Selecting Our Crops! | Urban Farming Day 1

*It all started with a phrase my brother spoke to me...

"Grow Gardens. Not Lawns."

Quick Introduction

This is our first garden. Any and all suggestions are more than welcome!

We know nothing.

But the more we've dug into the ethos of urban farming, the more committed we've become. It started with Curtis Stone. Then, we discovered The Urban Farming Guys and witnessed how a simple farm can impact a whole community.

We are sharing the entire journey on Steemit.

We'll be documenting our dreams first, mistakes second, and successes third.

Now, onto the post ;)

We Don't Know What to Plant

Which is a problem.

To solve it, we first need to define a way to judge a crop. What makes one crop better than another?

Our urban farm is going to have a lot of limitations. First, we won't have a lot of space. We will be ripping up my mom's lawn and using it as our plot.

Second, we currently don't have capital to invest in equipment.

However, limitations are only one side of the coin. The other is dreams, willingness to work, and ingenuity.
Attempting to fit crops in our small lawn

Our Goals (as of today)

Our ultimate vision continues to evolve as we find more inspiration around the world.

There are so many incredible projects that revitalize abandoned buildings, employ the unemployed, invest in green energy, utilize organic farming methods, feed the hungry, and on and on.

It starts with vision. But to create a sustainable project requires culture, leadership, a team, and revenue to reinvest.

We want to start small and build. For that, we want to focus on two things.

• ROI - generating revenue will allow us to reinvest in the farm, and grant us greater capabilities to tackle more complex challenges.

• Commitment to Organic - From the start, we want to take a stance on organic farming methods. Refusing to compromise on this point will set the base for our farm's philosophy and approach to business.

With our limitations in mind, and our preliminary goals enumerated, we began sketching out our crop selection critieria.

Crop Criteria - Overcoming Limitations + Achieving Goals

After some great research sessions, we came up with the following set of criteria to select our first crops against.

1. Short Date to Maturity - Some crops take all year to mature. Others take 20 days. This will allow us to "flip" our beds, harvesting multiple times within the season.

2. Space Required to Grow - Some crops want the whole bed. Others are ok sleeping on their sides. This will allow us to plant the most seeds per square foot.

3. Marketability (in Topeka, KS) - "It's not about what you can grow. It's what you can sell." - Curtis Stone. We want to create a sustainable venture. This will depend on our skills at sales and marketing, but selecting the right crops will make the battle easier.

4. Price per Pound - Again, this is in consideration to space. We won't be harvesting mountains of veggies, so we need to get the most bang out of our buck for the hills we manage.

5. Season Appropriate - Lastly, we need to pay attention to our particular climate, and what grows well here.

Thanks MIgarden for your help!

Conclusion

That's it! We're just getting started, and am excited to share our journey.

Lastly, all proceeds go to farm.

I'm documenting for a few reasons.

First, to payback to the amazing content producers before me. You've given me confidence to start this project, and I hope others will be inspired in the same way.

Second, for Steemit. Although new here, I hope to contribute meaningful, valuable articles.

Lastly, every upvote breaths life into our garden.

We're self-funding, and we're inviting you to help. Currently we're on our way to saving for an Earthway Seeder. New, it's $112.99, but we think we can get one used for $70 off eBay. I'll make sure to keep track of ongoing contributions in every post.