City/Suburban folks, are you out there?

We're on a suburban lot that's about 100' x 120'...

Most of the yard is taken up by the pool - but DH built me some long containers for my veggies this year, and I've got pots all over the place.

Definitely cannot have chickens (we're in a subdivision) - but I think I can get away with rabbits and am currently investigating this.

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Jill
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"Farming asks everything of you eventually. But first it gives you time to fall in love." Arlo Crawford

see, that's one good idea for me right there. i will butt some raised beds up close to the walkway. .more pictures people. ...Georgia.

We are in the suburbs of a big city. Our backyard is fairly small. So far I'm working on a raised bed garden for some veggies. We actually constructed the box this weekend and will be filling it in today/tomorrow.

I'm trying to focus on being as self-sufficient as possible while in the city/suburbs so that when we do make the move to a larger homestead it won't be a ton of changes all at once in our lifestyle.

We are in the city, urban core area. Our lot is probably 40 x 100. We have a 22 x 22 garden plot (DH's) and a 15 x 30 community garden plot (mine).

We are thinking about moving to a more rural setting, but the money is not there. Our house needs lots of repairs, and the economy is hitting our neighborhood pretty hard.

Right now I am focusing on learning the skills (making food, gardening, home repairs) that would transfer to a more rural homestead setting.

We are in a city, living in an apartment. We're blessed to be allowed to put some potted plants out on our patio... and we have 2 mini greenhouse/grow racks in our dining room next to the sliding glass doors on one side with a 4' long grow light on the other side. The seedlings are doing great there.

The in-laws live across town and we're planning to build 2 square foot gardening raised beds in thier yard this spring... so we'll have a little home grown food.

There's a "wholesale to the public" produce store here... we'll be buying food in season for cheap and canning it.

.08 acres in the city, rented property, so no chickens, but we can garden.



This was our garden in June 2006, each year things are in different places, but you can get the jist. Taken from second story bedroom window in order to see everything.

Front yard has raspberries, starwberries, 5 more raised boxes and an herb garden.

We have zero grass

We are on the southern edge of a college town (Rowan University) on a lot of 109' x 100' -- with a partially built greenhouse and raised bed gardens. We would like to be farther out but DW has health problems that were a concern if we were farther away from town and I commute into Philadelphia every day for work. Even on the little garden that we grew last year we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with and we also fed two fat groundhogs for a while.

Ken in Glassboro, NJ

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Previously was in an Apt in Tx with a good balcony. Now in center of a city in Europe with about an 8'x5' balcony. Just getting past the last frosts so will be trying to start some herbs this year. See what can grow around here. Will most likely have an indoor window box also.

It's nice to know there are so many city folk here, and those photos are awesome! I just got in from tilling a new garden space on the south side of our house (between ours and the neighbor's). It's about 10 feet wide and maybe 15 or 20 feet long. I'm planning on heirloom tomatoes (I have 12 Black Krim plants I started a month or so back), some heirloom corn and beans, and heirloom squash.

My mother lives 1/4 mile up the street on an 8000+ sqft lot. She's not really in the mood to take care of a lawn, and is concerned about the rising cost of food, so is letting me garden there as well. I've got an 18' square area there, but she told me this morning I can have an additional 10' swath to grow corn for the bunnies and chickens. If I can keep the garden weeded (I'm really bad about weeding) this season, I can probably have more of her yard to garden. Nice thing there is, she pays the water/I provide seeds, plants and labor, and we share the proceeds.

We live in a duplex in the city right now, but are making plans with some friends of ours to move to their property asap.

Container gardening! Why didn't I think of that???

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Kim~Sean's good thing for 8 years and mama to 6 here on earth, many more with Jesus

DG, that's inspiring!!!!

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“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Just over a quarter acre outsie of daytona.

Have a small community garden plot and containers.

Looking to expand and plant several fruit trees and start a garden.

About 11k sq ft, in city/town (suppose that's about a 1/4 acre). We have a medium-sized but efficient garden, fruit trees, raspberries, grapes, and a few chickens are allowed which is great--oh and a bread oven! Plenty of space to add more garden beds if we need it... Can't do it all, but can do a lot! Plus, this way we can also support local farmers who bring the stuff we can't grow to our local farmers markets

Some pics:

Peacebaker, that's an awesome oven! I've been thinking about building one. Did you build that one

Right in the middle of the District of Columbia. My front yard is about 8' x 8' and I have grass, grapes (4 vines) and roses. My side yard is about 20' x 12' and I have a 4' x 4' vegetable garden (using the Square Foot gardening method), a large compost bin, 2 rain barrels, firewood, a solar oven, an outdoor fireplace, a small dining area and a small seating area. It's crowded but it works because I have great Southern/Western exposure.

