So Much Ground, So Little Time.

That’s the lament of many homeowners who wish they could turn a few square feet of their backyard into a source of fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ve often herd people wonder out loud if they could simply hire someone to do it for them. In San Francisco, now you can.

Trevor Paque calls his business ‘MyFarm’. He and his helpers currently farm 55 backyards. For time-starved residents, MyFarm is a way to get organic produce grown steps from their kitchen without having to touch a trowel. For yardless neighbors, it lets them effectively buy a share of their neighbors’ gardens.

Click Here to read the story.

Phoenix zoning ordinances allow chickens so long as the size of your residential lot is 10,000 square feet or more.  That leaves most of us out.  Things in Albuquerque look much better for those inclined to raise chickens.

Accoring to this article, Albuquerque City Ordinances allow up to 15 chickens and one rooster in a household.

“We definitely have more than most cities, but New York City doesn’t have a regulation on the number; you can keep as many as you want,” said UNM graduate student KT LaBadie, who started the Urban Chickens project in Albuquerque in 2007.

Click Here to read more.

Do you remember last week when I wrote about Will Allen, the former NBA player who started a community urban farm in Chicago?

He will now have an extra $500,000 to help his efforts.

The MacArthur Foundation announced yesterday that they will honor his work with one of their 25 annual ‘genius’ grants–a five-year grant that the recipient can use as he or she chooses. Mr. Allen joins a group of artists, physicians and scientists recognized for their unique contributions to improve society. This may be the first time that an urban farmer has been given such a coveted award.

Click Here to read more.

If you have time to read just one story today, this is it:

A Growing Movement: Urban Farming In Chicago

It started with the vision of Will Allen, a former NBA player: a comprehensive, non-profit agricultural complex complete with greenhouses, composts, outdoor pens for livestock, and a small retail store. He also implemented an urban farming training program that teaches schools, government agencies, and community members how to operate and sustain farms themselves.

Click Here to read the article

Farmer Darrell at the Garden in the Desert blog has some great tips for transplanting garden plants so they survive the Arizona heat.

CLick Here

If you are from Vancouver, BC, your reaction might be, “There’s no farm in the Kitsilano neighborhood!”

Yes There Is!

Kitsilano Farms is an amalgamation of backyard gardens around the Kitsilano neighbourhood. The people who own these gardens have provided the space to grow produce that is taken to market or share with the community through their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

Craig Heigway calls himself the Chief Pitchfork Operator (CPO) of Kitsilano Farms. Craig says:

As a boy, my summer weekends were spent behind the wheel of an old Massey Ferguson tractor, hauling the equipment that turns hay into bales. Luckily, I was under the age of 12, so not big enough to heft the bales onto the wagon –that was left to my older brother, Drew.
There is a big gap in time between the farm of my childhood and Kitsilano Farms. Time that I rarely experienced farm life, but often longed for an opportunity to get back to the land. Now I have the opportunity to put my hands in the soil, plant the seeds, weed the gardens, tend to the crop; that is, be a farmer again.

And the best thing of all, I get to meet the people and see the smiles on their faces when I present them with the beautiful vegetables that I grew. That’s why I started Kitsilano Farms.

Click Here to learn more about Kitsilano Farms.