Urban Farming, Part I

Ward Teuton, City Farm Boy, from Vancouver, Canada, gave a presentation at The Light House (a sustainable building center in British Columbia, Canada) recently about his methods of Urban Farming. He farms 15 private gardens in Vancouver, offering landowners fresh produce from their own backyards, while in return he provides other families with local food, all while making a profit. He shared with a large audience his trade and techniques for acquiring land, soil preparation, planning, planting, watering, pests, harvesting and marketing. These practices are major keys to urban community and sustainability.

Ward asks – why urban farming? 17% of food costs come from the distance our food has traveled. Fuel charges, highway maintenance, noise, and air pollution are some of the costs we pay to have our food delivered to us an average of 3000 miles. By investing locally, money stays in our community – 45 cents is kept in the community by local spending. By contrast, if we buy from larger non-local chains only 15 cents is re-invested into locally. The flavor and quality is noticeable, and by working together with neighbors and farmers, we build community.

Acquiring land can be done by advertising in newspapers or on Craigslist. Word of mouth works well, as does talking to family and friends. Scouting neighborhoods and knocking on doors is perhaps the best method for selecting south-facing land with sunlight and good soil. Ward pointed out that many of the responses he got from advertising were in regards to inappropriate land. Sometimes, the right piece of land is in search of a good farmer. A condo rooftop in downtown Vancouver’s new Yaletown district had been built with a rooftop in its design. Before long, the rooftop was a weedy mess and becoming a liability. Word of mouth found City Farm Boy, and Ward began farming the large gardens space. He noticed that due to its elevation the soil stayed warmer and crops grew better, and despite his concern about pollination, bees found the 18-story rooftop.

The relationship with the garden owners is based on creating a win-win situation. Ward has developed an arrangement in which he asks for a 3 year commitment from the garden owner, and in turn they can harvest seasonal veggies for their kitchen, or a row is allotted for them to cut. The farmer does all of the gardening, decides what is grown, and needs to be able to come and go as the weather dictates. He or she may take requests for the garden owner that certain crops be grown, but the ultimate decision is up to the farmer.

Soil Preparation – concete can be removed with a jackhammer. Sod can be given away on Craigslist or rototilled in to reclaim turfgrass. In the summer, a clear plastic tarp can be placed on top of the sod or rototilled garden to solarize the ground, killing pests and sod together. Alternately, beds can be built. Another method is to lay cardboard or newspaper down on grass in the shape of the desired garden or garden extension, and covered with a layer of compost, followed by a layer of woodchips to keep weeds at bay; then, plant through the wood chips into the compost and by the time the plants grow down the cardboard and grass will be digested and the roots will get though. Soil can be tested, although it is expensive and unreliable, says Ward, as one area may be fine or good, but in an urban setting, 15 feet away might be completely different. Cleaning growing medium with oyster mushrooms is an easy way to be sure the soil is free from toxins. Bioremediation with Fungi, developed by Paul Stamets can be achieved in the following way: put down a layer of wood chips on top of a pile of questionable soil, and inoculate with oyster mushroom spores available at Fungi Perfecti  (www.fungi.com) , cover with a tarp, keep moist, and leave for a month, monitoring weekly. You will have clean, live soil, ready for growing.

Bioremediation with Fungi

Mushroom Cultivation

The soil can be amended with bonemeal, bat guano, compost , kelp, chicken manure (which leeches fast), horse manure (which takes 2-3 years to release into the soil), limestone (to correct acidic pH), alfalfa pellets (in the fall for the potash), and fish fertilizer (for nitrogen).

Planning gardens depends on garden conditions. Ward suggests planning at the point of selling – see what is popular at the farmer’s market, and what is lacking. Look at the growing space available – lower light areas will be good for growing lettuce, spinach, and mushrooms. He recommends standardizing bed dimensions to calculate yields desired. Crops like pumpkin will have a low yield due to the space used to grow. Corn has a long growing season. Baby carrots take only 50 days and radishes only 30 days. Vertical trellises can increase the area of the garden. Bush beans are a good winter crop. Mizuna lettuce is competitive and will outgrow weeds -it can be planted tightly and straight cut. Growing your own transplants will save you lots of money. Per 1000 square feet of garden space you can estimate $1000-3000 revenue. This will take very little time if managed correctly.

Garden pests are always in competition for your crops. Cats are among the largest of pests, seeking a warm place to sleep, crushing one square foot of garden space per nap. Ward recommends a motion-detector sprinkler. For other pests such as the carrot fly, he says he will generally cut out the infested spot, and that is often sufficient. He may also cover the crop to deter carrot flies, which he finds works well. In France, workers carry a small bag on their belt and put in snails, to be cooked up in the evening. Aphids can be sprayed with safer soap but the ladybugs don’t like it either, so Ward planted a patch of daisies near his fava beans. The ladybug population exploded and the favas never got touched. Aggressive weeds like buttercup are such fast growers they need to be pulled up and taken away from the garden.

Watering can be taken care of with a timer. The Orbit brand timer has 4 controllers to manage 4 sprinklers. Micro-irrigation is another good option, which involves low-pressure flexible tubing to deliver water to the base of each plant. This works well for tomatoes, and to avoid spraying neighbors. The trick with watering is to let the soil dry out between waterings, which will also kill disease organisms. Rooftop soil composition is often made up of 60% sand, making the beds susceptible to over-watering, as the nutrients (such as nitrogen, which is water soluble) will get washed away.

Ward Teuton keeps the roots on when he harvests. He places them into a white tray, which keeps the plants cool. He keeps cool water in the tray and harvests early in the morning to keep the sun off the plants. A few ice cubes keep the water cool, and a shade cloth will also keep plants out of the sun, and misting them keeps the leaves moist and cool. He tries to handle the plants only once.

Marketing can be done directly at the farmer’s market where farmers are in high demand, and so, says Ward, little notice is needed. The cost for set up is $500-$1000 – for a sign, small shelter, a cash box, tools, and a table. City Farm Boy pays approximately $1000 in Farmer’s Market fees per year. “The bigger the pile, the better”, says Ward, remarking that customers are prone to impulse buying even at the Farmer’s Market. “Make sales easy” says Ward, and price everything at $3 per bundle or bunch. Ward also runs a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, where there are no set-up fees. CSA is a model of farming and distributing food that restores the link between the farmers and city dwellers. Each family pays at the beginning of the year, and receives regularly scheduled boxes of fresh farm food. Restaurants also buy from growers, though payment is less reliable. Wholesalers buy, but often want to pay later.

Urban farming is a means for people to reclaim local land, whether it be a neighbor’s backyard, an unused plot of land, or a rooftop – bridging the wide gap between food crops and the family table. By investing $3 in a packet of seeds instead of buying a head of broccoli (or cup of coffee), with some time and a little work, the whole community can be fed; or a person can provide all the needs of his or her family. Just as we say “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Could we also say “Give a man a meal, you feed him for a day, help him plant a garden, and you feed him for a lifetime”?

Contributed by Kundalima