Liz Krieg from Maple Flower Farm in Bethel, Vermont has been growing flowers naturally for market for over 20 years. Founding President of the Vermont Flower Council back in 1989 Liz has been a leader in the organic flower movement helping other growers develop markets, grow quality flowers and spreading the love for local farming.
There IS a HUGE difference between vegetable growers/flower bouquets in the farm stand or just dedicated flower growers. I am a dedicated flower grower. That’s what I do, I grow nothing but flowers, and I sell them to floral tradesmen, or I use them myself for events I’m having. That’s the difference. If you grow nothing but flowers, you can really pinpoint your knowledge to flowers and their needs and specific cultivars to grow and really become a compendium of information for just flowers, but if you are dividing your attention between flowers and vegetables a lot of times, flowers sort of get sidelined.
So you just sort of grow them, you water them, you feed them, you collect them and put them in bouquets and sell them, you’re not necessarily specializing in the flowers themselves. It’s kind of sad, in a way of growing flowers, but that’s because I’m in flowers specifically. I can’t imagine dividing my time, with vegetables. That’s not to say that I don’t grow vegetables for my own family, I do, and I LOVE doing that. But it’s really to hard to pin point attentive to both of them on a large scale. So that’s what I think about flower growing.
On today’s show, I’m super excited to introduce my new friend, Liz Krieg, who has been growing flowers naturally for market for over 20 years. Founding President of the Vermont Flower Council back in 1989! Liz has been a leader in the organic flower movement helping other growers develop markets, grow quality flowers and just spreading the love for local farming and flower growing!
I really have made flowers over the length of my life the most important thing. I have to have flowers around me all the time. I am proud to say, that now I am a full time flower grower.
As you said I was a Vermont Certified Cut Flower grower back in 1985. Here in Vermont in the state that I live in, the Vermont
I was growing vegetables as well as flowers.
Distribution
I was also an adjunct instructor at Vermont Technical college.
It was exciting! There was a ton of interest in it.
A lot of people thought it was a get rich plan!
Some people fell by the wayside. I stated with it for about 3 years. Fresh cut flowers,, locally divided in the state of Vermont Flower sops they wanted their Columbian?Andean so
Of course they were excellent perfect
I let it go as a side occupation as
Stated actually selling them, to photo spots a table
people waken me to plant the outset hate those He’d s easy I van make s living got mr sf my y. Orbited your w0 tested I golf hubs fold
I made sure I was organic certified,
that is really f
Where on the eat coast
sold my business to a degree from
was Herd tho the n
all I could think of Jackie, was when I was I happiest
what did I like to town the most…
when the skies was were pink, very was fool, Im gonna go back ad did that I
The lead that your growing on
The whole property is about 17 acres.
‘what I had was a I had a cites We’e just been
my landscape had just gone so craze
couldn’t scale
that’s what I turned up into the cut flower patch,
of course I had tons of
P{Peones
Shrubs
att
wanted to be able
High end designers would really want, also wanted to have an interior environment
stressing resources……………….
Back in the days
Through all of my stock, annulled I also sold to
when I does those greet hen I dd
the difference between a high tuned and agree
never closed environment
Books are the gateway
I love live audiences
every-time I’m teaching, I learn something new
I learn everything at all. I love that everyday …
Farm Workshops charge an ungodly amount of money for a 4 day seminar $3k.
Allow upwards of 25 people ….
filled to the gills….
Floretflowers.com
Named one of Martha Stewarts upcoming
farms on 2 acres
supplies an astronomical amount of flowers
whole foods and trader Joe’s
weddings …
really basically started by growing veggie
huge difference between vegetable growers flowers in the a
dedicated flower grower….
sell to floral tradesmen for events I’m having
nothing but flower
really pinpoint your knowledge
ni
specific cultivars
compendium of info
dividing your attention between veggies and flowers
grow them feed them water them
collect them, put them in bouquets
specializing in the flowers in themselves
sad way of growing flowers
can’t imagine dividing my time with vegetables
grow vegetables for my own family
I do on a large scale
Tell us a little about yourself.
So grateful to be invited
I have to have flowers around me all the time.
