Backyard Farming, $100,000 a Year, Working Part Time, 1/3 Of An Acre!

Backyard Gardening

This is ingenious and eminently do-able; if you used aquaponics instead of or in addition to dirt farming, you won't even need good farming style land, just a parking lot or a church or school yard would suffice.

Grow local, sell local, no need to beg for a 'job', make your own.

This post could have gone on any number of forums from 'Survival' to 'Food and Cooking'; I chose this one perhaps because I just read about how the drought in California is going to make food prices for both basics and necessities soar in the coming months, and has already impacted global food prices; my friends in California are starting to complain that produce that used to be available no longer is, and the quality is suffering; many are threatening that if there's one more year of drought, they'll leave the state even if they have to walk away from their equity and houses, it's that bad.

a reply to: signalfire

Your friends in California would not be able to water their 1/3 of an acre. This works much better in areas that get rain.

I had no idea California was that bad!

I would love to have a garden like on your page link, but I have too much grass. And it won't stay out of the way long enough for anything else to grow, it takes over. If it would, I'd be rich. Woohoo.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
a reply to: signalfire

Your friends in California would not be able to water their 1/3 of an acre. This works much better in areas that get rain.

For Aquaponics, you only need ~5% of the water needed for dirt farming of any kind, good reason to use that in desert climates... and the gray water coming off a standard household would water a 1/3 acre farm easily, just reroute the sink and shower water to the garden and you're good. You'll note the website is about off grid living. He's in BC but he's probably only using a few gallons a day of water and he could easily use rainwater and snowmelt for that if it was an issue like in CA.

Research fog nets here FogQuest for ways to turn the daily fog along the coastline into free water...

I have watched a few vids on the subject and have to say I will be building something . Here is just one that has some good tips a reply to: signalfire

originally posted by: DaphneApollo
I had no idea California was that bad!

I would love to have a garden like on your page link, but I have too much grass. And it won't stay out of the way long enough for anything else to grow, it takes over. If it would, I'd be rich. Woohoo.

Cover the grass with newspapers, it kills it. Add compost and smother the areas in between what you're trying to grow with weedblock or hay. Or if you do Aquaponics (zillions of videos for free on line) it doesn't matter; leave the grass there, build tanks over that to hold the water/fish/planting beds, and go.

I have a half acre in the Central Valley of Cali and received regular irrigation all spring/summer just like every other year. We'll see if that happens next year but I have a well so my garden will be watered one way or another.

Look into woodchips a la the back to Eden method for areas where drought is a possibility. Woodchips add nutrients but also greatly help to retain moisture.

1/10 of an acre is ok as well.



Just minutes from Downtown LA.

Over 6,000 pounds of food per year, on 1/10 acre located just 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. The Dervaes family grows over 400 species of plants, 4,300 pounds of vegetable food, 900 chicken and 1,000 duck eggs, 25 lbs of honey, plus seasonal fruits throughout the year.

urbanhomestead.org...

Did a thread on these folks awhile ago.

Peace

originally posted by: DaphneApollo
I had no idea California was that bad!

I would love to have a garden like on your page link, but I have too much grass. And it won't stay out of the way long enough for anything else to grow, it takes over. If it would, I'd be rich. Woohoo.

If you have dirt that will grow grass, it will also grow vegetables. It takes a bit of work to get rid of the grass but if you are vigilant for a year or so, putting down newspapers and cardboard over the grass and adding all sorts of organic matter like fallen leaves or grass clippings, you will find that the earthworms do most of the work of enriching the soil for you.
There is no finer feeling than sitting down to a meal you produced.

a reply to: signalfire

The problem with aquaponics or hydroponics as I see it is it's hard to do it organically. Most of the time water soluble chemical fertilizers and nutrients are used which even the best of those is sub par compared to organics. Sure you can grow a good yield but the veggies won't have much nutritional value, so it's not worth it in my opinion.

