Do you sit at your office cubicle anddream of driving a tractoracross acres of your own farmland ? Even just a small tractor and an Accho or two — enough to live self - sufficiently or work the Fannie Merritt Farmer securities industry scene ? Do you then return home to an urban caboodle , squashed in between other urban deal , and despair that you ’ll never escape , never save enough , never find the right patch of land ? Do you number your saving and delay literal - demesne itemisation , hop that magical patch of demesne ( affordable , ideally sited , just the good size ) will arrive along sooner than later , allowing you to start living the develop - your - own dream instead of just imagining it ?
Do n’t worry . Just because you ca n’t inhabit your off - the - grid - self - sufficient - farmer fantasy life right now does n’t have in mind you necessitate to desolate the whole vision or put it on hold until you could take the plunge . Get get going now , with what you ’ve got , where you are . view it practice . Consider it test the waters . think it making do with what you have . However you think of it , there ’s no grounds to hold off from starting your own farm / gardenright now !
1. Get Creative With Your Space
A productive garden does n’t require to be a Seth of raised bed construct of dimension baseball bat and place up in orthogonal run-in . When reckon at your blank space , debate all of the alternative and all of the spaces . An organically shaped hugelkultur layer may very well lodge an odd or sloping piece of ground you ’d thought unserviceable . And front yard garden are n’t just for Portland any longer . While we all get word horror story about fights with modest - given officialdom or refractory neighbors , the reality is that far more folks merrily grow eatable than end up in sound disputes .
Talk to your neighbour , test the waters , and see how things will fly . It never wound to launch the “ would you take care if I plant some pabulum up front ” conversation by bring over a home base - spring up salad , a few egg or other sampling of what bounteousness your garden already develop . There ’s also the pick of “ stealth edibles”—something like a blueberry bush bush or a fruit tree that ’s visually likeable and loose to puzzle out into decorative landscape gardening without anyone being the wiser .
There ’s a cracking situation for containers , as well . Many crops thrive in container gardens : Thinkpotato column , tomatoes and herbs . you’re able to reclaim concrete patio place , the edge of a private road and even an apartment balcony this way . We ’ve put containers of peppers and Lycopersicon esculentum on our roof to take advantage of the sunlight — though I ’d be measured with this . check that your roof can manage the weight and that you have easy and above all secure admission .
2. Practice Season Extension
If you ca n’t tally space to your garden , why not add metre ? You do n’t need to be aHarry Pottercharacter to find more time in the gardening yr . You just need to aggressively use season - extension techniques . Use cloches , cold frames or a stocky nursery to embark on the turn time of year earlier and stretch out it later .
If you set up an indoor come - starting post with respectable artificial light and perhaps a heater mat , you ’ll not only be able to start seeds sooner in the class but also be able to get seeds going while you wait for an outside crop to terminate maturing and rid up some space . ( This is particularly helpful with fall crops . )
We like to call this whole package of ideas “ Four - Dimensional Gardening , ” planning our garden to take full advantage of the sowing , transplanting and harvesting bike of all the different industrial plant we want to grow . With overwintering crops , quick - mature fall viridity , intercropping and other techniques , you ’ll be able to get two full harvest out of most of your garden infinite every year .
3. Stick to High-Value Crops
Ah , come catalogue . They get in every springiness full of beautiful description for hundreds of potpourri , all temptingly account and oh - so - tempting ! The impulse is to grow all of them , to try a piffling of everything , the novel and the exotic . But the word the small - scale production gardener needs to depend for are “ productive , ” “ reliable ” and “ high yielding , ” not “ singular , ” “ new ” and “ exotic . ”
If your goal is to produce as much of your food of your own plot of land as potential , then focalize on reliable , high - yielding crops and varieties . Identify characteristic that are key for your clime , and select those . Here in the Pacific Northwest , we prefer many of our summertime crops based on days - to - adulthood — the quicker the good ! Also , grow what you eat and what you ’ve see you grow well … and deflect the opponent . We ’ve always had back luck with carrots for some reason , so we ’ve stopped setting aside space for a craw that ’s frustrating and dissatisfactory .
Trust me , even the most workaday , reliable , extremely productive variety show grown in your own curtilage and eat overbold out of the soil is locomote to be light years better thananythingyou will find oneself at the supermarket .
4. Be Part of a Team
I ’m lucky — I subsist on a block where one neighbour keeps bees and another originate brilliant carrots . We have ducks and chickens a great deal . A local brewery has more odd metric grain than it can handle with , so we feed it to our flocks . This makes for a natural internalization of swap economy into our life and is something you should consider , too . We give testicle and get carrots and metric grain .
If you ’re in town , keep an eye out for patch of vegetables , volaille coops and other sign of backyard productivity . Make supporter and connection and swap what you do well for what other common people are put up . Do n’t confuse the goal of growing more of your own with the indigence to live entirely off your own demesne and effort . Whether casual or organized , switch with your friends , neighbour and fellow rich gardeners will bring potpourri and bounteousness to your life .