I compost heavily and I try to water exclusively from the rain barrel.

Of course, my neighbors think of me as the wacky country hick neighbor.

that makes 2 of us DC hound. i only moved here in sept. i'm already different . for instance i'm the only one around here that doesn't put out the composting container for pick-up. i'm not sure what they think i do with my leftovers. i actually have a composter by my back steps.i also run around in rubbber boots. wait until i dig up the lawn in the spring for veggies and herbs. it borders the street where many people go walking every day. ...Georgia.

In the suburbs on a prolly 70 x 100 lot. But have 20 ac 60 mi NE of us & go there every chance we get! Just planted a bunch of corn.

Patty

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This is a look at our garden just prior to planting last year. There's actually more behind me (I was standing on the terrace above the patio), as it goes up a hill into terraces. We're working with an unusual problem - the yard is where a house sat until about 10 years ago, and they just pulled it down, removed most of the debris, and left the rest. So we're constantly pulling weird garbage and building materials out of the "soil". We've ammended considerably with compost, horse manure, clippings, etc. We'd have bare clay for soil otherwise! We've also done quite a bit with the garden since - it's a constant landscaping chore to create new terraces, walls, etc. I'll take another pic when we've finished the most recent chore, which was to finish up the hillside on the righthand side of this pic.

We live in the city on 1/8 of an acre. We garden and compost, have two big dogs and two angora rabbits, and we're hoping to get a few hens sometime soon (but that's on hold now with a baby on the way this summer). My garden is in transition now, but here are a few pics of what it looked like in the summer of '06:

We live on a corner lot, so here's the view from the side of the house:


This is a better view of the 4 raised beds:


This is a better view of the patio garden:


Patio garden from above, early in the season:


Patio garden looking toward bean/squash patch:


Different view of bean/squash patch--you can also see the compost bin at the end and the strawberry box DH built:


This is our main garden, but we also now have berry bushes in the yard (red and golden raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and black currant), three hazelnut shrubs, and herbs growing among the flowers in the shady side yard and out front.

This spring/summer, we have plans to rip out that concrete patio which takes up most of our sunny land, and replace it with a smaller brick patio in the shade of the house (off to the left, in the 1st photo), so there's more room for a garden, and a nice cool spot to set some chairs out in the summer. Also, we plan to put a bunch of large containers up on the garage roof to expand our garden. The hens will have their coop inside the garage, with access to the outdoors through the currently boarded up window, which you can partly see in the 4th pic.

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And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.. They shall not hurt nor destroy In all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

We currently rent in the 'burbs outside of Atlanta. We made our first raised beds last year, but due to the drought I only gleaned about 8 heads of lettuce and 5-6 maters, and a few beans. I was spoiled the previous year in luscious black dirt in downtown Atlanta (thanks to 40 years of gardening by the landlords!) where nearly everything I planted (which wasn't much) grew like gangbusters.

This year I'm trying again, and using harvested greywater from inside to supplement rainwater cachement (a fancy name for oodles of five gallon buckets in the back yard!) and I am determined to water my gardens regardless of water issues!

We have a terribly steep slope in the backyard and scads of trees, so I only have a few places to put veggies where they get enough sun to grow well.

I have blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, onions, lettuces, broccoli, cabbage, pak choi, radishes, cauliflower, chard, mache,and tomatoes planted (the last in a cobbled greenhouse - aka aquarium turned upside down) along with herbs: oregano, aragula, mint, rosemary, chives, thyme, basil, parsely, dill, stevia and sage.

Hopefully by next spring I will be gardening for real in some good (read: non-red clay) earth on a homestead somewhere!!

I love everyone's photos, they are very encouraging. I use no sprays or fertilizers other than my own homemade compost, composted horse manure that we gather from a nearby gracious horse person, and the occasional fish emulsion that I find on sale. We are the only organic anything around, so the bugs love my yard and my gardens, along with the rabbits and birds so I have to keep ahead of everyone!

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