The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm Online Workshop

In this On-Demand workshop, Megan and Jonathan Leiss of Spring Forth Farm share their firsthand experiences including practical business management and the flower growing techniques they have learned over the years from their own micro-farm and homestead. Micro-farming is an excellent way to have a rewarding farm business that doesn’t take over your life, but it requires different business strategies than a larger farm. 

The strategies shared are applicable for a range of business sizes from a few beds in your yard up to half an acre (or larger). Learn about farm design, sales, and planning. Megan and Jonathan introduce the system for no-till farming that they use on Spring Forth Farm. 

No-till is an especially good fit for the micro-farm due to its low infrastructure investment and efficient use of space. Covering everything from bed making and cover cropping to crop planting and eventually, clearing out your flowers. This class provides a comprehensive overview of their no-till farming techniques. 

In this course you will learn:

• Ideas for designing your own micro-farm business to fit your life
• Which sales outlets are viable for a micro-farm
• Techniques for growing and harvesting flowers with no-till methods 
• The steps to build and manage permanent raised beds 
• How to prepare, plant and clean out your no-till garden beds
• Different methods to seed and terminate cover crops with no-till methods
• How to use occultation as a way to break down cover crops and suppress weeds without disturbing the soil
• See the course syllabus here.

While this class is geared towards flower farmers, the growing methods you will learn are easily transferable to any type of garden in many different settings. See you in class!

View the Panel Discussion Review of The No-Till Micro-Scale Flower Farm with Andrew of Growing for Market, Laura of Cultivating Resilience, and Jennie Love of Love N’ Fresh Flowers.

How online courses work: Learn how you access courses from any device with internet, how you have lifetime unlimited access, the refund policy, and more here.

What is NOT Included in This Course:

This course is focused on specific practices relevant to succeeding with a no-till, micro-scale flower farm.  It is not a comprehensive flower farming course. For an in-depth dive into flower farming topics such as specific flowers’ growing requirements, seed starting, and other aspects of farming, consider our Flower Farming Schools.

Meet Jonathan and Megan Leiss

Jonathan was a guest on The Flower Podcast in 2020 discussing why and how they apply no-till practices to their micro farm. Listen here.

Megan and Jonathan Leiss are the flower farmers and homesteaders of Spring Forth Farm in Hurdle Mills, NC. They grow a half acre of cut flowers plus a large vegetable garden along with their one-year old helper daughter, Julianne.

The Leiss’s tend their cut flower micro-farm and sell wholesale to florists and designers in the Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina area. Megan and Jonathan have chosen to focus their business on spring flower sales, which has helped them to better manage their labor throughout the year.  

Spring Forth Farm strives to put Mother Nature first by using environmentally sound practices such as permanent raised beds, no-till farming methods, and cover cropping. They strongly believe that a healthy and balanced quality of life makes organic farming a viable career for anyone and their innovative approach to their business is refreshing and inspiring. 

The Leiss’s are members of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. Their farm was featured on the 2018 National Conference tour. In 2016 Jonathan and Megan were selected as Mother Earth News Homesteaders of the Year. You will also find Spring Forth Farm included in Andrew Mefferd’s book The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution.

Note of Interest: Read more and listen to Jonathan and Megan’s interview on the Slow Flowers Podcast here.