City Farming - Community Garden - Backyard Gardens

City Farm is a personal or community-run project in urban areas, which involves people interacting and working with animals and plants. They aim to improve community relationships and offer an awareness of agriculture and farming to people who live in built-up areas. Farming Tools.

Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits, and herbs, are grown for consumption, or use as dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use.



Farm to Table promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer (which might be a winery, brewery, ranch, fishery, or other type of food producer which is not strictly a "farm"). Farm to Fridge.

Local Food connects food producers and food consumers in the same geographic region; in order to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks, improve local economies, or for health, environmental, community, or social impact in a particular place.

Vertical Farming - Green Houses
Indoor Growing Kits
Permaculture - Community Garden
Organic Food Growing
Fertilizers - Seeds
Plant Intelligence

How Farming could employ Africa's young workforce — and help build peace: Kola Masha (video and text)

I Only Ate Food That I Grew Or Foraged For One Year, No Food Stores and no Restaurants (youtube) - Ate over 300 species of food, grew 100 different kinds of food, forged 200 different kinds of food. Made his own flour by dehydrating cassava and yam. Fermented a lot of foods. doing all this living Florida in a tiny house and growing food in front yard gardens and community gardens.

Farms to Schools
Farm to School
HGSF Ghana
Food for Life
Farming Countryside Education
Agri Aware
Farm to Cafeteria Canada
VT Feed
Organic Schools - Aust-organic
Kitchen Garden Foundation
Garden to Table
City Blossoms develops creative kid-driven green spaces.
RecoveryPark mission is to re-build on vacant land, create jobs and help to revitalize this historic Detroit neighborhood.

Master Gardener Program are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and art of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as volunteers who advise and educate the public on gardening and horticulture.

Outdoor School Programs

Food Security - Farmers Markets - Feeding the Hungry

We need to do things on a large scale, and we need to do things on a small scale simultaneously. The parts must be representative of the whole. Big farms or mass production can be very effective and efficient if they're done right. If we can manage to do things on a large scale, and if we have the capabilities to do such large tasks, then we should. But we also need individual players who also understand their capabilities and can also be producers themselves. Each citizen must understand their responsibility to the whole system. Most of our problems are the result of people not having enough knowledge and information, which they need in order to be self reliant and be conscious contributors of society, instead of just being mindless consumers, which most of the time ends up doing more harm than good. Humans are an intelligent species, but human intelligence needs knowledge and information in order for human intelligence to be utilized. This is why schools, universities and the media needs to be updated so that we can foster human intelligence. Every education system needs to fully understand human intelligence and provide every student the necessary knowledge and information needed to maximize their own individual human intelligence. We have the technology, we have the skills, we have the people, all we need now is the will and the action.

City Farming Knowledge

An average 600-square-foot garden costs around $70 to plant and Produces about 300 pounds of fresh produce worth around $600.00. (24.5 feet by 24.5 feet). Land or Space Needed.

The average person eats over 1500 pounds of food a year. This is just the average diet, not all diets are good. Averaging around 200 lbs of Meat, over 300 lbs of Cream, Milk and Cheese, 35 lbs of Eggs, over 150 lbs of Bread and Grains, 125 lbs of Potatoes and over 200 lbs of Fruit. 141 pounds of Sweeteners (including 42 pounds of Corn Syrup a year). 85 pounds of Fats (Butter and Oil).  (Theses amounts vary depending on your Diet).

Food Consumption Data
Agriculture Council of America (ACA)
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Backyard Vegetable Garden
Garden Planner Software - Garden Plan Pro

Onfarm is a powerful platform that allows you to manage all your AG Data in one place Data Collection Data Management.

Agsolver is complete field analysis land management precision agriculture data including yield maps, soil sample data, and fertilizer application data, in combination with simulation tools to guide better management decisions. Insurance against a bad harvest.

Advanced Farming Tools
Organizations that Help Farmers

Number of Vegetable Plants Per Person needed for one year of Food? The number of Plants per person varies depending on their preferred diet, and also other factors like, climate, weather, draughts, soil, plant diseases, pests, and squeezing in a second harvest. Having a green house with vertical farming methods also could determine how much growing space is needed.

