Laughing Dog News:

Summer 2019 Classes at Laughing DogSummer 2019 Classes at Laughing Dog
Three exciting upcoming workshops on Goats, Mushrooms and Guerrilla Gardening
posted Wed, Jun 19, 2019

"Taming Kids Civilizes Humanity...""Taming Kids Civilizes Humanity..."
The power of touch reveals itself doubly relevant for the "feral" farmer who discovers his last, great calling nurturing “kids” and tending a herd of wooly milk meisters...
posted Mon, Apr 16, 2018

"Guerrilla Gardening Tactics for the Backyard Gardener"
Upcoming workshop at Laughing Dog Farm, March 4th, 1:00-4:00 PM
posted Tue, Feb 06, 2018

New Video on
Taming the new crop of kids requires a community effort...
posted Wed, Feb 24, 2016

Laughing Dog Profiled in Country Folks magazine...
2015 goat birthing dramas the subject of recent piece...
posted Thu, Apr 09, 2015

New Life Bursting in Tunnels Despite Long, Cold Winter
posted Tue, Mar 24, 2015

Six Farming “Truths” Re-visited
posted Fri, Mar 01, 2013

“Good Night Irene”, Sandy, etc…
Extreme weather challenges small farmers (and large)...
posted Fri, Feb 01, 2013

Teaching Food Literacy
Permaculture and Backyard Farming
posted Mon, Feb 01, 2010

2009 in Review
"So long, 2009...", An Annual Retrospective...
posted Fri, Jan 01, 2010

Go to Laughing Dog News...

Daniel Botkin
farm manager

398 Main Road
Gill, MA 01354

857-754-1614


Dog Shrine Pages

How Our "Belief System Impacts Our Success (in Farming and Life)......

False or “Limiting” Beliefs Can Hold Us Captive:

  1. “Growing food by hand is peasant work or a quaint hobby for old people…”
  2. “You must have at least 5-50 acres and a tractor to get started…”
  3. “Gardening starts in spring with a rototiller and a seed catalog...”
  4. “You must be a chemist or soil scientist to build truly healthy soil…”
  5. “Tillage is always the first step to planting…”
  6. “No pain, no gain… Growing food implies some hardship and suffering.”
  7. “Gardens should mimic commercial agriculture, with long, straight, weed-free rows of homogeneous, uniformly developing crops…”
  8. “Chemical fertilizer has the same effect as compost.”
  9. “Herbicides and pesticides are necessary to control bugs, weeds and disease.”
  10. “Backyard-farming may be fun, healthy and politically correct, but it has no relevance to the bigger picture, world food crisis…”
  11. “You cannot viably grow protein in a backyard garden…”
  12. “You cannot viably grow grain/beans in New England…”
  13. “You cannot viably grow food in winter without fossil fuel…”
  14. “The ‘experts’ will solve world hunger with super productive hybrids/GMO’s…”
  15. “I guess I just don’t have a green thumb, after all…”

Beliefs that Open Possibilities of More Success:

  1. “Perfection is not required to begin micro-farming…”
  2. “Every garden is a good garden…”
  3. “Small is beautiful (and versatile, flexible and response-able…”
  4. “A little goes a long way…”
  5. “Good food is the best medicine…”
  6. “Growing food is a process, not a product or destination…”
  7. “Nature offers many ‘low-hanging’ fruit… Take the ‘easy’ ones first…”
  8. “Climate change opens new growing angles, windows of opportunity…”
  9. “Deficits can be assets…” A slug “infestation” = opportunity for ducks!
  10. “There are multiple layers of ‘added-value’ in backyard growing…” (Sustenance, seeds, commerce, community, curriculum, social work, healing, recreation, stewardship, carbon sequestration, food security…)
  11. “You need not be a soil scientist to build biologically healthy soil…”
  12. “You can grow greens in the New England winter without fossil fuel…”
  13. “Many kinds of annuals and perennials will co-exist happily…”
  14. “Compostables (leaves, manure, food waste, etc) are ubiquitous and free…”
  15. “Build it and they will grow…”

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"Gardens teach you one lesson quickly: There is no such thing as a Forever Garden. Be brave. Nuture fortitude. It is only in the act of creating, in the endless planting and feeding and watering, in the living and dying and living again that forever might be found." -- From "Slow Love", by Dominique Browning

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Laughing Dog Farm -- Danny Botkin, farm manager, 398 Main Road, Gill, MA 01354 -- 857-754-1614