The best place to look for information is often your local cooperative extension. How do you find it? Gardening Know How lets you search for yours by zip code (though you may need to widen your search if nothing shows up within 10 miles of your location).
Sometimes you’ll want or need additional information. The following sources are among the best, if not the only, places to locate that information online. If you find broken links or want to suggest a resource, please let me know.
Agriculture Classics, Out of Print and Public Domain, Full-Text
Small Farms Library, Journey to Forever
Has a similar mix to the Soil and Health Library (below), with the addition of full-text books (and links to full-text works) on practical information such as building a sunflower-seed oil press or solar water heater. Arranged helpfully by topic.
Has a mixed bag of classics and out-of-print books downloadable in pdf format. If you’re looking for something from Lady Eve Balfour or Sir Albert Howard, for example, this is a good place to start.
Agriculture Topics, Brief Introductions
A fantastic resource available through the University of Michigan that includes important but neglected topics like financing and risk management, as well as excellent and well-organized links to other resources on a whole range of issues relevant to beginning farmers.
Agriculture Topics, Detailed and (Often) with Further Resources
Has a free bimonthly journal, The Overstory.
Geared toward the developing world with publications in several languages.
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (AFSIC)
Lots of information on alternative crops and business practices, ecological pest management, etc.
Association for Temperate Agroforestry
A first stop for any urban farmer looking to practice agroforestry in the lower 48.
Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO)
Geared toward the developing world, but with plenty of good information for North America.
Faith And Sustainable Technologies (F.A.S.T.)
A gathering of hundreds of how-to manuals on topics from the mundane but useful (understanding chickens, drying fruits and vegetables) to the outlandish but fascinating (crocodile farming, making banana beer).
The Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops (KCSAAC)
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA)
This is often my first choice for information on all things agricultural.
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
If you can’t find anything on your sustainable agriculture topic at the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA) or other sites above, check here.
Aquaculture/Aquaponics/Hydroponics
An Overview of Aquaponic Systems: Hydroponic Components by D. Allen Pattillo
Published by the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center; includes extensive links to other resources.
The Northeastern Regional Aquaculture Center
Maintains a list of other regional aquaculture centers.
Hydroponics: An Overview by Merle H. Jensen
Primer on hydroponics from the University of Arizona College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Climate Zone/Planting Calendars
The National Gardening Association
· This enables you to search for your climate zone by zip code.
· This generates a printable planting calendar for popular fruits and vegetables according to your city or zip code.
Generates a printable planting calendar for popular fruits and vegetables according to your city or zip code. You can also sign up for email reminders.
Community Gardens, Kitchen Gardens, CSAs, and Farmers Markets
The Agricultural Marketing Service of the US Department of Agriculture
The site has a searchable database of farmers’ markets.
American Community Gardening Association (ACGA)
All you ever wanted to know about community gardens, including a searchable (but not complete) database of them, and links to start-up resources, including the Community Garden Start-Up Guide put out by the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Los Angeles.
Provides a searchable database of farms and CSAs and information on events and other resources.
Provides a searchable database of farmers.
Cultivars
Offers a great searchable database of vegetable cultivars.
Distance Learning
Distance Learning on Urban Agriculture
RUAF, ETC-Urban Agriculture (an advisory group and resource center based in the Netherlands), and the Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education and Centre for Studies in Food Security have developed this distance-learning program in urban agriculture. Users can take the courses at their own paces for free (although without credit or certificate), or they can take them as paid and accredited courses.
Edible Schoolyards, Etc.
National Farm to School Network
National Gardening Association’s Kidsgardening
Food Policy Councils and Other Food Issues
The Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First)
The Union of Concerned Scientists www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture
Gardening Equipment and Supplies
Green Roofs
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC)
International Green Roof Association
Hoop-House Instructions
The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
Utah State Cooperative Extension
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Biointensive Integrated Pest Management: Fundamentals of Sustainable Agriculture by Rex Dufour
ATTRA also provides a searchable database of biorationals (nonsynthetic and/or less harmful pest control substances).
Cornell’s Berry Diagnostic Tool, developed by Marvin Pritts
Got problems with your berries? This site will help you diagnose the culprit for major ones (including blueberries, strawberries, and some brambles) and provides links that may lead to remedies.
New York State Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (Cornell Cooperative Extension)
Along with the University of California site (see below), one of the best all-around resources on IPM.
Resource Guide for Organic Insect and Disease Management by Brian Caldwell, et al
Excellent guide for use of IPM with organic crops.
Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (University of California)
Along with the Cornell site (see above), one of the best all-around resources on IPM; probably my first stop.
Livestock
Livestock are a real investment, so check out primers on your chosen animals under Agriculture Topics, Detailed and (Often) with Further Resources. If you’re committed to taking them on, you can find helpful information on several species and breeds at Hobby Farms, which also includes links to books and magazines for enthusiasts.
Miscellaneous
A Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture
Arizona State University/Google-led study by Nicholas Clinton et al in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future.
A site that lets you search for topics across various cooperative extension service publications.
Urban Agriculture: Connecting Producers with Consumers
Study of American urban farmer motivations by Carolyn Dimitri, Lydia Oberholtzer, and Andy Pressman in the British Food Journal.
New Farmers
SeedMoney (formerly Kitchen Gardeners International)
An organization “offering financial and technical support to a wide variety of public food garden projects.”
Includes a “discovery” tool to help you whittle down available resources to those most relevant to you.
News, General
Organic Farming
The Organic Materials Review Institute
Provides the latest information about what products are forbidden or permitted in organic production, and under what circumstances.
Conducts research and provides information on organic agriculture.
Outreach/Research Organizations, Urban Agricultural
Centro Internacional de la Papa/International Potato Center (CIP)
Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO)
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Food for the Cities Program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF)
Plant/Seed Sources
Provides a seed-starting gardener’s service, as well as user ratings on nurseries and other resources.
Plant Information Online service of the University of Minnesota Libraries
If you want to find sources for a particular plant and know its common or Latin name, you can probably find sources for it through this site.
Plants, Live Sources
Specializes in “less care” edible plants.
Specializes in the Northwest but has an amazing variety of plants.
Plants, Seed Sources
Offers untreated seeds for major vegetable crops.
Specializes in rare and ethnobotanically important plants.
One of the top sources of seeds for urban farmers.
Specializes in Asian vegetables.
Features a huge collection of heirloom seeds.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Specializes in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Specializes in the northwestern region.
Plants, Various Information
Has information on unusual fruiting plants (especially tropical or subtropical).
A good place to start for hardier tree fruits, grapes, and berries.
North American Fruit Explorers
Another great site for information on unusual fruiting plants.
Very thorough and includes useful nonfood plants.
Purdue University’s Center for New Crops and Plant Products
This is probably the first place to look for nontraditional and specialty crop plants.
Has a huge amount of information on plants, such as geographic spread, noxious status, and growth habits and uses. It’s probably the first place to look for nonfood plants.
Soil
Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory
A good place to have your soil tested is the Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. (Make sure you package your soil samples really well so that they do not explode into a dusty mess in postal machinery and cause a scare.)
Offers a flowchart to help you determine soil texture by feel.
You can find your “official” state soil here.
If you’re handy with online tools, you can enter your street address and find a whole bunch of information on your local soils (including separates, precipitation, and landforms).
Urban Farmer/Homesteader Blogs and Sites
The blog of The Urban Homestead authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen.
The blog of the Dervaes family, the original modern urban homesteaders.
Vertical Farming
Prof. Dickson Despommier’s site.