Growing Enough Food to Feed a Family (youtube)
How Much Do You Need to Plant? (youtube)
How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House? (youtube)

Perennial Plant is a plant that lives more than two years. Perennial plants can be short-lived (only a few years) or they can be long-lived, as are some woody plants like trees. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to survive extreme climatic and environmental conditions. Perennials, especially small flowering plants, that grow and bloom over the spring and summer, die back every autumn and winter, and then return in the spring from their rootstock, are known as herbaceous perennials.

Annual Plant is a plant that completes its life cycle within one year and then dies, going from germination to the production of seeds.

Biennial Plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year, the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots (vegetative structures), then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. Usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming a rosette. Many biennials require a cold treatment, or vernalization, before they will flower. During the next spring or summer, the stem of the biennial plant elongates greatly, or "bolts". The plant then flowers, producing fruits and seeds before it finally dies. There are far fewer biennials than either perennial plants or annual plants. Under extreme climatic conditions, a biennial plant may complete its life cycle rapidly (e.g., in three months instead of two years). This is quite common in vegetable or flower seedlings that were vernalized before they were planted in the ground. This behavior leads to many normally biennial plants being treated as annuals in some areas. Conversely, an annual grown under extremely favorable conditions may have highly successful seed propagation, giving it the appearance of being biennial or perennial. Some short-lived perennials may appear to be biennial rather than perennial. True biennials flower only once, while many perennials will flower every year once mature. From a gardener's perspective, a plant's status as annual, biennial, or perennial often varies based on location or purpose. Biennials grown for flowers, fruits, or seeds need to be grown for two years. Biennials that are grown for edible leaves or roots are grown for just one year (and not grown on a second year to run to seed). Examples of biennial plants are members of the onion family including leek, some members of the cabbage family, common mullein, parsley, fennel, Lunaria, silverbeet, Black-eyed Susan, Sweet William, colic weed, carrot, and some hollyhocks. Plant breeders have produced annual cultivars of several biennials that will flower the first year from seed, for example, foxglove and stock.

How Many Food Plants do I need to Grow to feed one Person for One Year?

Artichokes: 1-4 plants per person
Asparagus: 10-12 plants per person
Beans, Bush: 10-20 plants per person
Beans, Lima: 10-20 plants per person
Beans, Pole: 10-20 plants per person
Beets: 10-20 plants per person
Broccoli: 5-10 plants per person
Brussels Sprouts: 2-8 plants per person
Cabbage: 3-10 plants per person
Carrots: 10-40 plants per person
Cauliflower: 3-5 plants per person
Celeriac: 1-5 plants per person
Celery: 3-8 plants per person
Corn: 12-40 plants per person
Cucumbers: 3-5 plants per person
Eggplant: 1 plant per person, plus 2-3 extra per family
Kale: 1 5’ row per person
Lettuce: 10-12 plants per person
Melons: 2-6 plants per person
Onions: 40-80 plants per person
Peas: 25-60 plants per person
Peppers: 5-6 plants per person
Potatoes: 10-30 plants per person
Pumpkins: 1 plant per person
Rhubarb: 2-3 crowns per person
Spinach: 10-20 plants per person
Summer Squash: 2-4 plants per person
Winter Squash: 2 plants per person
Sweet Potatoes: 5 plants per person
Tomatoes: 2-5 plants per person.

How much Space or Land is needed to grow enough food for one person for a whole year? 4,000 square feet, and up to 8,000 square feet of land, to grow enough food for several people a year. 1/4 acre = 10,890  1 acre = 43,560 square feet. (vegetarian diet) - Urban Agroecoloy: 6,000 lbs of food on 1/10th acre - Urban Homestead - Urban Permaculture (youtube).

Sprouts or Micro-Greens is only 10–14 days from seeding to harvest.

MOBY - An Inner City Community Garden Project (video uploaded on Oct 10, 2006,  27 min.)

If you start cool-weather crops such as kale, collards, and lettuces indoors, you can transplant them into the ground as it begins to warm up, then harvest the greens weeks ahead of schedule.

Most gardeners understand that the soil in big cities is often contaminated with lead. Most soil tests look for lead, cadmium and arsenic. But they don't test things like petrochemicals left behind by cars, or cleaning solvents, which might have seeped into the soil from an old Laundromat. They are carcinogenic, and they're dangerous to ingest or even breathe in.  Journals

How to Grow Your Own Food
How to Grow and Harvest Food

City Farmer.info
City Farmer.org
Growing Places Indy
Lufa Farms
Community Garden
Farmers Markets
Growing Circular Food Systems in a Growing City
Home Grown Food Summit
Epic Gardening

Urban Agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a village, town, or city. Urban agriculture can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, urban beekeeping, and horticulture. These activities occur in peri-urban areas as well, and peri-urban agriculture may have different characteristics.

