Urban Farming

By Jane Tanner Sarah Nixon compulsively grew flowers in her Toronto backyard and filled her house with blooms. Then, she moved on to her neighbors’ yards. Thus was born My Luscious Backyard, her floral business, an urban flower farm created with a network of back and front yards. Today, her neighbors in Toronto’s Parkdale neighborhood […]

By Jenny Quiner Dogpatch Urban Gardens (DUG) is an urban farm located in Des Moines, Iowa, owned by Jenny & Eric Quiner. The farm slogan is, “Cultivating Community,” and in the two seasons of business the community support towards the farm has been monumental. 95% of the produce is sold within 10 miles of the

Urban agriculture has been a hot topic of discussion. Cities across North America are looking at their planning and zoning codes to include urban food production, urban livestock, and commercial direct market distribution by peri-urban farms. I grew up a city kid, more or less, and my first real impulse to start farming was to

Food and food production stirs up feelings in people. It is one of the things that I love about being a farmer — we can open up deep wells of feelings and connections for people as we feed them. The downside, though, is that the idea of urban agriculture — of neighbors growing and selling

This article appeared in Growing for Market, the national magazine for market farmers published 10 times per year. If you enjoy this article, please explore our website and start a subscription.  In the March issue, I wrote about finding land in the city for an urban farm, and adapting to what is available, affordable, and

I have a problem with gardening and farming books that start with “how to.”  I glance through them and think about how the best laid plans can go awry, messing with your goals of high yields, profit, and fun.  I remember the time when the most perfectly planted and maintained crop was felled by an