"The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm" details how to start and run a successful market garden using organic and no-till methods. The focus of the book was more on teaching a beginner the details needed to successfully buy a farm and start a market garden. However, the author also included details about how to do this using an organic, no-till method. He covered topics like:

What to look for when buying land, things to think about when designing the farm layout, how to break ground (with and without tilling) and start your vegetable beds,
things to consider when deciding what to plant and where to plant it, making a greenhouse and equipping it, transplanting and direct seeding, ways to irrigate and how to maintain a system, how to deal with weeds including mulching and manual weeding, using compost as mulch, using cover crops and what to do when it's time to plant, how to break up compaction and avoid it to begin with, multi-cropping, planting beneficial plants elsewhere on the farm, using livestock with the beds, fertilization, dealing with pests and disease, how to harvest efficiently and keep crops clean and fresh, the different ways you can sell your produce, how to hire laborers, record keeping, and more.

He gave specific examples of how they do these various things on his farm and included many full-color photographs of what this looks like. This is a very informative book and is probably most helpful to those who live in a more northern climate like he does (in Maine). I felt like he was not aware of some issues that come up in the South where the winters are mild. Since I'm already an organic farmer and was mostly interested in the no-till method, I was a little disappointed that he did not cover these issues pertinent to my region. However, I did learn quite a lot of new information about no-till and how it works, and I plan to use some of this information next year in my hobby garden.

While this book covered a lot of information, it's not really geared towards people wanting home gardens, but for someone wanting to establish a "marketable" farm. However, I would still recommend it for people who want to know more about gardening because there are good tips in it.

The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm by Daniel Mays is a guide for how to develop your own no-till farm.

It has information on how they deal with weeds, pests, and watering.  It tells you all about how to lay out beds, how to layer plants, and gives you lots of tips.

I was reading it as I am interested in gardening, and grown my own vegetables this year for the first time.  Sadly, no hints about slugs in here for me, but there was so much other information in here that if you're interested in ideas for how to grow organically, then you should give it a read!

 The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm  was published on 10th November 2020.  It's available to buy on  Amazon  and through your  local independent bookshop .

You can follow Daniel Mays on   Instagram  and on  Firth Farm's website .

I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Storey  (the publishers).

This comprehensive guide to no till organic farming was an eye opener. It's a gem in the current crisis. A lot of the information can be adapted for use in planting a plot of your own to become self sufficient, a definite plus.
Divided by subject with great pictures and loads of great information, it's a wonderful primer for someone wanting to start a small organic farm, really, do you want to ingest those poisons and mulching solutions available for free.
Even someone with a good sized lawn could take this information to convert it to a food plot for the family, chemical free and fresh. I plan to employ some of the techniques in my own small plot and expect to find an improved and pesticide/ fertilizer free yield.
I requested and received a NetGalley ARC to peruse and offer my opinion freely.

A beautiful book with a lot of good information for anyone wanting to do some serious farming. Definitely geared towards bigger farming operations, but there's still some useful information for the home gardener.

This is a highly comprehensive manual on how to organically farm. Not a lot here for the home gardener but useful to those contemplating a medium size farm. Everything is covered from business plan through to harvest.

*eArc provided by the publisher and NetGalley

The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm is a comprehensive and well written guide to creating, troubleshooting, and running a market garden farm without tilling/digging (which we are beginning to find out is actually harmful in most situations). Due out 10th Nov 2020 from Storey Publishing, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

Although ostensibly aimed at the professional mid-scale farmer, there are a wealth of takeaways for the home hobbyist gardener with logical accessible implementable advice for starting up, making plans, doing the work, planting, irrigation systems, weeding, soil building and soil care, harvesting, marketing produce, labor, recordkeeping, and measuring success. The author provides the benefit of his near-decade of experience performing and succeeding at the necessary tasks to steward the earth he farms, produce quality food, and strengthen local economies and provide a valuable sustainable service to the local community. The book also includes a glossary, links and resource lists for further reading, and a cross referenced index.

Five stars. Lots and lots (and lots) of inspiration. Aesthetically an enjoyable read with a truly astounding amount of meticulous research and annotation. This would make a superlative selection for garden groups, community gardening, allotment/collective libraries, smallholders, and garden lovers.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I was not expecting such transparency and such a wealth of information. From cash flows (rounded out) to an injunction against purism to every step of the process, this book walks you through the thousand considerations upon forming a farm that is no-till and organic. This is definitely for the serious would-be farmer and is very overwhelming for the hobbyist (like me). However, the techniques of soil husbandry outlined here are useful for every level of gardener, farmer, grower etc. Expect a book to slowly read and digest.