Urban Farming
Urban Farm Online
Urban Farm
Tilling Urban Terrain
Urban Ag Summit
Clean Air Gardening

Waste to Energy - Composting
Hemp
Water Management
Green House Micro Climates
There's too much Food being Wasted
Photos of what People Eat around the World

596 Acres maps vacant lots in New York City and advocates for community stewardship of that land. In New York City alone, there are more than 15,000 parcels of vacant land. Urban Agriculture

Urban Agriculture Bill - Farming the City

Edible Landscapes

Growing Food instead of Non-Edible Plants

Edible Lawns
Edible Landscaping
From Lawns to Edible Landscapes (youtube)
Edible Landscapes London
Pam Warhurst Edible Landscapes (video)

Forest Gardens
Grass
Seeds
Plant Maintenance

Container Gardens

Container Garden is the practice of growing plants, including edible plants, exclusively in containers instead of planting them in the ground.

Container Gardens
Raised Growing Beds
Boxes for Plants

Soil Health

Food Coops

Earth Box
Home Farming
Fruits and Veggies More Matters

Edible Landscaping

Foraging Wild Foods

Portable Rolling Planters
Portable Raised Bed Planter
Portable Elevated Planter Box

Green House Micro Climates

Noocity Growbed - Ultimate Urban Gardening System
Noocity Website

Balcony Garden Photos

Micro-Greens

How to Start a Vegetable Garden with Food Scraps
How to Grow Food from Leftovers
Stephen Ritz Growing Green (video)

Planting and Gardening Tips

Farm Schools - Farming Tips

How to Grow Vegetables in Sacks (youtube)

Up on the Roof - Roof Top Gardening

Green Roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is debated. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater.

Roof Garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational opportunities, and in large scale it may even have ecological benefits. The practice of cultivating food on the rooftop of buildings is sometimes referred to as rooftop farming. Rooftop farming is usually done using green roof, hydroponics, aeroponics or air-dynaponics systems or container gardens.

Roof Top Farming
Green Roofs

Rooftop Farming (youtube)
Roof Top Farms
Farm Roof

Urban Farm Online
Easiest Garden
Grow Veg
Gotham Greens
The Farmery
Bright Farms
Earth Easy

How to Grow Potatoes in a Container (youtube)
Non-GMO Organic Seed Potatoes

Be careful about the materials that you're using to build a raised bed. The wood could be treated with chemicals that you don't want touching your fruits and veggies.

Growing Your Own Food  - Tips

How to Plant a Vegetable Garden

Planting and Gardening Tips
How to Plant a Vegetable Garden. Grow some of your own food by starting a vegetable garden. (youtube)
How to Grow Your Own Food
Grow Food
Gardening Journey
Hungry City Book
Farming Tips

Subsistence Agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families. The output is mostly for local requirements with little or no surplus for trade. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to feed and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, and secondarily toward market prices.

Seeds
Raised Growing Beds
How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House
Forest Garden

Ron Finley: Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA (video)
Carolyn Steel: How Food Shapes our Cities (video)
Pam Warhurst Edible Landscapes (video) - Incredible Edible Town
Stephen Ritz Growing Green (video) - Green Bronx Machine

City Farming
Farm Schools
Farming Ideas
Cooperative Extension System Office Locations

