Orchard Supplies

In this DVD—a culmination of workshops recorded in Mexico, Florida, and Massachusetts—plant specialist Eric Toensmeier introduces gardeners to more than 100 species of little-known, underappreciated plants. Ranging beyond the usual suspects (asparagus, rhubarb, and artichoke) to include such delights as ground cherry, ramps, air potatoes, the fragrant spring tree, and the much-sought-after, antioxidant-rich wolfberry (also known as the goji berry), Toensmeier explains how to raise, tend, harvest, and cook with plants that yield great crops and culinary satisfaction. Toensmeier also takes viewers on a plant-by-plant tour of his garden in Massachusetts.

Author and plant specialist Eric Toensmeier (Edible Forest Gardens) introduces gardeners to a world of little-known and wholly underappreciated plants. Perennial vegetables are perfect as part of an edible landscape plan or permaculture garden.

Profiling more than 100 species, illustrated with dozens of color photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, Perennial Vegetables is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.

Fueled by a failing economy and a passionate desire for a return to simpler times, a new wave of homesteaders is seeking the good life, and the kind of true satisfaction that can only be built, not bought. Many of these modern pioneers are cash poor, but rich in energy and creativity. Plowing with Pigs and Other Creative, Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions offers them a set of fresh ideas for achieving independence through sweat equity and the use of unconventional resources.

This highly readable and entertaining guide brings together answers to common problems faced by homesteaders young and old, urban, suburban, and rural. Traditional knowledge is combined with MacGyver-style ingenuity to create projects that maximize available resources, including:

• Animal management strategies for the yard, garden, and field 
• Pole building and construction techniques from woodlot materials, including living fence how-to 
• Replacing farm machinery with homemade hand tools and implements 
• Leveraging increased self-sufficiency into a home-based business.

Whether you are a dreamer or a doer, Plowing with Pigs will inspire, challenge, and enable you to do more with less (and have fun doing it).

Paperback – 272 pages
7.5 Inches × 9 Inches (w × h)

Weight: 705 Grams
BISAC: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Agriculture / Sustainable Agriculture
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 9780865717176
Pub. Date: 2013-02-01

Root Rescue is a certified organic mycorrhizal inoculant designed to set your plants up with a symbiotic relationship that will provide benefits such as establishing new roots more easily, improving nutrient uptake, and increasing disease resistance. This company has been working with the University of Guelph since 2009 to create this  cocktail of 18 species of fungi. This inoculant is suitable for any transplanting a variety of plants including hardwoods and softwoods, bushes, flowers, veggies, etc.

Please Note: If you are using Root Rescue along with adding phosphorous via fertilizers such as bone meal or soft rock phosphate, reduce the application rate of the phosphorous source by 1/4-1/2. Too much phosphorous will negatively impact the mycorrhizal fungi, potentially slowing or even preventing your plants from forming a relationship with these incredible fungi.

A more durable and permanent option than our tying tube, great for areas with harsher elements/less shelter. These ties are designed to secure your tree to a stake, while the soft ridges grip the bark securely and will not rub like rope or wire.  We have been using these to permanently secure our dwarf trees, and the ties are still stretchy and not brittle even after years of use.

We have two types of tree ties, thinner but stiffer plastic ties and larger, thicker rubber ties. The smaller ties are sold in packs of 5 or 100 and the thicker ties are sold individually. The final picture shows a comparison between the two, the thinner one on the right and the thicker kind on the left.

Sepp Holzer farms steep mountainsides in Austria 1,500 meters above sea level. His farm is an intricate network of terraces, raised beds, ponds, waterways and tracks, well covered with productive fruit trees and other vegetation, with the farmhouse neatly nestling amongst them. This is in dramatic contrast to his neighbors’ spruce monocultures.

In this book, Holzer shares the skill and knowledge acquired over his lifetime. He covers every aspect of his farming methods, not just how to create a holistic system on the farm itself, but how to make a living from it. Holzer writes about everything from the overall concepts, down to the practical details. In Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture readers will learn:

• How he sets up a permaculture system
• The fruit varieties he has found best for permaculture growing
• How to construct terraces, ponds, and waterways
• How to build shelters for animals and how to work with them on the land
• How to cultivate edible mushrooms in the garden and on the farm
• and much more!

Holzer offers a wealth of information for the gardener, smallholder, or alternative farmer yet the book’s greatest value is the attitudes it teaches. He reveals the thinking processes based on principles found in nature that create his productive systems. These can be applied anywhere.

World-renowned expert Martin Crawford covers both common fruit bushes and lesser-known edible shrubs. He takes us on a journey into the world of exotic spice trees, shrubs with medicinal parts, and nitrogen fixing plants. All these can be grown in temperate climates, allowing us to diversify our diets and design beautiful, productive gardens while showing us how we can integrate agroforestry into our smallholdings and farms to create new income streams.

Martin Crawford's expertise has been a great resource for us and much of the information he has collected over the years has helped us to understand our own plants better.

Show off your appreciation for holistic gardening/agriculture and Silver Creek Nursery with this bandana! The pattern by Bentley Schieckoff features a variety of the fruits we grow, and our wonderful helpers including bees, worms, and birds! 

The bandanas were made in Canada and are a blend of 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton.

We've got hats! You can keep the sun out of your eyes and show off your love for 
Silver Creek Nursery with these nifty baseball caps!

This hat is made from 100% organic cotton.

Phosphorous is one of the most important nutrients required by plants, aiding in root growth among other aspects of plant development! Soft rock phosphate, aka colloidal phosphate, comes from clay collected from basins of former hard phosphate mining operations. The clay nature of this product means it does not leach out of the soil due to water, allowing it to better stay in place and remain accessible to plants. 

Application Rates:

• About 1 cup per tree dusted into backfill soil when planting. One bag has around 5 cups (2kg).
• Light Applications: Apply 3.2kg per 1,000 square feet, ¼ cup per plant, or 0.45kg per 20 foot row of vegetables. 
• Normal Applications: Apply 5.5kg per 1,000 square feet, 1/3 cup per plant, or 1kg per 20 foot row.
  

• Please Note: If you are adding phosphorous to your soil via fertilizers such as bone meal or soft rock phosphate and also using the Root Rescue mycorrhizal inoculant, reduce the application rate of the phosphorous source by 1/4-1/2. Too much phosphorous will negatively impact the mycorrhizal fungi, potentially slowing or even preventing your plants from forming a relationship with these incredible fungi.