square Metre Gardening: High-Value Vegetables, Bartholomew describes how to apply basic maths (and a little economics) to any vegetable garden and get some objective answers about which vegetables give you the best return on investment. In this latest book in the Square Metre Gardening family, Bartholomew ranks the vegetables that are most common for home-growing and concludes which ones give you the most value for your investment. He looks at many factors and makes hundreds of calculations, and the answers all become clear. And in the process he finds some surprises (tomato lovers will be pleased, but if you grow potatoes, you're in for a shock). In the end, though, there are so many things to think about when you're choosing plants - whether or not they are edible - but the truth is, you'd be a bit foolish not to think about ROI. With Bartholomew's new book, you can do it without ever taking out a calculator. You'll find the information incredibly valuable when it's time to plan your own vegetable garden. Plus, you'll find plenty of great tips along the way for maximizing the value you get from each and every crop you plant.

High-Yield Vegetable Gardening
High-Yield Vegetable Gardening

Author: Colin McCrate

Publisher: Storey Publishing

Published: 2015-12-29

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1612123961

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You won’t believe your eyes when you see the size of your harvest! In High-Yield Vegetable Gardening, authors Colin McCrate and Brad Halm show how you can make your food garden much more productive, no matter how big or small it is. You’ll learn their secrets for preparing the soil, selecting and rotating your crops, and mapping out a specific customized plan to make the most of your space and your growing season. Packed with the charts, tables, schedules, and worksheets you need — as well as record-keeping pages so you can repeat your successes next year — this book is an essential tool for the serious gardener.

The Urban Farmer
The Urban Farmer

Author: Curtis Allen Stone

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2015-12-14

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1771421916

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There are twenty million acres of lawns in North America. In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost. However, viewed through a different lens, they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity. Access to land is a major barrier for many people who want to enter the agricultural sector, and urban and suburban yards have huge potential for would-be farmers wanting to become part of this growing movement. The Urban Farmer is a comprehensive, hands-on, practical manual to help you learn the techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's). Major benefits include: Low capital investment and overhead costs Reduced need for expensive infrastructure Easy access to markets Growing food in the city means that fresh crops may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this innovative approach the next logical step in the local food movement. Based on a scalable, easily reproduced business model, The Urban Farmer is your complete guide to minimizing risk and maximizing profit by using intensive production in small leased or borrowed spaces. Curtis Stone is the owner/operator of Green City Acres, a commercial urban farm growing vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants, and retail outlets. During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers.

Square Foot Gardening High-Value Veggies
Square Foot Gardening High-Value Veggies

Author: Mel Bartholomew

Publisher: Cool Springs Press

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 0760350787

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Get the most return on investment from your garden by calculating which vegetables, fruits, and herbs give the highest payback. To make the selection process of what to grow easy, Mel Bartholomew -- author of the best-selling Square Foot Gardening -- has a new book to maximize your garden's return on investment. High-Value Veggies is an easy-to-use reference book that will help you choose edibles that make the most financial and spatial sense for your space. Explore the thought processes and math behind growing vegetables and herbs in order to craft the best plan for you. Maximizing your garden's yield is no simple task. Consider the tomato; most people think it's a safe bet for a high-yield return - but which variety? Heirloom tomatoes typically cost $5 or more a pound at farmers' markets. You can beat that price by growing Cherokee Purples from seed at a net cost of only 80 cents per pound. If you plant purchased seedlings, the cost will go up to about $1 a pound -- and that's including the cost of water and fertilizer. This is the kind of invaluable data and advice you can trust High-Value Veggies to provide. Whether you're interested in growing tomatoes, pumpkins, cabbage, corn, or anything else, it's wise to consider the invisible dollar signs sown along the way. The relative return on investment for each veggie in High-Value Veggies is calculated based on dollar value generated for each square foot planted. You don't need to be a math whiz to plan your next vegetable garden. Bartholomew has done the math for you, and he has cost-effective answers.

