Urban Farming-Growing Food At Home

This is outside the box of SFG but given that the article relates to Australia I thought I would wack in here,

Urban Farmers Growing Food At Home,

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-09/curious-melbourne-meet-melbournes-urban-farmers/9523832


Good to see and I reckon it's not just happening in Australia.

Hi IrishDigger! How have you been?

Interesting article... I'm with Ms. Richards - If I can't eat it or use it for medicinals, I don't have it in the yard. (Except the darn grass...) Front hedges are blueberries, etc.

And I think the same is true here in the States as it is there - there's only a couple of days worth of food in the stores & folks are only about 9 meals away from anarchy. But I don't think I'll be stir-frying meal worms anytime soon, lol!

Thanks for sharing! And pop back in, will you?

Hi Irish Digger

The article is appropriate for everyone. How many days worth of fresh and stored food do we have on hand is a question for every household.

sanderson wrote:The article is appropriate for everyone.  How many days worth of fresh and stored food do we have on hand is a question for every household.

 This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

I find growing enough of a crop to put up one of the rewarding aspects of my efforts. Of course, I live in an area where I can grow year around so I can go crazy in summer growing tomatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, peppers, eggplants, etc. knowing that winter will be peas, kales, broccoli, etc.

sanderson wrote:I live in an area where I can grow year around so I can go crazy in summer growing tomatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, peppers, eggplants, etc. knowing that winter will be peas, kales, broccoli, etc.  

You are fortunate, Sanderson!  Here our growing season is from mid-April until mid-October. The rest of the year we depend on our canned and frozen vegetables.

That is one area I differ from the SFG recommendations on what to plant. We want to grow enough of most vegetables to not only provide fresh ones for the dinner table, but enough extra to can or freeze. So, instead of planting one or two squares of bush beans, I will plant an entire 4'x4' section with beans. Same for carrots, peppers, beets, and brussels sprouts. Of course, we always have an excess of squash & tomatoes without trying.  We have lived on our current estate for about 30 years, and we have never had to buy vegetables from the market in that entire time - they all came from our garden.

Great article.
I love the picture of Robyn Richard's squash. (See below.) I'm wondering if she can grow lettuce under that scaffold.


I grew lots this past summer; I canned some and gave away some. Now I am down to no dilly beans, one last chowchow relish, 3 quarts dented Oaxacan green corn, one pint tomatillo sauce, 3 gallon tomato sauce frozen, a gallon regular tomatoes frozen, and three winter squash.  I'm going to miss my canned items.

I actually garden because I think my vegetables are healthier for me and my family.  I give away my vegetables to extend my friendship with my neighbors.  I also garden to keep myself moving, although the canning did overuse my hand, but better to move than lose flexibility.

Living in Southern California and being a backyard 'farmer' is a blessing because I can continue gardening, but I don't think I could live off my garden without still depending on the grocer for additional items.  Maybe, I should be thinking in that direction.  With the E. coli threat we have now nationwide, I went out and planted lettuce, an item I rarely plant because it is so common in the markets.

I’m in Canberra and can’t store much so tend to eat whatever is in the garden. Heaps of tromboncino this year that will keep us going all winter.

Hi Aylwen! Welcome to our party from Atlanta, GA in the SE USA. We're glad you're here!

Sounds like you've got a good storage system for fresh items... Tell us about your garden?

Hi Aylwen, Welcome from:welcome: California, U.S.!

Please go to the Welcome Mat and Introduce yourself. Your hopes and dreams and any photos of your garden. We love photos.