It doesn't say what he's growing to be grossing so much.

originally posted by: JohnPhoenix
a reply to: signalfire

The problem with aquaponics or hydroponics as I see it is it's hard to do it organically. Most of the time water soluble chemical fertilizers and nutrients are used which even the best of those is sub par compared to organics. Sure you can grow a good yield but the veggies won't have much nutritional value, so it's not worth it in my opinion.

Arrghh! Hydroponics uses bought chemicals and these have to be flushed out of the system (a pollutant) and replaced at great expense regularly. Aquaponics uses the input of fish waste to fertilize the greens. If you grow your own fish food (vermiculture or worm farming plus duckweed which doubles in size every day with sun) you have zero cost for that and it's organic by definition. All you really need is sunlight, water and a small amount of electricity to run the pumps although this has been done off grid electrically. There are dozens if not hundreds of current AP family farms up and running in the US that are certified organic. You just have to use organically compatible tank liners, easily sourced, to start with.

Please listen to the interview on the OP; it's genius; I'm ready to vote for this guy for President.

originally posted by: ckhk3
It doesn't say what he's growing to be grossing so much.

Yes he does. He started with one setup, doubled it each year and then after four years realized that 80% of his income was coming from 20% of his produce. He got rid of the other 80% of the land he was using and ended up with 1/3 acre, 80-100K a year; he grows radishes, specialty lettuces, baby spinach and herbs (basil probably from the look of it) for the restaurant market and has a once a week farm stand, 5-6 months of the year. He doesn't grow tomatoes, squash, things that take all summer to ripen and harvest but instead runs through 5-6 pick-cycles from spring to fall on the same land, so essentially 5-6 harvests a year/acre, meaning he's essentially multiplying his land by that much.

While you can easily grow tomatoes, cukes, even bananas if your climate allows, etc by the aquaponic method, note that he is using dirt; if he switched to AP his produce would grow even faster, esp since he's growing lettuces primarily. What astonishes me here is his gross income; and he's selling mostly wholesale. There's several AP farms near me making this kind of money, it's not unusual but with the warmer climate, they're working it all year round. He's in BC.

Just a comment for me to find this again when I return to Germany.

Need to find some ways to grow vegetables in my very limited space in the back yard.

Thanks for this post. Will have to try it.

More links given at the end of the radio interview, his FB page and the link to the 'SPIN' website wherein it describes how to get started growing an urban garden.

SPIN Gardening

The Urban Farmer

He's got a lot of information on line; in the summer he does his growing, in the winter he gives lectures trying to spread the word; here's his lecture which gives details on the kinds of crops he is growing; his location is very high up north, NE of Vancouver BC; if he can do this without any debt by bargaining for the land (free produce for the landowner and they don't have to mow a lawn anymore....) anyone can; this guy literally parlayed a 7K investment into 100K a year and his ideas could change the world. As he puts it, 'don't wait for the banks and governments to change, do it yourself':

a reply to: signalfire

i like these threads....people in my opinion should move away from ornamental planting and grow themselves food....permaculture and aquaponics are great.....

here is an idea for those of you whom have limited space...




to get a food forest up and running contrary to belief you do not need huge amounts of water you need to use the water you do have more productively...there are a few good films in this link....
www.ecofilms.com.au...

and this is a link to a permaculture institute that has some brilliant ideas
permaculturenews.org...

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
a reply to: signalfire

Your friends in California would not be able to water their 1/3 of an acre. This works much better in areas that get rain.

Speaking of rain and water catchment... a 1000 SF collecting surface (rooftop, measured horizontally) collects 600 gallons of water per inch of rainfall; San Diego last year had 6.5 inches of rainfall, 63% of normal; that equals 3900 gallons of water falling on every small house in SD. A 4500 SF lot will collect 2800 gallons for every one inch of rainfall... now I know lots of Southern Californians live in condos and apartment buildings, but that's a lot of water.

I had to laugh at the comments.

Someone asked what 15 types of veg does he grow?

Someone replied "lettuce and 14 types of weed".

Lol.