Although I am not running a market garden, I live in UK and am very interested in growing vegetables in my own garden using the ‘no dig’ method. This book explains the principle of this, titled ‘no-till’ here. It is a book which needs to be referred to over a period of times, but explains the hows and whys of growing in a more sustainably and organic fashion.
I t is an in testing read and would highly recommend it.

What a fabulous book! No till organic gardening has really become huge for people looking to lessen their harm on land and the environment. This book had a huge impact on me and had wonderful insight on a gardening method I had never heard prior to opening this book. Not only does the author give you everything you need but his practice has become a successful story for him.

What did I like? So while I devoured this book, I could probably learn more by YouTubing some of these practices. Some of the methods were way over my head and I had to google some stuff just to learn more. Like if it’s a no till, and your not disturbing the soil, how does it get the raised bed look? Still this is a great starter book, and it really gave me food for thought. From soil testing, to tools to buy, watering, and etc. The list is huge!

Would I buy or recommend? I’m all for lessening my environmental impact, and becoming more self sustaining. Even people with backyard gardens can benefit from this book. I would love a copy. Not only does he run a successful farm but he wrote a successful gardening book. I like the idea of farming but without all the big equipment. Five stars! A great guide to no till farming.

I received a complimentary copy to read. A very purposeful guide to no till farming. A great informative guide, and very environmentally friendly.

This is advanced book on how to begin a medium size organic farm. The topics covered are very detailed and informative. I would recommend it to anyone with some average that was interested in planning a farm as an investment.

This book is a little off-topic from what I usually read (or a lot…). However, this is a subject that I am genuinely passionate about. I do believe that there are big problems with our environment and I think that one of the solutions is linked to agriculture and the practices outlined in this book. Besides this, I love gardening and I thought this book would offer me some helpful tips. 

This book is perfect for those wishing to start a larger scale garden, but it can also be helpful for those who garden as a hobby. Mays gets right down to the science of things and also offers practical advice and methods. He goes into the specifics of soil health and ups of no-till vs. the downs of tillage. Further, he emphasizes biodiversity. Each plant offers something special to the ecosystem and when it is paired with other species that complement it, together they will flourish. Another thing that Mays mentioned was finances. Although I did not find this personally helpful, I think it could be invaluable to those who are interested in farming. Mays didn’t gloss over this part but rather was completely honest about his startup costs and about the challenges that come with beginning a new farm. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I definitely recommend it, even if you’re just a hobby gardener. It is full of pearls of wisdom that may open your eyes to some astonishing truths.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am blown away by the sheer breadth and detail that Daniel goes into in this book. Rarely do books of this type break down everything so deeply, including the startup costs you may have. One for the collection and regular referencing!

This is an excellent, detailed guide to starting an organic, no-till vegetable farm. It is not geared towards home gardeners, though we can get some basic information and advice from it. The author started a very successful organic CSA and farm market for a fairly low start-up cost in Maine, and he goes into great detail for how his farm makes it work. It is filled with pictures, charts, planting details and much more, right down to how he prices and how they handle labor. He does go into multiple ways of doing things like irrigation but he provides the most detail on the ways that his farm does it, since that's what he has the most experience (and photos) to teach.

No-till farming is extremely helpful for the environment and also easier for the farmers. It involves the use of mulches and cover crops to plant on top of the soil (which is constantly growing healthier instead of just being stripped of nutrients). Weeds are greatly reduced because you aren't turning up the soil and they are smothered by the organic matter on top of the soil, and it brings pollinators and supports wildlife. It's what I do in my own gardens, though I do it in a very lazy way.

This is a great book for those who'd like to set up a no-till organic farm, with a host of tools to help you determine the best path.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

I've read many gardening/farming books this past year while I prepare to purchase a farm. Most are quite dry, boring, and difficult to get through. This book was unlike any I've recently read. I found it entertaining while incredibly detailed and educational. It covered a wide variety of farming topics that all new farmers need to know. Every question that I've had from germination and planting methods/schedules to preparing the soil, irrigating my crops, dealing with weeds and pests, and even the science of soil health was covered in this book. This is definitely an invaluable book that you will want to have in your library. It's also full of beautiful full color pictures of the author's farm that I really enjoyed looking at as well as valuable reference charts.

Although I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, I plan on purchasing a physical copy so I can more easily refer back to topics as I progress in my farming journey.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3376176177?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm summarizes the start of the Frith Farm in Maine from the beginning of starting a farm to the current success the farm experiences.

This books does a great job at going over every step that is needed to start a farm, starting with buying land to preparing the land to marketing to the public. There is a wealth of knowledge for people who are interested in starting their own farm and Mays does a good job with giving a multitude of options on how to build and grow the business to get the best profit, and sometimes the growth that is needed is a good group of employees and not a good business strategy.

I was excited to start reading this book because it was about a different farming method on a farm in a northern climate. I was a little disappointed once I started reading since this isn't a book on how to start a farm using no-till methods. This is a book on how Daniel Mays started his farm using the no-till method. This book takes the approach of reciting what worked for one farmer rather than going over a multitude of different methods to no-till. This book actually came off as a big advertisement for the farm itself rather than for the farming methods they use. For example, in a section on watering methods, sprinklers and drip irrigation are mentioned. Since Frith Farm uses drip irrigation, there was a step-by-step guide on the tools needed to build drip irrigation and the basic method of how to build it. There was no description for sprinklers. While this isn't necessarily a drawback, it would have been nice to have known that going into the book.

I do think that people who read this book should take some claims with a grain of salt since this book is very biased. The first 40 or 50 pages is setting up the importance of no-till in today's agricultural climate. These beginning pages talk about how bad tilling is for farmland and how amazing no-till is. Mays goes so far as to say compare tilling with landslides, which is very disingenuous to claim since landslides can displace a large amount of rock and soil, rip out full grown trees, and change the distribution of water through river systems within a blink of an eye. I left that introductory section feeling dissatisfied with how the book was set up and would have much preferred a section where the two methods were fairly compared to show why people till their garden in the first place. I think I left the book with more questions about no-till gardening than I came in with because there was no proper introduction to tell the reader what no-till actually is or what the goals of the method are. I wish there was a section where the author answered frequent no-till questions or show a cost/benefit analysis of till vs no-till.

Ultimately, I think this book is good for people who want an introduction to starting a no-till farm as a business, but this book lacks a lot of information that would have to be found elsewhere and some of this information is a little biased.

3/5

The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm by Daniel Mays is a comprehensive guidebook for folks interested in starting a no-till organic vegetable garden, whether for personal use or as a business. And it really is comprehensive, covering everything from A to Z including farming at a human scale, ecological agriculture, getting started, establishing beds, planting, irrigation, weeds, methods of no-till disturbance, natural soil care in action, harvesting and handling, markets and scale, labor, planning and record keeping, and measures of success: profit, people and place.

As a non-gardener, there was a lot of information in this book that went over my head, despite the obvious effort by the author to make things as simple as possible. That said, I'm not the target market for this book, and those readers in that market will likely have at least a basic understanding of things like the differences between mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants, or the benefits of sheet mulch.

The author's use of graphs and charts, sidebars and color graphics is also very effective, and provides a lot of important information and support for the primary text. Another feature I really saw value in was the use of information directly from the author's farm - On Frith Farm. These sections helped make the instructions much more real and approachable.

If you're a serious gardener or small farmer looking to move into the no-til movement, The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm by Daniel Mays is a great recourse you will find very helpful. Even with my limited knowledge of and enthusiasm for gardening, I learned a lot, much of which will be used in our own backyard vegetable garden.

This review is based on an advance copy read

The tagline here is misleading. Personally, I do not want to run profitable market garden. However, I do want to garden better, more efficiently, in a way that is actually healthy for my land. And this book helps me in all of those areas!

Mays started a farm with little farming education or experience. What he has learned over nine years is tremendous, and he is passing that on to his readers. Be prepared; it is a wealth of knowledge! Highly worth the read. I am so impressed with his details, and his ability to clearly communicate. Plus, if you are into building a profitable garden - he’s very open about how much money he’s spent, on what, and how much money he makes. This book is full of helpful details on a wide range of subjects. I think it would be an invaluable resource for any gardener. Bonus materials include a detailed section on recommended tools and supplies - along with associated websites. There is also an extensive bibliography if you want to do some more reading.

I’ve already learned so much and know that I will return to this book many more times. My experiences with Mays’ ideas will easily find their way into my gardening blog at Patch405.com.

I was offered an advance digital copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.