I am proud to say, now I am a full time flower grower
As you said I was a Vermont certified cut flower grower back in 1985
Vermont, organic program was relatively new, I was growing vegetables as well as cut flowers,
Deep Root was a distributer for coops
Ag instructed
in Randolph VT
approached by the Department of Ag to be the president of the new Vermont Cut Flower Council
ton of interest, many people
a lot of people thought it was gonna be a get rich quick plan
some people fell by the wayside
stayed with it,
fresh cut flowers
hard sell
very difficult to break into flower shops
very few private designers
wanted their Columbian, Andean, types of south american flowers
they were every consistent year round and were absolutely perfect flowers
had to let it
take all of those perennials, delphinium, do
selling them to root stock to people
people came and asked if I would be willing to come install these beautiful flowers at their homes
fell right into being a landscaper was teaching in a horticultural program at a tech college
there’s a way to make a living
ran that landscape firm for 20 years.
over those 20 years I also had great gardens at my own home,
still grew
organic methodologies
my company got big
Certified as a Landscape Professional
thriving in New England
sold to a large Tree firm
helped them get their business off and running
took my one year,
casting my next reinvention of what I could be
when was I happiest
memory of getting up early in the morning
skies were pink and the dew was in the air
pick gobs and gobs of fresh buckets of flowers
gonna go back and do what I did
really isn’t much
is about 1/4 of an acre
The whole property is about 17 acres
had a sight that was perfect
cover cropping it and letting it go fallow
was a giant vegetable garden
hydrangeas
shrubs
hibernaums
that I can use for cut flower bouquets
serious amounts of things
zinnias, delphiniums,
high end designers would really want
interior environment
growing in a greenhouse
ran the green houses at the college
landscape business
50’ and 100’
back n the day, only 7 years ago
grew all of my stock,annuals, perennials
other landscapers
a couple of nurseries
busy little business
sold those greenhouses to various people who wanted them,
I knew I needed a high tunnel
green house has some form of mechanical heating/ventilating
roll up the sides
cooling
high tunnel
put up the high tunnel
went through
Johnny’s seed catalog
12’x50’ high tunnel
Dahlia’s tubers. I had special dahlias Cultivars
extremely useful for stems
planted them in the high tunnel
zinnias perfect
outdoor plot
I only did half of it,
still doing a couple of garden jobs
let’s see how it goes. I really wanted to
wanted to increase the dahlia tuber stock.
increase
my dahlia tuber stock
idk what I was thinking
I had a glut of flowers
just top notch, zinnias and dahlias
out of need, I wasn’t planting on selling them
all of my vases
let me just call a couple of florists I knew
they were tapping that flower resource
found that to be the sign on the right track
at this point
exponentially increasing the amount of stems that I’m growing
7-8 good designers,
few weddings
pretty exciting
looking forward to see what this summer brings
Mentioned that I am Vermont Certified Organically
growing cut flowers organically is not an easy thing
seed companies have coatings on tiny seeds,
Lisianthus
native plant from the gentry family
beloved flowers in the floral industry
seeds are about the size of a speck of dust
pour out these specks of dust in a white kind of box
have a toothpick
wet the toothpick with the tip of your tongue
now because of what has happened in mechanization of seeds
coating
pelted seeds
so they can run through these seeding machines
seed coating is usually a type of clay medium
because the coating is on these city bitty seeds
manugarutres are worried the seeds will rot,
so they put this itty bitty teeny amount of fungicides
divided farm
a portion is certified organic
portion that is
many other things like this, that are grown in their own special section
can not be grown as certified organic
because of these seed coatings
grow my lisianthks in this little greenhouse
started to stop growing my Lisianthus in that soil, it would be take
3 years before that soil could be certified organic!
granted the recertification
So as a cut flower grower
those types of issues are absolutely maddening! That I believe is all but gone by the time they’re gone,
that fungicide is long gone
nature of the beast, you have to respect the regulations, because it’s purest in nature
that is what organics is all about
stumbling block as flower grower
The standards themselves have
really created for food industry
reality of those cut flower that are coming, that are coming from Columbia and Honduras.
laden with chemicals
think about the cut flowers
the people have for every important celebration of they life, from the moment they are born, to the moment they pass on,
present
for the most part
90% +
that are sold in the US, a lot of more in the US are so laden with pesticides
can you imagine?
