Field and Garden with Lisa Mason Ziegler

Latest Episodes:

#109: Listen Again: Seed Starting Doesn’t Have To Be This Hard Mar 12, 2022

Show notes

Friends, I hope this episode inspires and encourages you! Seed starting is a challenge and our first tries don’t always work out. My experience sure didn’t.

I hope this reminds and helps you.

Lisa

The Field and Garden Podcast is produced by Lisa Mason Ziegler, award-wining author of Vegetables Love Flowers and Cool Flowers, owner of The Gardener’s Workshop, Flower Farming School Online, and the publisher of Farmer-Florist School Online and Florist School Online. Watch Lisa’s Story and connect with Lisa on social!

#108: Recap: Chat with Jonathan & Megan Leiss of Spring Forth Farm Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to the Field & Garden podcast, I’m Jessi Graven from The Gardener’s Workshop. Today I have for you some excerpts from Lisa’s recent Clubhouse chat with Jonathan & Megan Leiss of Spring Forth Farm. During this conversation, Jonathan & Megan discuss their recent business changes, farming with young children, answer audience questions, and offer a brief description of their on-demand online workshop, The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm. For more details and to purchase the course, visit their course page.

Discover Spring Forth Farm: Facebook , Instagram, Website

Are you on the Clubhouse phone app? Join Lisa's club, called Flower Farming,to be notified when she schedules new chats!

Thank you for joining me here on another episode of The Field & Garden Podcast, I’m Jessi Graven withThe Gardener’s Workshopand I hope you have a great day!

#107: Flower Farmer Reminder List Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, I'm sharing the reminders I wish someone would have tapped me on the shoulder to say: remember this!

If you are an avid gardener or as I was in the beginning, a gardener gone wild-- you can disregard this list.

These reminders are for those that want to build a successful, profitable business:

Remember the point: to spend less money than you bring in, better known as profit.
Flowers do not sell themselves.
You must get up every day and keep doing it.
Prevent weeds: paramount. (takes down many potential growers)
Grow what sells.
Stop comparing yourself.
Be a professional no matter what.
Every failure is a potential lesson.
You can do hard things.
Pick up where you are. STOP looking back.

I hope this reminds and helps you.

Lisa

P.S. I can't wait to meet you at school! Get on my waitlist HERE.

#106: Sunflower Sowing in Very Early Spring? Mar 05, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, I am sharing my journey of how I came to grow sunflowers and then how I pushed the envelope to get them even earlier in the season.

Mentions in this episode:

Amy's Garden Instagram

Request my webinar: Sunflowers For the Win!

ProCut & Sunfill Sunflower seeds

Hydrator: Quick Dip

The Field and Garden Podcast is produced by Lisa Mason Ziegler, award-wining author of Vegetables Love Flowers and Cool Flowers, owner of The Gardener’s Workshop, Flower Farming School Online, and the publisher of Farmer-Florist School Online and Florist School Online. Watch Lisa’s Story and connect with Lisa on social!

#105: Keeper Clubhouse Clips: Cool Flower Failures, Row Cover Debate, Grow Room Update Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

Hey Everyone! Welcome to the Field & Garden podcast, I’m Jessi Graven from The Gardener’s Workshop. Today I’ve pulled together some clips of Lisa speaking over on the Clubhouse app for your enjoyment. If you’re not familiar with Clubhouse, it’s an audio-only social media app, sort of like a group phone call but with more features. Lisa and I go on there once a week on Wednesdays to cover various flower farming and flower business topics as well as answer listener questions. Today I have for you a couple of great clips from our February chats, covering topics including Lisa’s cool flower successes and failures, a debate about row cover usage, and a rundown of what is currently sprouting in Lisa’s grow room.

On Clubhouse each week we include a link to more information on the topic we're covering, such as links to blog posts and webinar replays. Here are the ones that we included in these chats:

Webinar Replay Request: Cool Flowers Refresher

Blog: Seed Starting Schedule for Summer Flowers

Are you on the Clubhouse phone app? Join Lisa's club, called Flower Farming, to be notified when she schedules new chats!

Thank you for joining me here on another episode of The Field & Garden Podcast, I’m Jessi Graven with The Gardener’s Workshop and I hope you have a great day!

#104: Easy Indoor Seed Starting with Soil Blocking: The Journey Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, I'm walking down memory lane of how I came to be such an avid soil blocker seed starter.

I'm sharing how I learned about this method that the Dutch and English have used for decades to start seeds and the journey of tweaking it into a tabletop seed starting method.

Mentions in this episode:

The book The Flower Farmer by Lynn Byczynski
The book The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman
Soil blocking and seed starting equipment

Why I use soil blocking:

Super easy to use inside of a home
No transplant shock
High rate of germination
Grow a lot of transplants in a small space
Transplants grow fast
Plant and handle earlier
No thinning or potting up
Once equipped with the tools just add blocking mix and seeds each season.

