I love this urban farming from MY house. I want to make this experience wonderful with total control of MY land. For me farming is a lot of work and a lot of love. I like being able to walk out the door and see my work. I build a hoop house today and I can look out the window and see it. I plant seasonal cover crops, buckwheat, clovers, pearl millet, radish, turnips. A lot of the enjoyment for me is observing improvement overtime. I compost here. I raise my rabbits here. It is unique that someone can farm and remain detached, strictly business.
"Men always work harder and more readily when they work on that which belongs to them; nay, they learn to love the very soil that yields in response to the labor of their hands, not only food to eat, but an abundance of good things for themselves and those that are dear to them."
Great upload Curtis, yeah its a bummer how many people are not interested in growing a veggie garden, having some fruit trees,....heck even having some prickly pear(virtually no water and the plants give you always but there are people here that their homes include a large backyard, usually full of weeds or it'll serve as a pen for their dogs or to the extreme they convert the land into parking lots or build commercial outlets for rent instead of maintaining the family tradition of having their own fruit trees, veggie garden and chickens. =/
Thank you for voicing your opinion on community gardens. I'v voiced this opinion as well at farm gatherings in Detroit and faced some scowls and push back from it. In Detroit we have so much land to farm, but the city is not as welcoming as they like to act in the media. I think the failure of many community gardens gave the city a bad impression of UA and now they are skeptical about allowing more farms. Many farmers are gorilla farming and they live in fear.
Gorilla farming? Like they don't own the land or have permission to be there? Can't they get a lease or buy the land and grow or is there a restriction on that?
HAL1400 there are a lot of barriers to ownership. Developmental pressure, shady ownership, incompetent government. Plus without capital many Detroiters can't afford the the price of land or have the time for red tape. And we/they are trying. Luckily for me I had some capital and some experience.
I've seen some beautifully maintained urban gardens in Chinatown Boston, in Dochester Boston, and in Brooklyn New York. beautiful and productive. it's who the people are and it's how supported it is, how engaged the local youth are in these neighborhood. what I've seen in urban gardens is if old grandmothers and grandfather's are out in the gardens, they don't get raided and torn down or face runaway walked dogs so much. Elders protect the gardens and veggies. and grandbabies help keep the innocence and beauty energy flowing... it's not as much about money it's all about Food for the Least Of These, and community self determination. The gurrilla gardener "gangsta gardener" Ron is a Hero.. and he had to buy his land to own it, protect his gardens and stop getting messed with by local powers. We left the city and went WWOOFing, live now in Vermont and borrow use of four different plots for market veggies .. so I entirly agree with your wise observations. land owner and farmer relationships and privacy vs engagement are Key Factors to a sites success in a suburban or urban setting. out in the country side, rural folks are busy with their own thing and leaving us alone... visable by a road, folks get curious or even stop and remark upon what y'all are doing.
Question, how do you store seeds ? I would imagine you are going through quite a lot of seeds but when you have seeds that are not going to be used promptly how do you store them to maintain their viability ?
So, you'll level it out and sow grass if they don't want to garden? After that, it's all back on them, correct? Great videos, Curtis. I really appreciate how you explain things. Keep all the good information coming.
I would imagine so as otherwise he'd be losing money (unless they paid for that) on doing the work and maintaining a property that isn't providing a return.
Interesting video. Start up and wind down as important as normal operational run. You must though want 2 yrs+ to make a site worth the set up and decommissioning costs/effort.
Some people don't like farming and gardening? Who are these people? ;-) I spent most of the day planting and trimming. Love the sunshine and the hard work. I can't explain it.
The people who don't give a crap about gardening are really missing out. The amazing feeling of looking out over what you've accomplished, or being able to walk a few steps and cut fresh Basil or Thyme or get your lettuce, spinach, carrots etc. for dinner, there is just nothing like it! I've been to several grocery stores in the last week to research local prices and the state their "herbs" are in, or some of the "fresh" produce is in a sad state. I'd say that by the time, we, the consumer, get it it's already over a week old and looks accordingly. Once you've grown some of your own produce & herbs, you can't go back!
Hehe, good one, amazing to see how the land changes ey. I wonder what you would find if you went digging through layers and layers of urban rise and fall. Anyways, it excites the imagination that's for sure :)
Curtis, what do you use for your voice activated recorder you speak of in your book. kit.com/curtis2672/urban-farmer-curtis-stone-s-camera-and-vlogging-gear couldn't find it here but a cool reference for the rest of y'all
You 'disabled' the comments on the video where you had to decide about 'COMPOSTING' the excess lettuce but I'm going to ask the question it seems you didn't want to answer, why don't you COMPOST a portion of that EXCESS and GIVE A PORTION AWAY to the local 'homeless' shelters in your area or to family or to neighbors not farming, etc...
