The No-Till Flowers Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Seed Starting, Regenerative Style with Lisa Mason Zeigler from The Gardener's Workshop Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

It's seed starting time! I'd venture to say this is what we growers are live for! Watching seedlings grow in the depths of winter is the best mood lifter. Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere are likely gearing up for your late summer sowings for cool annuals too. So it seemed like a great time to do a deeper dive into seed sowing with my old friend and seed starting pro, Lisa Mason Zeigler from the Gardener's Workshop.

Lisa literally wrote the book, called Cool Flowers, on starting seeds for early spring crops. She's been flower farming for 25 years and runs a seed supply house. She's also the host of the Field & Garden podcast, which you should check out if you haven't already.

In this episode, Lisa and I talk all about seeds. Everything from seed storage tips to creating a living soil with natural inputs to even a bit about sowing by the biodynamic calendar.

If you'd like to get my written out Regenerative Seed Starting Mix Recipe, join the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN) to download that today.

Lots of links to share with this episode:

The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman

Seed Germination Theory and Practice by Dr. Norman Deno (free download)

Biodynamic Calendar (make sure to set your specific location for accurate days)

A study about the importance of the first few days of a seedling's life and how they develop

Maxicrop (kelp product)

WCA (calcium input)

LAB (video on how to make it)

A study on worm castings enhancing germination

A study on worm castings improving disease resistance

TED talk on how bacteria "talk" with autoinducers

Past episodes mentioned in this conversation for further listening include:

Episode 21: BRIX with Dr. Tom Dykstra

Episode 15: Korean Natural Farming and JADAM in Flower Farming with Tony Gaetz of Bare Mountain Farm

Episode 16: Biodynamics with Erika and Ken from Teton Full Circle Farm

Episode 23: Bokashi and Worm Farming with Matt Arthur

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As always, if you appreciate this podcast and all the education it provides, please take a moment out of your day to rate and write a review for it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to it.

Finding Land and Evolving a Farm Business with Laura Beth Resnick of Butterbee Farm Jan 22, 2023

Show notes

Guest Laura Beth Resnick of Butterbee Farm in Maryland joins host Jennie Love again to discuss building and rebuilding a successful farm business over the past decade.

Covered in this episode are:

- Finding land to farm - Pros and cons of renting versus buying farm land - Funding sources for land and infrastructure - Making infrastructure decisions - Bringing goats to a flower farm - Finding peach of mind and courage in the face of big change and wintertime

Mentioned in this episode are:

The Regenerative Flower Farmers Network

Jennie's upcoming virtual farming cohort where she'll coach a small group of flower farmers throgh the spring.

Laura Beth's previous episode here on No-Till Flowers.

Laura Beth's online class about building a farm, including more details about funding.

A past episode on farmer burnout and mental well-being with Amelia Ihlo.

The "goat moat" fig guy, Three Fold Farm in Mechanicsburg PA (they have an earth battery green house too).

Farm Service Agency (FSA) for farm loans

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast wherever you are listening.

Find No-Till Flowers on Instagram @notillflowers

No-Till Basics: Bed Preparation Using the Deep Mulch System Jan 08, 2023

Show notes

Host Jennie Love walks listeners through a clear and detailed description of how she has prepared no-till beds at her farm over the seasons. She goes into particular detail about the "deep mulch system" that many smaller diversified farms use for no-till bed preparation. Jennie also discusses her own journey to getting started with no-till farming back in 2018. Water and weed concerns related to no-till beds are also disucssed in this episode.

Mentioned in this show:

Registration for the 2023 No-Till Flowers Farming Cohort is now open and you can sign up here.

Andrew Mefferd's book, The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution

Join the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network to read detailed articles on and see lots of photos of no-till bed preparation.

If you enjoyed this show, consider listening to these related episodes:

Please rate and review this podcast wherever you are listening so we can grow the auidence.