can you imagine what’s sitting on your dinner table
it’s kind of frightening
I believe that locally grown flowers is very important
but even more so,
there should be organics involved in raising cut flowers
Above all, right there in our faces
most of the people that grow cut flowers, are using pretty much using organic methodologies. Unless they’re grown
so that is my belief scale like
Perhaps pesticides,
are large scale
Most of the people I know that are growing flowers, are using organic methodology
The only input that would have is petroleum based fertilizers
pesticides
t that have to knock down very fast
the organic pesticides
available
big word on
Well, I just had some questions really quick, I also had one comment… A lot of people don’t realize even if they don’t’ grow those organically they have to be fumigated
Andean pact that was made by the Bush admin
part of the war on drugs. What they did, is they gave them a
a way to make money
instead of doing drugs here, they handed the floral trade right over to south america
During the 70s and 80s
floral growers
established for decades
families who’s whole world was busiest
70s flower growers locally
They handed this over to the given’s in this pact that they made
1988
Andean Trade preference act. It was the Bush Admin’’s
war on drugs. What they did was they allowed the people from these countries
to ship these Tarif free. There was no way American floral growers couldn’t’ possibly compete
purchasing these flowers .
I was president to American Cut Flowers,
lots of these flower growers
1 year after this pact was formed
beginning to the death of the floral industry
I have to be honest up here in Vermont
I’ve seen so many flower shops actually fold
along with that andean pact
large super market chains purchasing
see these same flowers
sitting beautifully displayed among our foods
right next to certified or organic food
sitting there
many people don’t even know about this
They’re not aware, that flowers are laden with toxic stuff
people are dying who are engaged in the floral industry
mostly women who are getting cancer, all kinds of lung issues, you name it, there are problems because of the pesticides being used int he floral industry.
IF you google it, you’ll find a whole bunch of articles recently about
floral industry deaths in South America
So, how I got started, back when Hippies were real back in the 70;s I we was turned onto Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring. I read it and I thought it really spoke to what was going on, scared the bejesus out of me.
scared of what pesticides
wand where they do to people
That was the scene of how bad pesticides are.
very shortly after she published that book, monsanto went after her
started publishing pamphlets that made a parody of what people said
Started telling people that pesticides we’re good for the world.
saw through monsanto and what was happening
From tat minute I saw them as the big evil!
Helen And Scott Nearing wrote a book, in the 60s all about subsistence living.
great book about subsistence living
talking about the 70s
Living the Good Life…. did you ever hear of it…
I was just in elementary school in the 70s so I’m just right behind you.
So these are the cataclysmic scenes
whole militant
organics all the way
head set
this is where they came from
led to
reading
the Whole Earth Catalog. Do you remember the Whole Earth Catalog. I was an avid reader of the Whole Earth.
back to the whole earth style and thought process
the less we do to put into the earth in terms of forcing nature, the better off we are
how vulnerable nature is and how as humans we tried to master it and as we try to master it it
really have screwed things up
, as humans, we’re brave need to have the master and respect
who we really need to master ourselves, instead of nature, Because we’re so darned smart
we’re immature
brilliant ideas and ways to do things
mastery and respect for the f
of nature screwing things up
here I am in my older age we knew it should come to this.
here at this place
one thing prevails, if you have your little patch of land and you are being good to the earth and you are feeding the soil and you’re not using things that kill beneficial insects and birds
mammals and what not
giving back to the land and you’re doing your part in your little patch
I believe in things being able to be started form a small spot and then they move outward into the larger world. Nature wants to be treated naturally
organic should be a rule of thumb for anyone who’s got plants outside on their patio, anybody who is doing anything, whether they’re plants or ornamentals.
Absolutely one fe of the things I’ve learned the most my podcast,
then kids are crawling on that grass…
I like the way you said that, a lot of appeal don’ts understand.
Landscaping business
accredited organic landscape professional.
