More and more, we’re hearing stories about folks who are growing food in their backyards (this includes ourselves). This fellow, Manny Howard, is doing it at his Brooklyn home and he recently wrote about it for New York Magazine [My Empire of Dirt]. Also included in the article was a video, which was a bitch to embed here (had to hack the code myself and apologies for the pre-roll ad, ugh!) but I thought it was worth it to see and hear this man show off his radical, urban backyard farm. The thing that stuck with me and what I’ve been hearing and feeling is that in order to sustainably grown your own food, you need a network of folks doing it. It would take an entire neighborhood with several varieties of food to provide for just a handful of families. I think it’s possible and I hope we hear more stories about neighborhoods coming together to feed each other.
Another thing that really sticks with me when I meet other backyard farmers is that many of us don’t know what is correct for proper farming. What is the proper way to grow this or that? You learn as you go, wikipedia something if you think it has some special method for growth. But mostly, you can stick a seed in the ground, water it, and it’ll grow and you can eat it. That’s pretty much how it works. Don’t let this stuff intimidate you, just try it and learn each time, then share it, ok?
Check out the article and then throw some seeds in your backyard, see what happens!
[tags]backyard farm, garden, my empire of dirt, manny howard, brooklyn, ryanishungry[/tags]
Urban agriculture is a very old and well practiced way of farming in cities. In my neighbourhood, ChinaTown people have always done it. Search urbanag ottawa tags in flickr and you will see some of the photos from my hood. I also recommend if this is a topic of real interest to you and this is something you want to do in your hood, explore permaculture. On the west coast there are any number of permaculture examples. The objective is minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In other words you design the garden in such a way that it works for you and you do not work for it. When i saw this video i was not happy with the chicken coop. No different than what you see on nasty chicken farms. Chickens should be able to scratch the ground and not have their feet interfacing all their waking hours on a grid. Further by scratching, pooing and eating some bug the chicken is working for you by softening the ground, fertilizing it and eating pests you do not want in the garden. I did a quick search on youtube and there seems to be quite a few good vids on the topic. By I am most looking forward to what you do!
hey tracey!
yeah there were some definate things in manny’s set up that needed fixin’. like the chicken coop for sure. i’m excited to see more and more urban agriculture and permaculture in the US. it’s pretty fringe right now, but i’m hoping it will start to make more and more sense to more people in the near future. right now we live at an eco-village that practices some permaculture principals in our backyard garden. so we’re getting inspired by the folks here to help spread that idea.
Weirdness! I just picked up the old issue of New York magazine from the doctor’s lounge (they have magazines. In our lounge we have advertizing circulars) and JUST read this article then popped onto the computer to pay you a visit and boom! there it was again. It’s following me.
I don’t think I can swing chickens, and I don’t like the way rabbits taste at all, but with so much space to garden I feel that I’m committing a crime by not growing edibles on it. I got over my head last SUmmer with The Great Tomato Failure of ‘07 (and the Red Pepper Fiasco, and the Cucumber Disaster and the Lettuce Menace …but I did get rhubarb!), but I have high hopes for ‘08.
It is great that he is doing it, but at 13K he is making it seem impossible everyone to try it. Plus, his failures are not funny, its morbid to accidentally kill animals by not reading up on how to raise bunnies properly. I hope that others know that they can do urban farms and gardens for FREE and to ask around and get advice first beforehand!