Matrix Planting is a form of self-sustaining gardening, with a focus on attractive rather than food-bearing plants. Matrix planting is based on matching plant to space. The idea is that, when done successfully, plants replace spades, rakes, and hoes as the controllers of what goes on in the garden. Wildflowers grow all over the world with no help from humans. They are successful because the plants within each plant community have established a balance with one another: they each obtain a share of resources, living space, and opportunities to reproduce. Matrix planting is based on this natural model. It aims to set up similar self-sustaining communities in gardens, by bringing together plants that meld with one another in a balance: all survive and flourish; weeds are excluded. Matrix planting is based on choosing and managing plants in ways which enable them to form similar matrices in the garden. The aim is to enable the plants to occupy the ground and the space above it so effectively that no space is left for weeds and to do this in ways that are decorative and sympathetic to the setting of the garden. The aim of matrix planting is 1) encourage the plants you do want, and 2) discourage the plants you do not want. The key to success lies in the choice of plants. Ill-judged choices result in excessive dominance by one or two species, and the disappearance of those that cannot cope. Well judged choices lead to the establishment of persistent communities of plants which are diverse, self-renewing, resistant to invasion by weeds, and look attractive. It is not possible to plant and walk away as matrices take time to develop and depend on positive, rather than neutral, management. The strongest matrices consist of a succession of layers of vegetation through which sunlight filters, until at ground level there is enough only to support plants that can cope with very little light. The best examples of such matrices occur in deciduous woodlands, but that does not mean all gardens have to become micro-forests—effective matrices can also be formed by shrubs and perennials in mixed borders. Some may argue that matrix planting is just another term for ground cover, but matrix planting is concerned with successive layers of vegetation, one above the other, through which plants form multi-dimensional communities. Few would refer to the stratified vegetation of a wood as ground cover, though seen from a bird’s-eye view the cover is most effective. The essential quality of a plant matrix is the occupation of space, and matrix planting draws inspiration from the ways plants grow together naturally yet it is not a mere imitation of nature.

Slow Gardening encourages participants to savor everything they do, using all the senses, through all seasons, regardless of garden type of style.

Slow Food is an alternative to fast food that strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem.

Micro-Greens - Sprouts

Farmers Markets

City Soil is often Contaminated - Soil Testing

Preparing British Garden Snails - Gordon Ramsay (youtube)

Helix Aspersa is known by the common name garden snail, is a species of land snail. As such it is a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Helicidae, which include the most commonly familiar land snails. Of all terrestrial molluscs, this species may well be the most widely known. In English texts it was classified under the name Helix aspersa for over two centuries, but the prevailing classification now places it in the genus Cornu.

Edible Landscapes

City Seeds Farm Since 2010, we have been a small urban farming business in Toronto that uses residential backyards
to grow a wide range of vegetables. Bicycle-powered backyard farming in Toronto.

Urban farming has increased 29 percent between 2008 and 2013 from 7 million to 9 million people. But we are still losing Farms.

Did you know that 90% of onions grown are consumed in their country of origin?

Increased Food Security and Food Self-Sufficiency Strategy (PDF)

Green House Micro Climates

How To Regrow Vegetables From Your Kitchen Food Scraps

Sweet Potatoes
MATERIALS: 1 sweet potato. 1 yellow potato. Toothpicks. Mason jar or cups. Water.
INSTRUCTIONS: Halve the sweet potatoes, and place cut side down in a jar filled with water. Use toothpicks stuck into the sweet potato to keep it slightly elevated from the bottom. Place it in direct sunlight. Replace with clean water every one to two days. Once the potatoes have roots and sprouts (called slips) about 4-5 inches long, twist the slips from the potato, and set them in their own bowl of shallow water. The slips will begin growing their own roots, and once they are one inch long, you can plant them in soil.

Lettuce
MATERIALS: 1 head lettuce. Mason jar or cup. Water
INSTRUCTIONS: 1. On a cutting board, cut two inches of the base of lettuce off. 2. Set the lettuce on its base in a glass with ½ inch of water, and place it in sunlight. Change the water every day. 3. After 5-7 days, some new leaves should have begun to sprout from the center, and roots should be forming. Transfer it to soil and you can begin harvesting leaves when they reach 6-8 inches tall.

Bok Choy
MATERIALS: 1 head bok choy. Mason jar or cup. Water
INSTRUCTIONS: On a cutting board, cut the the 2-inch base of the bok choy. Place the bok choy in a container with water and place in a sunny location. Replace with fresh water every day or two. Use a spray bottle to mist the center of the plant for extra hydration if necessary.With time, the outside of the bok choy will deteriorate and turn yellow, while the center will grow turing from a pale green to darker green. When the bok choy has grown new leafy-growth at its center, transfer it to a container with potting mix. The container must have a good drainage hole. Plant the bok choy deep, so only the tips of the new green leaves pointing up. Place in an area that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight a day. Bok choy requires a lot of water, so water generously.

Scallions
MATERIALS: 1 bunch scallions. Mason jar or cup. Water.
INSTRUCTIONS: On a cutting board, trim the base of the scallions, keeping approximately 2 inches of the roots and base intact. Place the roots in ½ inch of water with sunlight. Change the water every other day. Transfer to soil after 5-7 days or keep in the glass of water. You can begin harvesting when they are fully grown.