Do you have any died how much good your lawn
scatter compost on your lawn
your good grass to prevail
literally it gets so strong
it suffocates any weeds that want to come out
mass of organisms
good beneficial types of insects
end up with beautiful
feed it compost
give it compost tea
That enjoy eating that lawn, mow it on time, rake if it fired
compost tea does not smell at all
run around spray your lawn
take care of your lawn like its a living natural thing
challenge someone to go out there and do a study on golfers
spending all their time on
perhaps
heavily pesticide laden
wanna go play on the links
think about it taking your life into your own hands
probably gonna be under it
can plant them about the same time as your snap dragons
12 week lead time before last frost that you need to seed them
in February
a lot of people are seeding snap
peppers
timing isn’t an issue
size of the seed
those seeds did not come pelletized
me my tongue and my toothpick
little bit of moisture
you can pick up a speck of dust
pelletized
organic
filtered its way all the way down to consumer sized packets
the seed manufacturers
prepare them for market
producing the material for the general market
all jumped on this palletized band wagon
I challenge someone to go out there and do a study on golfers.
I need to give a shout out to John Moore who talked about golf courses back in the beginning!
A lot of people on my show have talked about seed starting.
Do you think about growing Lisianthus,
can you would you eventually get your seeds,
producing the material for the general market and they’ve all jumped on this bandwagon. The certified growers are e an extremely small voice for the
there needs certainly outstrip the needs d of i
Your looking at a twelve week weed time. You want to sed them in late February
a lot of people are seeding if you are snap dragons
those seeds did not compelling size
or it’s just too time consuming
O ideas twos not any ,e
You can pick up speck of dust
I guess what I’m asking is could you go your own seeds
Hybridization has made some double, quadruple flowers, the chances of getting the recessive seed, Lisianthus would probably get a good
if fuss
certified
extremely small voice
very large non-organic
ranges of
Lisianthus
pelletized type seeds
outstrip
small needs of the organic grower
pellitization
not gonna
they are perennials in certain states
south westernUS in
hybridization
made some
doubles and quadruple flowers
you can’t get cleanly
don’t quite measure up to what would be a good quality stem
if you only grew one color and one type
you might get perhaps 70% of the same flower
don’t want any cross breeding with colors and types, being
cultivar differences like length of stem
number of petals per flower
undulations that give it a ruffled look
specific qualities
yes
really large controls every color and then hist
r where the breeding happens
The other thing, as a comparative
even with zinnias
state fair giant
the beaneries giant
block your colors
I like to grow zinnias in solid rows of solid colors
200’ row picking just the butter cream yellows
block of yellow creams to look from
color variety is easiest to harvest them
letting them grow and letting them produce seed
wouldn’t have your solid colors per bunch
seed collecting on a large scale for production is actually difficult with flowers because of genetics
messes with me, that is my only problem, so I found a way to work around it
I will grow these stems, because I have to,
this is what is really needed out there in the industry if I want to have a business, I can not say these things are certified
But I can explain to my florist, they are grown exactly the same way that all of my other organic stems are, the only things that is different.
because of that information
can’t call them certified organic, and quite simply the florists don’t mind. They are happy that flowers are not coated with pesticide. And there is actually a visual difference
between flowers that are locally grown, they’re brighter, they’re more alive
lasts at least 2 xs as long, because they are not full grown and shipped in a box
Tell me about your first gardening experience? Are you a native Vermonter?
My very first memory of anything green and growing, was my mother who loved having flowers around her house and she loved having house plants. But somehow that always filtered down to me taking caring for them all, because she was a working woman…
Liz did you water?
Liz did you water the ivy?
always saw it as a nagging duty… I just remember I wanted things to die…why did I have to take care of them, they were her plants?! But some how being forced, I think all kids believe that any time their parents ask them to do anything they consider them forced slave labor, I wanted them to die… but I realized that growing up that made me have a love of living things.
You have to make a book about that. That would make a great story…
So, they became my life, they became the thing they love the most. It makes me a little teary thinking how mad I was at my mom about it, but now looking back I see, she made something of me.
I was a young woman, I had just gotten out of college. I was with my husband, we had just gotten married. We were both young in our early 20s. We bought a little farm in Ash away Rhode Island. It was little 5 acre farm, with a cute little house, 2 story, and very picturesque. I had read the Nearing experience, and the Mother Earth News, I was such a hippie, totally homespun. And we dug up, and we grew all of our vegetables. I was an ardent supporter of the Rodale Press and ORGANIC Gardening Magazine! I was one of the original subscribers. so I started gardening, I literally had to reach out and find a solution
I froze them, I canned them, we got a dairy cow! WE got chickens! we did the whole thing, the I had my first baby. I found that I really loved the flowers. I’d buy packets of flowers. I’d grow the seedlings and I couldn’t throw any seedlings away.