Sustainable Market Farming
Sustainable Market Farming

Author: Pam Dawling

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1550925121

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Growing for 100 - the complete year-round guide for the small-scale market grower. Across North America, an agricultural renaissance is unfolding. A growing number of market gardeners are emerging to feed our appetite for organic, regional produce. But most of the available resources on food production are aimed at the backyard or hobby gardener who wants to supplement their family's diet with a few homegrown fruits and vegetables. Targeted at serious growers in every climate zone, Sustainable Market Farming is a comprehensive manual for small-scale farmers raising organic crops sustainably on a few acres. Informed by the author's extensive experience growing a wide variety of fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to feed the approximately one hundred members of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, this practical guide provides: Detailed profiles of a full range of crops, addressing sowing, cultivation, rotation, succession, common pests and diseases, and harvest and storage Information about new, efficient techniques, season extension, and disease resistant varieties Farm-specific business skills to help ensure a successful, profitable enterprise Whether you are a beginning market grower or an established enterprise seeking to improve your skills, Sustainable Market Farming is an invaluable resource and a timely book for the maturing local agriculture movement.

The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables
The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables

Author: Marie Iannotti

Publisher: Timber Press

Published: 2012-01-11

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1604691883

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Growing your own vegetables has never looked, or tasted, so good. Are heirloom vegetables more difficult to grow than conventional hybrids? The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables debunks this myth by highlighting the 100 heirloom vegetables that are the easiest to grow and the tastiest to eat. Marie Iannotti makes it simple for beginning gardeners to jump on the heirloom trend by presenting an edited list based on years of gardening trial and error. Her plant criteria is threefold: The 100 plants must be amazing to eat, bring something unique to the table, and—most importantly—they have to be unfussy and easy to grow. Her list includes garden favorites like the meaty and mellow 'Lacinato' Kale, the underused and earthy 'Turkish Orange' Eggplant, and the unexpected sweetness of 'Apollo' Arugula.

Vegetables and Fruits
Vegetables and Fruits

Author: Thomas S. C. Li

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2008-01-24

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1420068733

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The modern synthetic diet, formulated to appeal to our inherent attraction to sugar, salt, fats, and calories at the expense of nutrition, leaves us over-fed and under-nourished. A considerable portion of chronic human diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, appear to be related largely to a diet that is inadequate in the essential vitamins

No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture
No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture

Author: Bryan O'Hara

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2020-02-21

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1603588531

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"No-till farming is the new best practice for preventing soil erosion, building soil biology, and providing growing conditions for vibrant, healthy crops. But for organic vegetable farmers and gardeners-and any farmer who wants to avoid herbicide use-the seemingly insurmountable dilemma with no-till has been how to control weeds without cultivating. In this thorough, practical guide, expert organic farmer Bryan O'Hara provide the answers. O'Hara systemically describes the growing methods he developed and perfected during a multi-year transition of his Connecticut certified organic vegetable farm to a no-till system. O'Hara asserts that this flexible, nature-friendly agricultural methodology is critical to vegetable farming success both economically as well as to maintain the health of the soil and the farm ecosystem. His methodology has proven itself over years of cropping on his home farm, Tobacco Road Farm, as well as other farms in his region, often with stunning results in yields, quality, and profitability. In No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture, O'Hara delves into the techniques he has experimented with and perfected in his 25 years of farming, including making and using compost, culturing and applying indigenous microorganisms to support soil biology, reduced tillage systems, no-till bed preparation techniques, seeding and transplanting methods, irrigation, use of fertilizers (including foliar feeds), pest and disease management, weed control, season extension, and harvest and storage techniques. O'Hara also explores the spiritual understanding of the nuances of the soil and a farm ecosystem and how that influences practical production decisions such as when to plant, water, and fertilize a crop. O'Hara goal is to pass on his knowledge to those who feel the impulse to make their livelihood in harmony with nature, requiring a relatively small land base of a few acres or less and little capital investment in mechanization. Home gardener and large-scale farmers will also find value in his methods. This manual will provides farmers with an advanced agricultural methodology not available in any other single book on organic vegetable production, a methodology that will allow farmers to continue to adapt to meet future challenges"--

Lost Crops of Africa
Lost Crops of Africa

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2006-10-27

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 0309164540

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This report is the second in a series of three evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply. The volume describes the characteristics of 18 little-known indigenous African vegetables (including tubers and legumes) that have potential as food- and cash-crops but are typically overlooked by scientists and policymakers and in the world at large. The book assesses the potential of each vegetable to help overcome malnutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and create sustainable landcare in Africa. Each species is described in a separate chapter, based on information gathered from and verified by a pool of experts throughout the world. Volume I describes African grains and Volume III African fruits.