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Here’s one way to deal with rising food prices: front yard farming
By Anita |
Here’s a cool article in the New York Times about a new trend:
“Unlike traditional home gardeners who devote a corner of the yard to a few rows of vegetables, a new crop of minifarmers is tearing up the whole yard and planting foods such as arugula and kohlrabi that restaurants might want to buy. The locally grown food movement has also created a new market for front-yard farmers.”
And check out this website about metropolitan farming. It says that “according to a recent Census of Agriculture, the most productive farmland in the United States is in the Borough of the Bronx! The second most productive farmland is in the City of San Francisco! You can earn up to eight times the average personal income on as little as one acre of land.”
When you think about it, so many of us have a lot of green space that sits mostly untouched except for when we mow it. My yard is large yet we do very little vegetable gardening. I’ve indulged in the occasional fantasy of having backyard chickens but the fear of rats coming and eating the chicken feed (I’ve read that this happens) keeps me from pursuing that.
Today I ordered this book from the library. The author once grew more than 1000 pounds of tomatoes from four plants so I hope he will show me the right way to grow tomatoes. Every year I try but something goes wrong. I get tons of tomatoes but most of them stay green and don’t ripen. If I could just get good at growing tomatoes that would be a great start.
If you’ve had any success with tomatoes - or gardens in general - feel free to leave a comment.
Topics: Food |
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
hi Anita
Well, I’m glad this topic is finely timely!
I just planted some lettuce starts today.
As for tomatoes, mine have been quite edible but I’m looking for a certain standard (beefsteaks grown in New Jersey) that I grew up on in New York City.
Haven’t quite achieved it yet. One thing that supposedly helps is red tarp ground cloth–which I think is available from the government’s agricultural division (don’t have the url on hand, sorry).
I just know that tomatoes need lots of sun and are fussy about getting the right amount of water (too little or too much drenching each cause problems)
I hope someone else chimes in!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:12 am
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