Before I knew it, I was glutton for flowers! I had this unreasonable need. They took over.As based as cut flowers a business. Way back then, before I thought of cut flowers as a business, people would stop on the road and ask if they could buy flowers. But, I was a good hippie, so I gave them away! I gave a way a lot of flowers.
Then I moved to Vermont, I had 2 boys! So I had 3 children. Big garden, lots of flowers, when my kids got old enough to go to school for a whole day, I signed on, I went back to school to horticulture college. I wanted to be a horticulturist.
I wanted to learn more, I wanted to understand the science of it. I wanted to be a horticulturist. So I went back to college and got a 2 year degree. I was a non-traditional student. When my kids were old enough to go to school
That put me in my late 30s, all the kids going to college were 17,18 … So I was completely non-traditional. They had this beautiful mechanized glass greenhouse
All they’d used to for before that. They were growing all tropical for identification.
horticultural program
I approached the head of the dept at that time there, lets do a sort of mini-business and lets grow a bunch of seedlings for sale for spring, let’s grow poinsettias for Christmas. Before I knew it the president was cutting me a out some budget to fill that green house up, the next high I new were were landscaping the college and it became a big deal!
being the lead horticulture
next thing I knew I was adjunction classes and being the lead horticulture
dept of ag found me, it just sort of this thing that happened out of my love for flowers. It just all manifested out of my love of flowers. The things would just sort of drop in front of me
I have a friend who says is there there is no such thing as luck there is the ability to identify opportunity and signs that sit in front of you.
they end up right, I think that’s what has happened, I’ve been aware of opportunities
different paths I’ve chosen, which is pretty much in the green industry, it’s always been about the flowers. Always. I’ve been having a great time!
I love it! I think listeners are gonna like this and think of different ways, your life has been inspiring and the way you followed your dream, worked hard, and put in the hours. I think a lot of luck comes to you because you worked hard to be in the right spot. I believe that people maybe followed a passion or put in the time to build those connections and do the research….
definitely people
Have you done your strengths? Because I am
intellectualizer, of a person who I collect info, I never know why. I would sit with friends, they would say you know a little bit about everything, I love learning.
liz
I love information and I love learning. That would be my advice to anybody starting out to anyone or any gardening in general. Put your hands on a few good tomes. Really read them.
IDK if anybody reads books anymore. I have a kindle, but I love books. I love the feel of books in my hands.
some good gardening books you can’t even get in print anymore. One of the things that I wanted to point out is, that even though that I have gardened for so long…there are great new efficient ways to do things that reduce the amount of labor. Your front end labor is hard, but it’s different.
When I had these big greenhouses, I’m sure people see this when they are
I use this stuff
woven ground cover
the way you followed your dream and worked hard.
I find that luck comes more when you follow a passion and then its got you to that space and you’ve built that spaces….
Have you don’t your strength insights?
I’m definiti
Im and intellectual
You know a little bit be
that’s definitely key is organic gardening or gardening in general
put your hands on a few good tomes.
I even have a kindle
I love the feel of books sad
front end labor is hard
In sure that every body sees this at their nursery. It
ground cover
woven
black
polyethylene
varying lengths
50’ to 4’ widths .
I would get 10 foot widths because my green houses were big,
They have these lovely green stripes that go the whole length of the roll. spaced exactly a foot apart
what’s great about this stuff is that you put it down on the ground
light can’t get thorough it
if you water , your plants in the greenhouse,,
water can
If you perennials sitting outside ab it place
hundreds of containers of potted perennials that would sell every year, so I’d grow them outside, so I’d have this ground cloth down and the containers would sit on top of that.
didn’t have to worry about weeding
Now I
floral gardens
do all of my rows
4 foot wide rows, sort of the standard by growers these days,
so is this method. I’d put in the compost, put in the rock phosphates and add the good organic minerals that plants and soils need to be healthy.
All the things plants need to stay healthy.
4-5 lines of irrigation tape
need to water
can’t just throw the seeds
don’t want to sprinkle you want to water at the roots. So then I’d lay down this ground cloth which covers each row.
