Self-sufficiency, the newest trend that people around the world are jumping on.
The ability to take care of one’s self and their family is increasing in popularity for good measure. The less dependent we are on commodities such as grocery stores, the greater independence you can have. Additionally, the cost of high-quality food like organic produce and hormone-free meat has continued to rise as well.
These reasons among others are leading many to look into the possibilities of growing and raising their own food. Starting a backyard farm in the city may not be quite the countryside farmhouse scenario you pictured, but it’s a great start for those looking to become more self-sufficient and increase their access to high-quality food without blowing their budget. Continue reading for more reasons why to start a backyard farm and how to get started.
Reasons to Start a Backyard Farm
Whether you’re looking to create a side hustle or just wanting to start a new hobby, there are plenty of reasons for why you should start a backyard farm even if it’s just a couple of plants in the windowsill.
Connect to Your Food
For many, the appeal of connecting to their food is what draws them most to wanting to start a farm. These days harmful chemicals can be found in just about everything we eat from pesticides that are used on produce to keep away bugs to preservatives that maintain the quality of the products throughout the duration of time that it takes to travel from where it was packaged to whenever we finally consume it. Starting a backyard farm allows you to be in full control of your food from start to finish.
For Profit
Another reason backyard farms are growing in popularity is for the side hustle aspect. Even with just a basic garden, you can start to sell the produce for supplemental income through farmers’ markets or even just to your coworkers. Adding on to your backyard farm such as raising chickens, fish, or honey bees increases your potential profitability.
Reduce Lawn Space
Just imagine all that time spent cursing at weeds, watering grass, and mowing the yard that only gets walked on. Instead, you could be spending that same time maintaining a source of food by growing a garden.
Increase Food Availability
To further add to this need for independence from grocery stores, food deserts which are geographic areas where access to affordable, healthy food options are limited to non-existent, have increased as well. Food deserts are predominantly found in low-income areas and are an example of the level of food insecurity within a community. Starting a backyard farm increases the availability of healthy food for your family and others if you decide to make a business of it or even just share with the neighbors.
Create a Community
Another great aspect of having a backyard farm is the community that you can create if you choose. If you start realizing you have more produce than you and your family can consume, you can share with your neighbors or friends. Also if you dive into the canning or creative possibilities of a backyard farm, homemade jams, jars of honey, and beeswax candles are always fun gifts around the holidays.
Things to Consider
When you are first starting with your very own backyard farm there are a couple of things you may want to consider before you dive in.
Space
How much space you have to work with plays a huge factor in what you can do with your backyard farm. If you’re living in a small apartment with only a balcony area, you should probably stick to a couple of potted plants versus thinking of animals. Though, there are many types of small backyard animals that can be raised in as little as half an acre.
City Limitations
It’s also important to consider the limitations of mini-farms within your community. The regulations of having farm animals generally differ between regions and localities. Though typically it is based on whether your property is zoned as “residential” or “agricultural.” Questions such as these can be answered by your local zoning office.
Start Off Small
Growing your own food can start as small as a windowsill of herbs or a couple of beds of produce. For some, they might even consider a “small start” of buying a couple of chicks and building a chicken coop. Either way, the first step is just to start growing something!
If you are tight on space, vertical gardens are a great option. A common way many people start vertical gardening is with small pots of herbs that you can grow instead of buying a $5 package from the grocery store every time you want some Basil with your pasta. Vertical gardening can also include growing other varieties of climbing or vining vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, peas, and even some types of squash.
If you have a bit more space, you can start a garden bed to grow a vast variety of greens, vegetables, berries, and even melons. When you start expanding into outdoor garden beds it increases your options greatly for what you can produce.
As mentioned earlier, many cities do allow homeowners to keep small farm animals such as chickens and bunnies. Typically beehives are not a problem either, just be prepared for your neighbors to blame you every time they get stung… Small animals like these are great for getting started in further food production as chickens can provide fresh eggs, bunnies can serve as a source of meat or you can use their feces for manure, and bees can provide honey and plenty of spinoff products if you learn how to work with the beeswax.
Starting a backyard farm is a great way to not only have a greater connection with what you are putting in your body but it can also be a fun project to either generate some side income or just as a hobby.
Whether you’re looking to add a couple of herb pots on your windowsill or build a chicken coop to start your own egg production, a backyard farm is something you can benefit from as long as you keep the dream alive.