The Power of Pulse Watering: Effective Irrigation and Better Plant Health with Emma Horswill from Earthenry Farm Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to Season 3 of the No-Till Flowers podcast! Emma Horswill from Earthenry Farm in Tasmania joins host, Jennie Love, for a lovely chat that hits on several important regenerative farming practices.

The primary focus of this episode is irrigation, particularly an approach to it called "pulse watering". Other topics include cover cropping, fertigation, quickly imporving poor compacted soil using regenerative methods, creating a flower farm that's very asethetically pleasing for a you-pick operation, and converting a horse farm to a flower farm.

Links mentioned in this episode are as follows:

Earthenry Farm on Instagram

Dahlias in Australia: The Winkie Way (the book Emma used to originally learn about pulse watering)

The Regenerative Flower Farmers Network where members can download Emma's fact sheet on pulse watering.

Steve Solomon's "Complete Organic Fertilizer" recipe.

Daniel May's book The No-Till Organic Vegatable Farm

ARC Centre for Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture (Australian think tank for future proofing our farms)

Teeming with Bacteria by Jeff Lowenfels

Please rate and leave a review for this podcast as it helps us tailor the podcast even more to your needs and helps other listeners find it. Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content and conversations. And become a member of the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network to access additional detailed resources and live Q&A events as mentioned throughout the podcast.

Farming to Heal the Ecosystem with Dr. Doug Tallamy Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

Do you view your farm as a production space? A landscape that should generate x number of stems in x square feet for x amount of dollars each season? Many farmers do. In this episode, host Jennie Love encourages listeners to look at their farms as whole ecosystems that serves millions of lives, not just your own goals. Jennie is joined by author, Dr. Doug Tallamy, a professor in the University of Delaware's Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology. For years, Dr. Tallamy has studied how insects interact with plants and how those interactions impact the food web, right up to us humans. He's authored several books, including Nature's Best Hope, which is the main focus of this episode's discussion.

Farming is the single biggest land-use category on this planet! With nearly 50% of the earth's land being used for agriculture, every single farmer HAS to be part of the solution as we face down the 6th great extinction our planet has seen. Some of the actionable steps that Doug and Jennie talk about are to:

stop spraying pesticides of any kind
plant native plants
increase diversity of plants, particularly trees
leave your weeds alone
and stop manicuring your farm and let it get a little loose and wild.

If you enjoy the content you hear on this podcast, consider joining the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN), a community of like-mind growers who put the ecosystem at the forefront of their farms. It's less than the price of a fancy latte to join for the whole year! Members get special access to podcast guests and other exclusive content, including an article with 15 favorite tried-and-true native plants for cutting.

Please rate and review this podcast on whatever platform you are listening. It only takes a minute and your review helps spread the word about this podcast and its important message so we can effect even more positive change for our earth and our community. Many thanks for your help with that!

Bokashi and Worm Farming at Scale with Guest Matt Arthur of BLH Farm Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, host Jennie Love is joined by farmer Matt Arthur of BLH Farm to dive into bokashi and worm farming at a scale that can actually provide a large volume of high-quality compost and castings for a small farm.

If you've struggled with making compost on your farm or finding well-aged, herbicide-free compost locally, bokashi could be the solution you've been searching for! An anerobic fermentation process, bokashi does not require a carbon source and takes a fraction of the time to produce finished compost that the more widely-known and used areobic compost pile does. Listen as Matt explains why and how. Originally farming flowers, Matt has diversified his business in recent years to include a paid food waste collection service for his local community to support his larger-scale bokashi operation.

And that bokashi operation produces high-quality feedstock for his worm operation! He sells castings and worms locally and nationwide. Matt's inspirational system is very do-able for just about any farm and requires no large equipment.

Find Matt on Instagram @blh_farm and at his website: https://blhfarm.com/

In this show, Matt mentions 96 gallon "rollers". Here's a link to a video showing how to convert one for bokashi as well as where to buy the components.

Matt also mentioned EM-1. Here's a link to where to purchase it: https://tinyurl.com/musry4hh

Coming up on October 28th, 2022, there will be an in-person No-Till Flowers Field Day at Jennie's regenerative flower farm in Philadelphia. Click here to register.

