Growing Small Farms

My next public tour of Chatham County Cooperative Extension's Pollinator Paradise Demo Garden is next Tuesday, May 26 at 10 am and there's still room! The tours are free but registration is required. Spring is a lovely time to visit the garden. Check out the link below to register.

Pollinator Garden Tour Agriculture Agent Debbie Roos will give a tour of Chatham County Cooperative Extension’s Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden.

Registration is now open for tours of Chatham County Cooperative Extension's popular Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden in Pittsboro! The garden features over 240 species of perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, and grasses, and 85% of them are native to North Carolina. This is a great opportunity to visit the popular gathering spot for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other beneficial critters in addition to their human admirers! Visit the web page below for a link to tour dates and registration. Tours are free but registration is required.

Register Now for Spring Tours of the Pollinator Paradise Garden! - Growing Small Farms | NC State Extension Spring tours of North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden in Pittsboro start on May 9!The garden features over 240 species of perennials, trees, shrubs, vines,…

What a special day out at Granite Springs Farm! Today was the day that farmer Meredith Leight and crew started planting fruit trees in the geothermal tunnel! This has been a dream of Meredith's for years, inspired by her son-in-law Luis Gochez' love of fruits from his native El Salvador. Fruits that not many, if any, people are growing for sale in our region. Fruits that need the protection of a geothermal tunnel which will keep them from freezing in the winter. I loved that it was such a family effort! In addition to Meredith, friend and long-time helper Kim Gotwals was there as well as Luis and his Dad Jose, plus Meredith's granddaughter Carolina who wanted to be right there helping with every tree! It will take some to get them all planted, and some of the more cold-hardy species will get planted outside. Today's planting included papaya, banana, mango, and citrus! Before planting they removed the crimson clover cover crop where the trees would be planted, but left it to grow a bit longer between trees. The edges of the beds are planted with ripening strawberries! I have many more photos to post but it will take time so consider this a teaser.

Had a great visit to Bonlee Grown Farm yesterday! It was fun to catch up with grower Ramy Sugg and talk about native ground nesting bees. Here she is in one of the greenhouses, this one full of their famous double-bloom geraniums that customers drool over. You can find Ramy at the Tuesday Fearrington Farmers' Market in Pittsboro, the Thursday Moore County Farmers Market in Southern Pines, and the Saturday Durham Farmers' Market!

Been seeing lots of ground nesting bee activity! I get lots of calls from people concerned about these bees. Read all about why they are important pollinators that pose no threat to people on Cooperative Extension's Growing Small Farms website.

Ground-Nesting Bees Should Be Appreciated, Not Feared! | NC State Extension Every year, from mid-March through mid-April, I get calls from folks worried about all the bees hovering over their lawns. They want to know how they can kill them because they are afraid they will…

Full house for pollinators! I lost a bet today. We had 400 people registered (plus a waiting list) for today's Pollinator Habitat Workshop at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center in Pittsboro. This workshop was to share the experiences, results, and recommendations from our two year Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant project, a collaboration among North Carolina Cooperative Extension, NC State University, and the NC Botanical Garden. Since this was a free program (no one had any "skin in the game") AND it was a warm spring-like day I figured we'd have lots of "no shows". Man was I wrong! I don't think all 400 showed up (haven't tallied the check-in sheets yet) but we had to open the overflow parking at the Livestock Arena to accommodate the crowd! It was very uplifting to see so much interest. I enjoyed giving my presentation on Plant Selection and all the other speakers were great. Here's a pic of Meredith Leight of Granite Springs Farm, one of three farmer cooperators, talking about site preparation for planting habitat and sharing her experiences over the two years. We did record the workshop so I'll share the recording once it's done!

Hi everyone, just a reminder that TOMORROW - Thursday - the Pittsboro Farmers Market will be at their new location downtown! Come visit the market at Pittsboro’s Downtown Pop-Up Park located at 50 W. Salisbury Street across the street from Quiltmaker Cafe, formerly Postal Fish Co. from 3:00-6:00 pm every Thursday. I hope to see you there tomorrow!

The Pittsboro Farmers' Market Is Moving Downtown! Beautiful farmers’ market carrots! Photo by Debbie Roos. The Pittsboro Farmers’ Market Board is excited to announce that they are moving: The market has accepted a great opportunity to be a part of the revitalization of downtown Pittsboro, and we are so excited for all that this will mean for ou...

This Thursday will be the last week for the Pittsboro Farmers Market at The Plant. Starting next week, February 19, the market will be downtown! Visit the webpage for details.

The Pittsboro Farmers' Market Is Moving Downtown! Beautiful farmers’ market carrots! Photo by Debbie Roos. The Pittsboro Farmers’ Market Board is excited to announce that they are moving: The market has accepted a great opportunity to be a part of the revitalization of downtown Pittsboro, and we are so excited for all that this will mean for ou...

Farmers don't get snow days! Keep our farmers in mind this weekend as we experience this big (predicted) snow event. Many, if not most, of our market farmers produce crops year-round, so significant snowfall for farmers doesn't mean sledding with the kids or grandkids, or sitting by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate, or catching up on sleep. It can mean working around the clock to manually remove snow that accumulates on high tunnels, because if they don't the tunnel collapses as pictured here from a NC farm a few years ago. Keeping crops protected from temperatures in the single digits. Making sure livestock is fed and watered in spite of below freezing temperatures that make these tasks difficult. Thank our farmers, and make sure and support them at your local farmers' markets!

This grant program might interest some farmers and forest landowners...

Farmers and Landowners Can Apply for Agroforestry Grants Silvopasture system at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) in Goldsboro, NC. Temporary electric fence is used to manage livestock and allocate pastures to the grazing livestock. Photo courtesy of CEFS. The 2026 cycle of the Catalyzing Agroforestry Grant Program (CAGP) is open for app...