6 foot wide row
4 foot in the
1 foot of each side of the aisle
each row meets in the middle you know with these rows of landscape cloth. Now the clot itself, I burn holes in it.
holes are only 2in , 9 inch spacings,
2′ holes. We have this metal template and use this propane Benson thing to burn really nice holes. The plastic melts, so it never frays, it just stays perfect. Then you have this beautiful black grid to plant in with these perfect holes.
with irrigation organic soil underneath
plant your
irrigation on a timer
watered a specific amount of water and specific amount of time. And those flowers grow spotlessly clean, with almost 0 weeding.
no weeds
Right in the middle of that 2 foot path
even the path is covered with this cloth, so everything is pretty much wrapped, the soil is wrapped in this wonderful dark cloth. You get all sorts of great stuff happening like earth worms, happy flower roots
really shiny clean beautiful product!
because you’ve done all that work in the beginning, that’s where all of your energy goes when your setting it up, once you plant all those plants up in down there each week.
not
You have a really clean modern way to grow your plants.
I had mentioned to you, one of the books that I really loved is the
New Market Grower by Jean Martin Fortier. This book, is about small scale organic farming and it’s about getting amazing amounts of produce out of a much smaller space. And how to do it. This is probably one of the best bibles about how to take a very small piece of land and how to get 3-4 times as much produce off of it then a farm 10 xs the size. It’s a great book. It’s all about soil health, how to do things smarter, how to plant more intensively, how to feed things
That’s how some people can do this on a small scale.
You mentioned the Facebook page for the flower farmers, a lot of the flower farmers on that page are tiny ! They’re mom and pops or mom home with little kids and they’re making beautiful products!
making money doing it, is $50,000 a year, or is it $5,000 a year or is it $500 a year? It all depends how intensively you plant and have to work with.
the ability to learn how to get the very most and the very best product, out of your property. All it takes is reading about it and applying what you’ve read. I encourage anybody who that has a little thing in him, in their heart like grow fresh cut flowers
even shrubs
or even trees for a trade
find a way to get started, just get started because before you know it your somewhere!
That’s one of the very first books I bought when I started the podcast. Joyce Pinson from Friends Drift Inn recommended it back on episode 45 who also is in the Flower Farmers Group and I noticed another friend we have in common. WE have been trying to get started using a lot of those suggestions. And you can even look at even if you’re not making money you’re gonna save money. The whole time I’ve been talking to you I’ve been thinking about Georgia O’Keefe, I read a book about her and she was so influential in buying flowers. I always thought of in NYC, there is a market on almost every corner and they all have flowers. I always thought that would be an amazing business if all those flowers on those corners were organic.
A lot of growers on the Flower Farmers Page are mostly all growing organically
difference about the national organic program has made it illegal to say your’e do anything organic. You can’t have a sign that says your are organically grown
My annual fee to be certified organic is $450 a year. It’s so hard for people who are small. But for me it was important to bring organics forward and for me it was worth the value to pay that fee. It’s also so regulated Jackie, the record keeping it drives them crazy. I tend to be OCD about records away. I’m keeping records because I’m always making comparison.
You’re a data junky.
I don’t want to be
this is hard work.
pissing into the wind
Being strategic and efficient is essential!
you’ve got to know what your doing
I read a lot of the Facebook things
they don’t know how they did from year to year, per cultivar! They think maybe they sold more of this.
I want to know,
compared to something else
out the door
not gonna waste my time
or larger amounts of the successful one.
People might not realize
Denise and Tony Gaetz in episode 110 talked about that a lot.
Those two are my heroes! Anything those two post. I love their websites. They have some great little videos there about how to set up low tunnels.
don’t want to go certified, they also have a lot of preconceived ideas about what they have to do even though they have not researched it.
not wanting to pay a lot of money to be regulated
either
your certified organic or your not, but if you’re going through all that trouble, you can’t say in writing!
you can say it
you can’t write it
just want to be able to say, my plants are organic. Except my Lisianthus.