The discovery and pursuit of soil blocking allowed me to launch my cut-flower farm. Sharing this revolutionary in-home easy seed starting method with soil blocking surely changed the course of my life.

Thanks for letting me walk down memory lane!

Lisa

#103: Cool Flowers In The Ground Feb 26, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, I'm sharing what I'm doing and thinking about with my Cool Flowers garden in very early spring. Remembering to make simple notes on the calendar is so helpful the next time around to refer back to.

Fall Planting Checkin

What made it?
When to remove covers?
Weeding, support, and feeding

Very Early Spring Planting

Deciding factors on what to plant in VES?
Why I don't direct seed in VES.
Later blooms, support and feeding

When the Blooms Start

Make notes on first blooms!
Having a cooler or at least a cellar or AC room is beneficial

Learn more about growing Cool Flowers.

#102: Recap: Andrew Mefferd reviews The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm On-Demand Workshop Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

Hello and welcome to another special episode of the Field & Garden podcast! I’m Jessi Graven from The Gardener’s Workshop. I’m here today to continue what we started last week, the recap of the panel discussion and review of The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm online workshop. If you missed last week’s podcast that featured Jennie Love’s review of the workshop, you can find that on our website or wherever you listen to podcasts, it’s episode #100.

So as you may know, we offer an On-Demand Workshop called The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm with Jonathan & Megan Leiss of Spring Forth Farm. Jonathan & Megan’s workshop offers over 4.5 hours of instruction on their no-till practices and micro-scale farming techniques. When the course first launched, Lisa Ziegler invited industry professionals to review the course and attend an online panel discussion.

Today I have for you an excerpt from that discussion featuring Andrew Mefferd. Andrew is the editor and publisher of Growing for Market magazine as well as the author of the book The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution. Andrew has spent over 15 years working on farms, including a year working on a no-till research farm, and seven years in the research department at Johnny's Selected Seeds. We loved hearing his insights about this workshop, and I hope you will too.

*Special Announcement* Jonathan & Megan Leiss are hosting a LIVE Q&A session on Earth Day! (Friday, April 22, 2022) ALL students of their workshop are invited to attend, and we hope to see you there! Details will be emailed beforehand to everyone who has purchased the workshop. NOW is a great time to purchase the workshop if you haven’t already, dive into the material, and get your questions ready for the LIVE Q&A.

More info is available on our website: About the No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm On-Demand Workshop

To learn more about Spring Forth Farm: Instagram, Facebook, Website, View the full-length panel discussion

#101: The Truth About Seed Starting Feb 22, 2022

Show notes

Enjoy this short podcast to get relieved of the pressure to start seeds now—

In the episode, I share the reality that this rush and pressure we feel to start seeds in early spring is a result of marketing--it is not the only time to start seeds! Many of us could really start seeds 12 months of the year.

Hope this gives you the nudge to jump on where you are and not feel behind.

Hosted with Lisa Mason Ziegler

The Gardener’s Workshop and Flower Farming School Online and the publisher of Farmer-Florist School Online and Florist School Online. Award-winning Author of Vegetables Love Flowers and Cool Flowers. Watch Lisa’s Story and view her blog Field & Garden. Connect with Lisa on Facebook and Instagram!

#97: Flower Colors For Your Market with Jonathan Leiss Feb 19, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Jonathan Leiss of Spring Forth Farm and I discuss how his focus on flower colors is directly connected to what his customers want and need. His specialized business model is harvesting and selling flowers in early spring to early summer when demand and profits are high. This model allows them to fully embrace their homesteading lifestyle and pursue a business that fits their family.

To learn more about Spring Forth Farm:

Instagram Facebook Website

Jonathan and Megan's online course: The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm

Flowers mentioned in our discussion:

Here's a list of the white flowers we grow:

Ammi majus
Anemones Galilee White -- most profitable crop on our farm
Campanula Champion White
Dianthus Bodestolz White
Digitalis Camelot White or Cream
Larkspur -- any series they all seem similar to us
Oralya
Peonies -- varieties appropriate for your climate
Ranunculus -- Amandine White, Half-Clone Iceberg
Saponaria White -- favorite filler of all time
Snapdragons Chantilly White, Madame Butterfly Ivory
Stock Noble White, Cheerful White, Cheerful Midseason White (all high double -- we found the HD Katz White to have weak necks)

We no longer grow:

White Yarrow (the regular millefolium white -- heads not large enough for our market)
Agrostemma -- pain in the butt to harvest
Lisianthus -- amazing white varieties available, but don't fit into our season. We grew ABC but there are lots of new options
Godetia White -- we grow other colors. The white was a little boring and didn't sell well

Hosted by Lisa Ziegler

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Field and Garden with Lisa Mason Ziegler

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected