Starting a Market Garden Shopping List

Propagation equipment

• Seeding cells
• Seeding trays
• Growing medium/potting soil mix
• Heating mats (ideally)
• Light (ideally)
• Seeds
• Labels
• Permanent marker
• Notebook for keeping notes and consulting crop plan

Fertility equipment (my soil is very coarse sand)

• Compost
• Horse Manure (lowest quality manure, but available for free)
• Soil
• Peat moss
• Pelletized chicken manure or blood meal (ideally)
• Truck (rent or borrow)

Season Extension equipment

• Floating rowcovers
• low tunnel/unheated greenhouse
• Transplants

Irrigation equipment

• 150 feet of hose
• Sprinkler
• Timer for watering 
• Drip irrigation for greenhouse crops

Harvest equipment

• Pulp berry baskets of varying sizes
• Stackable perforated harvest bins for picking and delivery to market
• Unperforated bins for washing root vegetables
• Elastic bands for Asparagus and other bunching vegetables
• Harvest cart
• Hose nozzle for cleaning
• Cold room (ideally)

Market supplies

• Signs
• Labels
• Tent shelter
• Folding table
• Table cloths
• Cashbox
• Cash & change

As I hinted to a few posts ago, I am starting my own market gardening business. My orchard will begin producing small quantities of fruit this year and I will grow annual vegetables. I have started selling houseplants in a local store already and preparing for a busy season as a market gardener. This is all made possible by maintaining a part time job 20 hours per week. Income from the first year can be disappointing as mistakes are made but these are how we learn.

The above is my shopping list for what I need to start my business. This list continues to grow as I remember other indispensable items (feel free to comment anything I have forgotten). I have already purchased many of these items, and am still looking/shopping around for others. Those with "ideally" in brackets are items which I might not get around to purchasing this year.

Risk is inevitable in business. Nothing comes for free, and making a living self-employed requires investment. The returns will hopefully exceed what you can expect as an employee but putting in a few years of hard work is as inevitable as spending some money.

Minimize that Wardrobe

It is said that we use 20% of our belongings 80% of the time. Despite practicing minimalism for the past year, every week I find more items that have so far evaded my minimizing purges. Every time I think I have nothing left that I could live without, I find myself staring at a piece of furniture or a knick-knack and imagining life without it. Inevitably, it's the next thing I get rid of and the cycle continues.

My 'decluttering' is usually pretty unfocused in nature, and I never developed a system beyond It Must Be Beautiful, Bring Me Joy, or Useful. This system works less well on minimizing a clothing collection. I still have duplicates of black sweaters, farm work jeans, tank tops, etc. 

Until recently I moved every 6 months, and traveled a lot. All my clothes fit in a backpack that wasn't heavy enough to burden me. The climate was not as harsh as Canada, so I didn't need long-johns, snow pants, winter coats, mittens, etc. Mostly I lived in Scotland where summer clothing was equally unnecessary, so no need for summer dresses, multiple bathing suits, or shorts.

Remembering my slightly nomadic existence inspired me to go through my wardrobe as if I still lived that way. Considering my current circumstances I asked of each item of clothing:

If I was going on holiday for several months, somewhere where temperatures ranged from -30C to +30C and I was planning on working on a farm while I was there, would I bring this with me?

It occurs to me that this formula could help others declutter and return clothing into circulation. All you have to do is alter the details within the commas according to what your life and climate look like.

Suddenly it made a lot less sense to hold onto some of the 'just in cases' that have survived monthly clothing purges. 

Perhaps the same trick can help you on your way to living more lightly.