Your Farm in the City

Your Farm in the City

Last modified on 2012-01-06 21:57:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Your Farm in the City

(click the book cover image for more information and to purchase)

By Lisa Taylor and the gardeners of Seattle Tilth

Intrigued by the local foods movement? Do you love the idea of purchasing all-organic food for yourself and your family, but find the costs to be a giant roadblock?

Perhaps a lack of luxurious outdoor space and acreage have you feeling like starting your own garden is an impossible endeavor?

Lisa Taylor can teach you how to grow your own fruits, veggies, herbs, and more in only a few feet of space in the sun. Written specifically for city dwellers, this one-of-a-kind, all-in-one resource shows you how to grow organic produce, raise livestock including chickens (fresh eggs!), ducks, rabbits, and goats, and even run a small farm in any urban environment, from a rooftop or window box to a city lot or backyard.

Inspired by the gorgeous original Seattle Tilth learning garden at the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle, Lisa decided to begin her own journey as a city farmer. She envisioned a yard filled with vegetables and herbs, with fruit trees along the fence line and grapevines climbing an arbor over her porch swing. Lisa wanted a place where she could pick her dinner just moments before it came into the kitchen. And that’s exactly what she has now. In Your Farm in the City Lisa shows you how you can create a city farm, too, using the simple, straightforward, and effective techniques described in the book.

What is urban farming? A new term for growing a kitchen garden (or, to use the French term, potager), urban farming has been practiced since the advent of cities. For the purposes of this book, urban farming is defined as resourceful food gardening in a city setting and farmers are those nobly growing food for themselves, their families, and their community. Unlike the back-to-the-land movement of the 70s, this new wave of urban farming isn’t about giving up the city life and heading back to the farm but about embracing the notion of the little family farm in the big city.

Molly Creeden, a writer for Vogue, expresses her delight with urban gardening with a little help from author Lisa Taylor:

“Witness the young and well heeled in garden stores who are equally versed on the Coachella lineup as they are on how to protect tomatoes from squirrels….A conversation with [Lisa] Taylor and a taxi ride from the garden store later, I had seeds, starter plants, fifteen-gallon containers, unfortified potting soil, and OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute)-certified fertilizer. After the last frost date, I planted—nasturtiums, red onions, and lettuce. Gradually, my shoots poked through and took shape—the diversity of edibles and nutrients extends beyond the standard market offerings. And, because the greens go straight from the dirt to my dinner party, I can trust they’re organic in the truest sense of the word.”

Growing your own food ensures food safety and food security for you and your family. Other practical reasons for growing your own organic food:

• Economic, cost-saving factors: With only a few hours each week, you can maintain a modern urban garden vs. spending a fortune on expensive organic produce at a health foods store
• Environmental concerns: Organic methods improve the urban environment by building healthy soil, encouraging biodiversity, and creating a habitat for wildlife.
• Reducing carbon footprint: By growing food right outside our front doorstep, we reduce our use of gas and our carbon footprint
• Family and community fun: Tending a garden teaches children stewardship and a deep appreciation of the wonder, beauty, and magnificence of the Earth.
• Independence and self-sufficiency: Growing food is a life skill that teaches planning, careful observation, and patience. It is also profoundly liberating! It is important to know that we can directly provide for ourselves and our families
• Exercise: Tending a city farm is physical work in fresh air and natural light that comes without the cost of exercise equipment (don’t tell the fitness infomercial hosts!)
• Better flavor: Most produce in commercial supermarkets is designed for shelf life rather than flavor. Produce picked when it’s ripe (instead of sent to “ripen” on a truck on the way to the grocery store) tastes much better. Suddenly, you’ll find yourself eating a lot of healthy food that hadn’t appealed to you before.

Need more convincing?

Michelle Obama’s 1,100-square-foot White House kitchen garden was started for $200 and produced 1,000 pounds of produce–enough to feed folks at the White House, with extra going to food banks.

“Why drive to your local Farmer’s Market when you can just walk a few feet and pick your own fresh produce. …   Your Farm in the City shows you how.”

—Dolores Long (Pennsylvania)

“It’s an exciting — as well as encouraging — book that opens the door to many of the current organic trends that we’re seeing in the world today. From growing veggies and fruits, to soil basics, to raising your own bees….Your Farm in the City has tons of tips and ideas sandwiched between its pages that will have your mind swimming with what could be possible in your own little corner of the world.”

—Vegetable Gardener magazine

Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International, and his wife Jacqueline tracked their production from a 1,600-square-foot garden and estimated that for an initial $282 investment, they grow about $2,390 worth of fruits and vegetables.