The Plastic-Free Farm and Garden will be the definitive guide for home gardeners and small-scale market growers looking to produce more food with less plastic, from a trusted and authoritative innovator in the farming and gardening world.

Modern gardening relies on heaps of plastic—plastic pots, landscaping fabric, row covers, and more. In the US alone, growers generate more than one billion pounds of plastic waste annually. This is a tragedy unfolding in plain sight all around us, because in the long run, plastic does more harm than good to soil, plants, and people.

Ben Hartman is the author of the beloved Lean Farm series of books, instructor of the popular Lean Micro Farm masterclass, and owner and operator of Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, with his wife, Rachel Hershberger. For the past four years, they have been on a journey to drastically reduce their use of plastics, which is now down 80 percent. The plastic-free innovations Ben shares here come from this direct experience. In seven chapters, this book will instruct readers on practical alternatives to plastic for use both in farming and home gardening. Methods include:

• Seeding with paper pots
• Trellising with jute and bamboo
• Using burlap rolls as a shade cloth
• And, more!

About The Author

Ben Hartman grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Indiana and graduated college with degrees in English and philosophy. Ben and his wife, Rachel Hershberger, own and operate Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, where they make their living growing and selling specialty crops on less than one acre. The farm has twice won Edible Michiana’s Reader’s Choice award. The Lean Farm, Ben’s first book, won the Shingo Institute’s prestigious Publication Award. In 2017 Ben was named one of Grist’s fifty emerging green leaders in the United States. Clay Bottom Farm has developed an online course in lean farming, which can be found at www.claybottomfarm.com. Ben is also an ambassador for Patagonia, Inc., and a part-time consultant for several leading garden supplies companies: Johnny’s Selected Seeds (US), Modern Grower (US), Nitten Paperpot (Japan), Terrateck (France), and Farmer’s Friend (US).