Right after them Elizabeth Weller came on after them in episode 111 and talked about the Certified Naturally Grown certificaiton.In some way their standards are actually higher then certified organic and their certification fee was lower. It was funny one day I went to he Farmer’s Market, I felt like the police and people were worried that I was there to check them out.
health of the soil
what you use to fight insects
certified naturally grown
it’s a great organization
peer regulated
inspector
other people who are growers who come out
I’m all for
I’m a socialist when it comes
NLP is a US Ag program
they’re the ones who started that whole organic
if you all buck regulations
will get under your skin
a little pissed off about what you can and can’t do
you can not knock that pest down
used every ORMI approved thing
that you can for that pest
you can talk to you certifying specialist
if it means you have to use a conventional
they’re not gonna let you have financial losses because you can’t get rid of a pest
makes me want to Segway into another area
basically
energy
every living thing has a level of energy
when a plant is not given enough good food and water
electrical current
that it gives off change
bugs see that light
generally
speaking
bugs pests are attracted to the weakest plants
beach the epidermis on the leaves
is easier to pierce with the insects proboscis
is weaker and easier to get their teeth into it,
back to the methodology
winter cover crops
feeding soil
using compost teas
all the good stuff to help the plant
fullest capacity
chances are that you are not gonna have
rare
in my personal history
not a big problem
if you have a problem
physical
pheromone lure
work in organic methodology
perfume that’s put out by females
in some insects the male
it’s an attractant
let’s say Japanese beetle
female who has the pheromone
make these traps
those yellow things out there
with a bag
those little tablets that sit in the middle of that quad of yellow wax cardboard
pheromone attractant
males are attracted in abundance to that yellow wax paper
flies directly
not smart enough to get out of bag
males are largely
attracted and caught
reduces the potential for
all Japanese beetles are made for is chewing and screwing
eat and
male comes and attaches to female and continue eating
drop into turf
love turf above anything
lay their eggs
grubs basically mature over the winter
live off the
ugly white grubs in the soil
are chewing in the grass or field grass,
not picky
if you want to know if you have a bunch of Japanese
voles
that run those little tunnels
carnivores
live on
can tell if you have a Japanese beetle problem by looking on
bio organisms
milky spore
is a white powder
pretty innocuous
can spread on lawn
microorganism
loves to make Japanese beetles
basically get the flu and die
ways to fight everything out
things
I don’t like to use things that you spray
just because it’s approved
but as a poison its approved for Organic use because it’s residual
lets’ not kid any body
if you are trying to live on this green earth
anything you use to kill a bug is capable of killing other things, bees, monarch butterflies
try to
really big to go out in the morning
love Roses
love raspberry plants
knock em off the leaf,
kind of dopey
wings don’t want to fly
canning jar with soapy water
then thump them right in,
last bath
that’s how I deal with them
Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden.
It’s all a matter of head set. As soon as I get an attitude
I used to hate weeding
I see weeding as a very zen sort of things
Hating and loving thing
very weather and body pain dependent
I dislike things if my body is sore and its’ hot outside
my body is saying
I do my
I change my way of thinking about it.
I get myself psyched up
and I’m looking forward
play some good old Crosby Stills Nash and Young
What is your favorite activity to do in the garden.
cutting bucket and buckets and buckets of flowers
strip the leaves off
looking back at the bucket and its’ fuller and fuller
it’s heaven
those are just dishes
that’s what you do when its hot and your body is sore
when
you play in the water
just a spin
whatever spin you put on it
when you train your brain
actually start enjoying
don’t resist
that you have to do it
you’ve trained your brain to actually do it
do it with love
joy
the hardest thing is when I have to use my body in a hard way
its’ when I have to fill wheelbarrows with compost
and dump the wheel barrow
spread the compost
uses my body in my way
easy to get a repetition injury
my body remembers
wear an armband on my right arm
where my tennis elbow
when it’s hard for me like that that’s when I’m unhappy
but hey
I’m counting my blessings that I’m still mobile
and able to do pretty hard work
grateful to be a woman living in the US in this amazing country
I can make myself anything
I’m doing what I want to do
its’ really hard to get bummed
What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?
I’m thinking about probably my best gardening advice is reduce your hard hard labor to only 3 hours a day
don’t spend 6-9 hours doing hard hard labor
it’s a finite source
gonna impact everything
then give yourself a couple of days to recuperate
hard labor you just have to be smart
what are you trying to accomplish
have a plan be good to yourself
Is there a favorite tool that you like to use? If you had to move and could only take one tool with you what would it be?
it would be a broad fork! it would be the one tool
Do you have any tips for eating or harvesting vegetables or fruit on time?
