How to be an urban farmer

If you look up urban farming you will see these amazing people who live in urban areas with these crazy large gardens and who make enough money to be an urban farmer for a living. Then there is me. I was reading how someone produced this crazy amount of food on their urban farm on only a quarter of an acre. I asked my hubby large our lot was and he figured it to be maybe an 1/8 of an acre. I do not plan on having my own csa out of my backyard. I just want to grow enough tomatoes to last me for a whole year.

I decided to get a good definition of a farmer and farm to see how I measure up.

farmer

       a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.

farm

1.a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often

livestock are raised for livelihood.

2. land or water devoted to the raising of animals, fish, plants, etc.:

a pig farm; an oyster farm; a tree farm

I think i am better off than I thought. I am a person who cultivates land, I have a house on my land. I have a chicken coop and a pigeon loft which are like little barns, We also have a garage where we keep our gardening equipment and all the feed. Maybe I will tell Mr Ladybug that we need to start calling it a barn. We have land devoted to gardening, egg production and raise meat rabbits. Urban is defined as relating to or characteristic of a city or town. Our population is 318,449 so I think that is large enough to be a city and if you  look at the map below I live inside that circle and actually less that a mile from smack downtown. So I am definitely an urban farmer. Go me!

Not everyone wants to put livestock in their backyard and some people actually think chickens and all birds are creepy. I wont call out names but she reads this blog and she knows who she is. You may not own your home and are not allowed to put in raised beds or plow up your yard. Some of you have HOA's and all those rules. Some are not even allowed to have clothes lines. You may live in an apartment without a yard. You can still be an urban farmer in my book. We started out with a little 4 foot by 4 foot square foot garden, then we doubled and we just keep adding on. This isnt even all of it. we have a back part of the yard with the chickens, pigeons and rabbits. Thats where our compost pile is along with tomatoes, green beans, blackberries, grapes, cucumbers and hopefully another strawberry bed.

http://gardenplanner.almanac.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=810449

If you wish to start gardening but dont know where to start I would suggest your favorite herbs in pots.  Carrots, radishes, green onions and leaf lettuces grow well in pots too. Get a potted tomato plant and you are growing everything you need for a salad.If gardening isnt even remotely interesting to you thats okay too but please  make sure you start taking little steps to reach your goals.

I have been amazed at how much money we are saving with me really sticking to our grocery budget. It basically means we have more money for gardening and we are okay with that. How cool would it be for us to not have to go to the grocery! This isnt really about saving money from doing everything yourself either. I think I saw eggs for less that $1 at the store. The cost of feeding the hens is more expensive than that. Its about quality. Same goes for the rabbit meat. I can get chicken breast for $1.49lb it costs more than that to raise the rabbits but we know they are treated humanely and their living conditions are much better than big commercial companies. It will take a long time before our bee hives even break even. It costs close to $700 to start a hive. The bees themselves are $175 and we lost a hive last year and our small one this year. This isnt about money its about doing the right thing and trying to make our little piece of the world a better place. This is something we are passionate about and thats where we put our resources. Especially our time. Remember that as you figure out what your passions are.