29 May

Ultimate Guide to Urban Farming

One of the hottest new trends happening right now is urban farming. This involves carving out space in urban environments in order to grow food. There are many great reasons that you might want to get engaged in this trend. One of the reasons is, of course, because urban farming has the potential to save you money. This guide provides you with information about urban farming and the reasons that it might be right for you.

What is Urban Farming?

As the name suggests, urban farming refers to planting food in urban areas. Urban farms may be community gardens where individuals can rent out small plots of land to grow their own food. Urban farms may be entire neighborhoods where the residents agree to plant and harvest food on their properties as well as on shared land such as roadway medians or sidewalks. Urban farms may be non-profit groups where volunteers grow plants on the organization’s land and the food goes to feed the hungry in the community. Urban farms can even be revolutionary acts where citizens take over public lands and plant gardens there for food consumption!

Benefits of Urban Farming

There are many benefits of urban farming. That’s why it’s getting so popular. Some of those benefits include:

• General benefits of growing your own food. Growing your own food is great no matter if you live in an urban, suburban or rural environment. Benefits associated with this include lower food costs, a greater appreciation for your food, a sense of pride and accomplishment, a deeper understanding of nature and plant life cycles and a chance to have healthier food on your plate.
• Getting in touch with nature. Urban dwellers often find that city life causes them to lose their sense of being connected to nature. Growing your own food as part of an urban farm can help you to get back in touch with nature. Seeing urban farms can help all residents find nature in their cities.
• Building community. Urban farms build a sense of community that is sometimes lacking in dense urban areas. By growing food side-by-side with your neighbors and sharing it, you experience a much richer life.
• Populations are in cities so food should be grown there. Urban environments are where many people live and where most people are moving to these days. Growing food in the places where people live makes sense in many ways including helping to keep food transportation costs low.
• Prettier cities. Cities that are flowering with edible plants are cities that people enjoy for their aesthetic appeal. Rooftop farms add something nice to the city’s skyline while ground-level gardens are pretty for everyone walking or driving by. This is nice for urban residents. It also promotes tourism which can help boost the urban economy.
• Revival of abandoned places. There are a lot of abandoned plots of land, buildings and even historic spaces that may be revived with the addition of a functional farm.

How Urban Farming Saves you Money

Urban farming is a frugal enterprise for a number of different reasons. Those reasons include:

• You get free food. You can grow plants on land that you already own as part of a neighborhood-based urban farm. The food that you grow there is free for you to enjoy. It’s easy to keep food production costs low at an urban farm because it’s made on such a small scale. You can use free or bartered seeds, recycled water and other options to make sure that your costs are low. Then you get to eat the food (or trade it with others) and not spend money on groceries.
• The land is cheap to rent. If you don’t have your own land on which to grow a garden, you can rent a small plot at an urban farm for a very, very low cost. This gives you a slice of nature in the city for a very low cost and again allows you to grow cheap food.
• It’s free entertainment. You won’t be spending money on movies, shopping or other high-cost forms of entertainment if you’re spending your free time working at the urban farm. This is true whether you farm for yourself or donate your time to a local organization for non-profit urban farming.
• It’s free exercise. There is no need to pay for a gym membership when you can work out naturally by working on the farm!
• You may lower your water costs. People often think that growing an urban garden costs a lot in terms of water. However, smart water management skills are gained when you learn about farming and gardening. You may actually lower your water costs over time. Farming retains water, keeping it in the urban area instead of allowing it to runoff into streams and lakes. This means that there is less of a water shortage in urban areas that have farms. In turn, water becomes less of a scarce commodity and therefore prices can be driven down. When water is rare, prices go up. In this way, urban farming may ultimately lower water costs for everyone. On a small scale, smart water landscaping at your own home can reduce your own water waste and reclaimed water can be used as part of your garden.
• You reduce your health care costs. Urban farming leads to conscious eating. You grow healthier food which means that you end up with a healthier body. Moreover, urban farming is good for mental health. This can prevent a number of physical ailments and reduce your need for medication and other health care.
• Earning a modest income. Ambitious urban farmers can sell their goods for a modest income.

How to Get Started with Urban Farming

Urban farming is popular enough these days that you should be able to find an existing farm in your city. Do a basic Google search or go to your local Native Seeds store or nursery to get more information on existing urban farms. What you’ll discover is that you may want to start your own urban farm instead. To do this, you’ll work with your neighbors to plot out a community space where the urban farm will be grown. You don’t have to have a lot of farming knowledge to get started. You just have to be willing to learn a lot and to work hard! Remember that you’ll get to reap what you sow.

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