Lawn Sprinkler System Troubleshooting

All you need are a few digging tools, such as a spade or digging shovel and perhaps a digging bar for tougher ground. The best part is that this project helps drain annoying puddles and speeds up the arrival of dry ground.

When you think of perennials, you probably envision flowers rather than flies, yet both appear with the onset of outdoor warmth and moisture. Perhaps worse from a property-value standpoint, an overabundance of flies on a farm located near a neighborhood...

They do not seek to “cheat” Mother Nature—they respect her ways. Any rational food-production system will emphasize the well-being of the soil-air-water biosphere, the creatures which inhabit it and the human beings who depend upon it.”

Top Christmas Tree Varieties jon hayes/Flickr There are more than 600 conifer tree species in the world, yet Americans know only a few as Christmas trees. If you've always wanted to become a Christmas tree farmer, your farm dream isn't too far out of...

Here's a great profile on City Commons , a cooperative CSA in Detroit. These are happening on a large scale, but could absolutely be adapted to small-scale farming. For many of us who were not born into the farming life, we made our way to farming in...

No-till farming also slows evaporation of water from the soil by protecting the soil's surface from sun and wind and creating an insulating layer that helps keep the soil cool, encouraging root growth.

Use strong, sturdy tarps free of holes or rips. Sunlight bleaches hay, causing it to lose nutritional value, especially protein and vitamin A. While small square bales are ideal for ease of feeding, putting them up, is more labor-, time- and cost-intensive...

A good first step is to meet with a local naturalist or forester to walk through your woods. Does your woodlot have a lot of paper birch trees? Some people use birch bark to make baskets.

Harrowing will do even more to this end—remember, pigs tend to choose “toilet” areas where manure will be concentrated, and because one hog can produce up to 80 pounds of manure per day, disseminating this fertilizer is a big step toward healthy...

Eating more fish has become more popular in recent decades, but aquaculture farming—or the production of fish and other crops that thrive in water—has been around for centuries: The Chinese have been using aquaculture since around 2500 BC, holding...

Use this visual diagram of an aquaculture pond to consider the best way to build your operation. If done the right way, freshwater fish farming can be a great value-added opportunity for your hobby farm.

Here are three of common forest forages we've noticed our hogs enjoying. Because there are close to 60 species of oak trees in the U.S., and one tree can produce thousands of acorns in a year, the nut is an invaluable supplemental feed source for pig...

This isn't hard with baby greens and lettuces that bring in a high yield per square foot, but it can be a challenge for longer-season crops like broccoli, cauliflower, corn and onions, which take up a lot of room for a relatively small amount of payoff.

It's still a good idea to keep notes about how each crop performed in your garden for future reference. Likewise, you can intercrop, planting more than one crop in that plot per season, such as both broccoli and cabbage in plot 1 in the fall.

“The Biodynamic approach is a continuing journey; it never ends,” says Steffen Schneider of Hawthorne Valley Farm, a certified Biodynamic farm in Ghent, N.Y. “I have seen produce that exudes vibrant life and health; animals being completely comfortable...

Here are six steps to building a sacrifice area for your farm. There are times of the year that you don't want your animals grazing certain grasses for health or pasture-establishment reasons.

The couple decided to learn more and give it a try, establishing their first silvopasture in 1984. “Before turning them out on the pasture, treat them for lice,” Owens says. Start Small Silvopastures require more knowledge and more management than...

When running a business, however, detailed planning and record-keeping can mean the difference between success and failure. While these eco-friendly tactics take time and hard work, the organic farmer usually has fewer outside expenses to recover.

Even raw manure—especially horse manure—is valued by mushroom growers. Whether you improve your farm's manure-management protocol because your local laws require it or because you wish to farm more sustainably, you'll see the benefits.

Wait for a couple of days until they turn brown and then work them into the soil. Over millennia, dynamic and interdependent native insects have evolved alongside native plants, and as a hobby farmer, you can make a big impact on the overall health of...

Here are a few ways to promote grassland bird habitat on your farm without hampering your farm's production. Mow Rotationally To reduce grassland-bird mortality, mow fields and pastures outside of nesting season, which runs from April to August for most...

Trough Management Basics Of course, the easiest way to keep your animals water clean is through prevention. The most common cleanliness issue with water troughs is algae, and some of it can even be dangerous for your animals.

Then we called the extension agency to meet with a guy about how to raise them. Warm-weather grasses lose nutrients and eventually go dormant when temperatures drop between 40 and 75 degrees F , which is when you rotate the cows back into the pasture...

There are also performance-horse facilities that have indoor riding arenas to be cared for, clients paying thousands of dollars each month for their horses' care and multiple horse trainers working in the barn, so stable management here will require a...

Alternately—and more easily—you could just choose another site. Less Soil Because you only need enough soil for the root system of the plant, you have smaller beds to prepare and maintain with fewer amendments needed.

This all-in-one equipment may be the ideal place for beginners to start. However, there may be many reasons we might not act on our interest in farming with draft horses. It can be slow and sometimes shaped awkwardly with a short neck, but it travels...

Get more farm record-keeping tips with these HobbyFarms.com articles: Keep Farm Records for Tax Time 7 Crop Record-keeping Charts Financial Record-keeping Software Livestock First-aid Inventory Tags crops , husbandry , livestock