418 - What Market Farmers Know That Backyard Gardeners Don’t (Yet!) with Pam Dawling
The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy
Jill McSheehy
4.4 • 734 Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we explore how backyard gardeners can apply market farming techniques to grow healthier, more productive gardens with Pam Dawling author of Sustainable Market Farming. From disease and pest control to crop rotation and weeding, our guest shares practical, sustainable strategies drawn from real-world farming experience.
Topics we cover include:
🌱 Easy-to-apply disease management practices
🧹 Smart, chemical-free weed control (and a realistic weeding schedule)
🐛 Organic pest prevention strategies, including trap crops and netting
🔁 How to rotate crops in small spaces—and why it matters
🧠 Common myths and misconceptions about organic gardening
Plus, hear how Pam's book can help you garden with more confidence and fewer headaches.
Thank you to our sponsors: Organic REV | Garden in Minutes | Heirloom Roses
Organic REV is an organic growth stimulant that can increase nitrogen efficiency by up to 25%, replaces depleted soil carbon and bacterial biomass, and absorbs nutrients to make them more readily available to plants via their root systems.
Promo Code: Use promo code JILL10 for 10% off your order
Want to learn more about Organic REV? Enroll in my FREE course that teaches you how to use REV in seed starting, transplanting and so much more! Click here to enroll.
Water your raised beds more efficiently and effectively with the Garden in Minutes Garden Grids. These garden grids take about 1 minute to set up, water all of your plants evenly at their base, and ship in pre-assembled sections! No messy emitters or tangle of tubing. Just connect & grow! https://journeywithjill.net/gardeninminutes
Discount Code: Use promo code JILL for 7% off your purchase
HeirloomRoses.com has over 900 roses to choose from and hundreds of perennials and bulbs for your complete garden dreams. Get yours today and check out their selections here.
My Products:
2025 Complete Garden Planner (plus several new editions!)
https://shop.journeywithjill.net/
Vegetable Gardening for Beginners Book: https://amzn.to/3TZeJux
Products I recommend:
Recommended Brands & Products page:
https://journeywithjill.net/recommended-brands-and-products/
https://www.amazon.com/shop/thebeginnersgarden
Connect with Jill:
Sign up for Friday Emails: https://journeywithjill.net/gardensignup
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JourneywithjillNet/videos
The Beginner's Garden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeginnersgarden/
Link to Beginner's Garden Podcast past episodes: https://journeywithjill.net/the-beginners-garden-podcast/
(*links above contain affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, we will earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Of all the gardening books that I read, I think my most favorite ones are those from |
| 0:05.6 | market gardeners or market farmers. And the reason is because they're having to do what we do |
| 0:11.7 | as backyard gardeners, but they're having to do it on a larger scale, which means they've got to |
| 0:16.9 | figure out what works and what doesn't, especially if they are organic gardeners, because they |
| 0:22.5 | have to deal with disease, pest, weeds, just like we do, but at a much larger scale. |
| 0:29.8 | Today, I am thrilled to introduce to you Pam Dalling. She has been a market farmer for several |
| 0:36.3 | decades. She is based out of Virginia and she has lots of |
| 0:39.9 | experience with growing a lot of food in an organic way. I'm going to pepper her with questions on |
| 0:45.5 | diseases, weeds, pests, crop rotation and how to do crop rotation if you have a small space. |
| 0:51.6 | And we're going to dive into a few myths that she sees and a couple of |
| 0:55.5 | gardening practices that are kind of hot topics right now, but she's approaching them with a |
| 1:01.3 | healthy dose of skepticism. And she'll share more with you about that at the end. I know you're |
| 1:06.2 | going to love this conversation with her. So let's dive in with Pam Dalling, the author of |
| 1:10.7 | Sustainable Market Farming. |
| 1:12.9 | Before we get started, this episode has been brought to you by Garden in Minutes. |
| 1:17.2 | You know that I love the Garden and Minutes garden grids. From the very first time I started using |
| 1:22.0 | them, I saw that my plants did better, they thrived, and they produced more. Garden and Minutes garden grids are so easy |
| 1:29.1 | to put together. They put together in minutes, and they are my go-to for irrigation. To check out |
| 1:34.5 | their garden grids and find the size that works out for your raised bed, go to journey withjill.net |
| 1:39.4 | slash garden in minutes and use my promo code, Jill, to get 7% off of your order. And while you're there, |
| 1:45.7 | check out their tomato cages and their metal raised beds as well. Garden in Minutes makes gardening |
| 1:51.3 | so much easier. Hi, Pam. Welcome to the podcast. I am thrilled to talk to you about market farming, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 5 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jill McSheehy, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jill McSheehy and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.