Onions
MATERIALS: 1 red or yellow onion. Pot. Soil.
INSTRUCTIONS: Trim the base of the onion into a cube, keeping 1-2 inches of the root base intact. Plant the onion directly into soil with a thin layer of soil covering the cut top. To make room in your garden, you can trim the sides of the onion as only the center is needed for regrowth. Harvest the onions when the green tops have yellowed and fallen over.

Ginger
MATERIALS: 1 knob of ginger. Baking dish. Water. Pot. Soil.
INSTRUCTIONS: Place the ginger in a baking dish and soak it in warm water for overnight. Ginger roots grow horizontally so fill a shallow, wide plant pot with rich, well-draining. potting soil. If you want more than one plant, you can cut the root into pieces, as long as they are at least an inch long (each should each still have at least 3 “eyes”), and as long as each plant has at least 8 inches of its own space in the pot. Plant the ginger with the eye bud pointing up below 1-2 inches of soil. Water lightly (often, but not so that it is over soaked) and keep in a warm place, though not one with huge amounts of direct sunlight per day. It will take a few months before the ginger is large enough to begin harvesting pieces from it.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow In a Small Space (youtube)

Community Garden - Benefits of a Community Garden

Community Garden is a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people.

A community garden not only feeds people, it also brings people together, it also educates people about growing their own food. A community garden can also be used to help educate people about healthy eating habits and nutrition. A community garden can also be used to help educate people about the environment, which in turn can help people feel more connected to our earth, which can ultimately help people feel more connected to themselves, as well as other life forms. A community garden is good for the soul, and a great way to learn. Cooperative.

Farm to Table - Local Food - Food Security - Food Coops (food security) - Food Stamps

Community Supported Agriculture is an alternative, locally based economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA also refers to a particular network, or association of individuals, who have pledged to support one or more local farms, with growers and consumers sharing the risks and benefits of food production.

Community Supported Agriculture - Community Supported Agriculture

Community Supported Agriculture - Community Agriculture

Community Garden - Community Farms

Community Food Bank - Community Farm Alliance

Ten Speed Greens - CSA - Funding for Farmers

Fleet Farming converting lawns into food.

Local Foods, Local Places (PDF)

14-Year-Old's Homework Assignment Sparked A Mission to Feed America's Hungry (youtube)

Katies Krops

Food pantries help patrons grow their own produce
Food Marketing Institute

Good Eggs - Locally Grown

Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market

Oklahoma Food Coop

Restaurant Ideas - Food Truck Ideas

Food is Universal Edible Alphabet: Learning English and Connecting to Culture Through Cooking.

Growing food in urban areas increased 29 percent between 2008 and 2013 from 7 million to 9 million people. Williston, VT (April 2, 2014) - During the past five years there's been a significant shift toward more Americans growing their own food in home and community gardens, increasing from 36 million households in 2008 to 42 million in 2013. The report shows that more young people, particularly millennials (ages 18-34), are the fastest growing population segment of food gardeners. In 2008 there were 8 million millennial food gardeners. That figure rose to 13 million in 2013, an increase of 63%. Millennials also nearly doubled their spending on food gardening, from $632 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2013. The report found that more households with children participated in food gardening, increasing participation during the same time period by 25%, from 12 million to 15 million. Additionally, there was a 29% increase in food gardening by people living in urban areas, up from 7 million in 2008 to 9 million in 2013. Two million more households also reported participating in community gardening in 2013 than 2008, a 200% increase in five years. Garden.org

2009 Impact of Gardening in America White Paper (PDF)

Soul Fire Farm is committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. We raise life-giving food and act in solidarity with people marginalized by food apartheid.

Black Gardeners Matter - Bread

Feeding the Hungry

Up to 90 percent of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes.

Digital Food - vpro backlight Jun 12, 2015 (youtube)

We can feed everyone on the planet with just the land that we have. Do we need vertical farms? Yes. Not just because you can grow more food, because it relieves some of the restrictions that you would have in certain farming regions. Plus we learn more about food when we grow it under different conditions, and it gives people more options and choices. Food is not being shared fairly, and too much food is being used ineffectively and inefficiently. So if we were to correct these deficiencies, and cut down on the low quality processed foods that do more harm then good, and reduce food waste, there would be enough food for everyone.

FarmBot Genesis (youtube) Automated Robot planting, watering and soil analyzing system. Farmbotio (youtube channel) - Farmbot.io