If you enjoy the content you hear on this podcast, consider joining the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN), a community of like-mind growers who put the ecosystem at the forefront of their farms. It's just the price of a fancy latte to join for the whole year! Members get special access to podcast guests and other exclusive content. Matt will be answering questions about bokashi and worms live on RFFN in November.

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW THIS PODCAST WHEREVER YOU ARE LISTENING: this helps us grow our aduience!

Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for lots of content about regenerative flower farming.

Tackling Burnout and Farmer Well-Being Through Collective Selling with Amelia Ihlo Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to the first in a short summer series of episodes dedicated to farmer well-being. This is my 14th season flower farming and running a small business centered around such a stunning and stressful product. Every season brings its own set of challenges, most entirely out of my control. This year I broke a bone and strained a tendon in my left foot in late February that has impacted my physical and mental health immensely. I entered the intensity of spring planting season feeling hugely ineffective and burnt out. I'm used to those feelings in August each year, but never before had I felt that way in March.

Acknowledging burn-out and its source and making space for it is the first step to recovery. So I started talking about it with close farmer friends at first and then more publicly. As I did, I heard echoed back to me all the same feelings of exhaustion, anxiety and physical pain. I am definitely not alone. Nor are you.

My guest in this episode, Amelia Ihlo, is also a friend, which made this would-be heavy conversation flow easily. It's proof that talking to a friend can be a huge step forward when you feel burnt out. We both share our stories of and strategies for farmer fatigue. Amelia, the founder of Rooted Farmers, brings a uniquely powerful tactic to the table: collective selling. She talks about how flower collectives – or co-ops or hubs or whatever you want to call them -- have the capacity to snuff out burn-out. Maybe you're like me and had never thought about collective selling as a defense against burn-out, but it really makes sense once you start thinking about it in that way.

On the Rooted Farmers blog, Amelia and her team have put together a couple great post on farmer burn-out and health. Check those out here.

Two other resources are:

Young Farmers Coalition

Rural Health Information Hub

Neither I nor Amelia are mental health professionals. Rather we are two experienced flower farmers and business women having a candid conversation. If you need support for a well-being crisis or are worried about someone else who does, please call or text 1 800 273 8255 to connect with a trained crisis counselor.

If this episode makes you feel seen and you want to join a deeper conversation on farmer well-being, consider joining the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network, or RFFN for short. Over the past year, RFFN has developed into a safe harbor away from social media where all questions and scenarios are welcome, connections are made between farmers and experts, and experiences are shared so all members contribute to growing the knowledge of the group. Within that framework, we have a special space dedicated to discussing and supporting farmer well-being. Please join us there!

The Magical BRIX Number That Stops Pests - An Exciting Conversation with Dr. Tom Dykstra Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, host Jennie Love is joined by Dr. Tom Dykstra, an entomologist with over 25 years of experience in academic and field research. Predominantly, he has studied insect olfaction (how insects smell) from the standpoint of bioelectromagnetics and has proven a new theory based on the fusion of biophysics and neurophysiology. Dr. Dykstra has long been involved in the field of agriculture and pest control. He brings a unique perspective to the table that flies in the face of conventional agriculture's penchant for liberally applying pesticides. Turns out pesticides kill far more than the pests -- but we regenerative farmers already knew that, right? Still, it's great to hear a lauded scientist explain why pesticides are the undoing of healthy plants.

In this episode, we go into more detail about BRIX and how this easy measurement can be so meaningful to pest management. Through all his years of research with myriad crops and pests, Dr. Dykstra has found a magical BRIX number where, once that threshold has been reached, pests will not be a problem anymore! Listen in to learn what that number is!

In this episode, a few links are mention. Here they are for easy reference:

- Previous interview with Dr. Dykstra on the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast wtih John Kempf

- The refactometer model Jennie uses at her farm to take BRIX readings.

