You’re here because you want to make the most of your backyard.
Well, let me tell you, there’s a method for growing food in a small urban space that’s both far more productive than traditional methods and almost zero maintenance.
I think the thing about this that’ll strike you the most is that you won’t need to till the soil or do regular weeding.
Well, looking at the name of our site, you’ve probably guessed what I’m about to say next:
The world’s best urban agriculture method is to start a permaculture food forest!
Here is a post I wrote about how to absolutely maximize your production in a space as small as 1/30th of an acre. However, the problem with that permaculture design is that it isn’t low maintenance, unlike a food forest.
A food forest is ridiculously easy. Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture, said that it takes just 40 minutes to plant your vegetables for the year. How long does it take you to go to Walmart?
That’s the beauty of a food forest. You can start one literally over a weekend, at any time of year, but in fall or winter is the best, because then you can be ready for the upcoming growing season in spring without having to lay down an extra layer of compost below your wood chips.
“Whoa there,” you say. “What’s this all about?”
Don’t worry, it’s simply the method that makes establishing a food forest possible in just one weekend. Check out this post where I explain how it’s done.
As for a general picture of how your food forest will develop over time, and ways to speed things up a bit, there’s this post here that explains all of that.
You see, a food forest is really that easy. You barely have to know what you’re doing, because nature takes care of all the hard work for you.
And no, this isn’t “hippy nonsense.” Permaculture is about using clever design to get nature to do your work for you. It’s working smart, avoiding problems, rather than working hard and fixing them.
The thing that makes a food forest the perfect design for a small urban homestead, is that you have up to 7 layers of crops all growing in the same space. Compare that to the traditional agriculture method of widely spaced crops with nothing above them. Yeah, I think you get the idea by now about why this truly is the greatest urban agricultural method.
You see, the reason why this works is that crops with different heights have different root depths so they don’t compete for nutrients. Everything else is taken care of by the ramial chipped wood – also known as “arborist wood chips,” and shortened to “wood chips.” There’s no need for watering, no digging, no fertilizers, no pesticides or anything.
This is truly natural farming that mimics the functioning of an actual forest as closely as possible. The time is now to create the ultimate human habitat: a food forest that automatically sustains you, and will eventually reseed itself each year, bringing you more and more bountiful harvests while regenerating the soil and wildlife around you.
Want to see a perfect example of what this looks like? Check out James Prigioni’s YouTube channel, especially this video. I kid you not, the love that man has for this stuff will truly inspire you. You’ll want to start your own food forest right away …and you should!
If what you see does inspire you, then be sure to send him your love back. He’s a wonderful human being, and he’s done a lot to grow the food forest community.
That’s all from me for now. I’ve given you plenty to look into. I truly wish you all the best with your urban homesteading dream.
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