4
Do you have any secrets for preserving food-making it last?
4
A favorite recipe you like to cook from the garden?
4
A favorite internet resource?
4
A favorite reading material-book, mag, blog/website etc you can recommend?
The 50 mile bouquet
the whole Andean Pact
floral c
really does talk about
the values
she’s the point girl for locally
part of her group of people that support her whole program
time for us American florists to take our Flower Power back
More americans just buy flowers
all over NYC
in cities there does seem to be more flower sales
very little of nature
people out in the country
you go to Europe
when you see what our govt. did in 1988
floral trade
gave it to other countries
wrong over in Europe
daily commodity
see a guy walk down the street in Paris
a baguette in one hand and
Liz Krieg
BOOKS
Living the good Life how to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World Paperback – 1973
by Helen and Scott Nearing (Author)
Specialty Cut Flowers: The Production of Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Woody Plants for Fresh and Dried Cut Flowers 2nd Edition
by Allan M. Armitage (Author), Judy M. Laushman (Author)
Flowers for the Table: Arrangements and Bouquets for All Seasons Mar 1, 2002
by Ariella Chezar and Shaun Sullivan
The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers Apr 1, 2012
by Debra Prinzing and David E. Perry
The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses Apr 15, 2009
by Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch
started out here in Vermont here in the early days.
I love what he put out with the 4 Season Harvest which talks about growing in tunnels, you can pretty much
The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-scale Organic Farming Mar 4, 2014
by Jean-Martin Fortier and Marie Bilodeau
websites that I really love to go to:
learn
Floret flowers.com
gives so much back to the floral growers trade
why she likes them
lots to learn there
just started to
another place I like to go to
Sarah raven.com
over in the UK
has another great site
product to sell
picked a specific packet of seeds
The Facebook page for the Association for Cut Flower Growers
ASCFG.org webstie
the American Association for Speciality Cut Flower Growers
bulletin boards
many of the people that are on the Facebook
highly recommend that organization to join
If you have a business to you have any advice for our listeners about how to sell extra produce or get started in the industry?
4
Final question-
if there was one change you would like to see to create a greener world what would it be? For example is there a charity or organization your passionate about or a project you would like to see put into action. What do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either in your local area or on a national or global scale?
#1 The CLEAN AIR ACT, i wanted it to happen
the whole world needs to wake up
#2 I am so supportive we absolutely need to have GMO labeling
the food that we are eating
if it is tampered with on a molecular level
Im not completely against what is happening GMO wise
Im not a s
when I buy salmon
I want to know if it’s the new funky salmon that grows to the full size in
wild caught
very fatty looking
hey its delicious no grip there
crossing the genetic code
faster growing
pollock type fish
now they are farming those
no GMO labeling on them
Ferro island salmon
GMO island salmon grown from
like to make sure that GMO labeling is happening
people need to know that
always hated Monsanto and most big businesses
lobbying trying to keep u s in the
increase pockets in their pocketbook
Do u have an inspiration tip or quote to help motivate our listeners to reach into that dirt and start their own garden?
I have something that I have always loved idd come from Rachel Carson in Silent
those who dwell among the beautifies and mysteries of earth
landscape design
I can’t believe that
in retrospect
I’ve done all that
its always been in the heart of
Im an earth sign
shy of critics we love to murder our heroes
Im so sensitive
IDK if Id be ready to cast my pearls
birds just dying for your birdseed
networking is so vital to success
mirrors what they are after
thank you for encouragement
How do we connect with you?
20 minutes
right in the heart of Vermont
the top of the state is an hour away
snuggled between
blog itself is only month old
hundreds of hits
don’t know where they
can go to my Pinterest page, Instagram page, Facebook page
blog is write there
featuring mostly natives that can be used as cut flowers
one native at a time
what I know about them
how they can
my voice translates through my hand
kind of loose and flower
might even get one of those comfortable
dictate and it writes it for you
then you can edit
flow and talk as a normal person
stiffens
I do believe that magic is all around us all the time…
TELEPHONE NUMBER
802-234-6576
PHYSICAL ADDRESS
3340 Christian Hill
Bethel, Vermont 05032
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