- The Wikipedia article on bioelectromagnetics for those who are curious to have a brief intro to the idea.

A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE EDITING OF THIS EPISODE:

We're so grateful to Dr. Dykstra for sharing all his nerdy knowledge. That being said, he did get super nerdy for a bit early on in this interview. Like super duper nerdy! We thought we'd loose a lot of you in the weeds if we started the episode with that. So you'll be jumping into the middle of the interview when you start listening to this episode. Keep listening alllll the way to the end to hear a lot of detail about how Dr. Dykstra has determined insects "smell".

Dr. Dykstra currently works as a consultant for Advancing Eco Ag if you'd like to pick his brain more.

This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN). Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming. On RFFN, you'll find a more information about regenerative practices for pest control and a nerdy community to talk more about BRIX.

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW this show wherever you are getting it. It really helps us grow!

Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content.

Thanks for tuning in!

The Everything Ranunculus Episode with Dave Dowling of Ball Colorlink Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

Host Jennie Love is joined again Dave Dowling of Ball Colorlink. Dave was on Season 1 of the podcast to discuss tulips in detail. Check out that episode if you haven't already.

This time we're talking for an hour about ranunculus cultivation. Because, you know, that's probably what you're doing right now! We cover a lot of ground in this episode, from considerations when ordering corms to pre-sprouting, variety selection, growing in crates(!!), harvesting, storing, and considerations for profitability.

In this show, we mention culture sheets for ranunculus that can help give some guidance for growers trying to dial in their ranunculus program. Here are three for your review:

https://www.unicornblooms.com/_files/ugd/73dfff_99320cb9eef54d1ba16fdd290cd9375f.pdf

http://64.41.82.172/pdfs/Ranunculus-Brochure-2017.pdf

https://www.green-works.nl/site/assets/files/10803/cult__info__ranunculus_butterfly_for_cut_green_works-1.pdf

Also mentioned in the intro of this show is our upcoming No-Till Flowers FIELD DAY! Join Jennie at her farm in Philadelphia on April 16th for a hands-on invigorating learning experience where you'll connect with many other flower farmers passionate about regenerative growing practices. Below is the link to purchase your ticket. If you can't make it to this event, stay tuned for another in July.

https://www.shoplovenfreshflowers.com/product/no-till-flowers-field-day

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PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW this show wherever you are getting it. It really helps us grow!

Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content.

Thanks for tuning in!

Breaking Down What Biochar Is and Why We Should Make It with Dr. Catherine Brewer Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

Host Jennie Love sits down with Dr. Catherine Brewer of New Mexico State University. Dr. Brewer (Catie) is a chemical and materials engineer who has devoted a good portion of her professional scientific career to studying biochar, particularly as it relates to processing agricultural waste to create a valuable farm input.

Biochar is a "fine-grained charcoal high in organic carbon and largely resistant to decomposition...produced from pyrolysis (burning) of plant and waste feedstocks" (Source IBI Website). It's been used for centuries as a soil amendment, particularly in the Amazon and when other indigenous peoples around the world had prescribed burns to areas they wished to farm.

Biochar resists further decomposition for hundreds or even thousands of years, making it a superb vehicle for sequestering carbon in our soils. It also provides excellent "housing" for soil microbial populations. Perhaps most importantly for growers, biochar is a great tool for helping even out water cycles in farm soils. Catie has great information about why that is exactly.

In this conversation, we learn how biochar can be used at a farm to "close the loop" and make better soils for future generations. This is a long game strategy, one that will be vital to the regeneration of our earth over more lifetimes than our own. Our flower farms can do so much more than just grow flowers and biochar is an example of that.

Mentioned in this show is the trench method for burning debris to make biochar. Here is a video by Bare Mountain Farm about how to dig a good trench and how to manage a burn.

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This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN). Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming. On RFFN, you'll find a more information about making biochar as well as a live video Q&A session with Catie.

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW this show wherever you are getting it. It really helps us grow!

Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content.

Thanks for tuning in!