Backyard Harvest one yard at a time – Minneapolis-Saint Paul

Photo by WontonBrutality

From their program website:

Backyard Harvest’s mission is to strengthen the Twin Cities local foods infrastructure one yard at a time by turning lawns into nourishing and healthy landscapes. We connect eaters directly to their food, neighbors to one another, and urban farmers to professional opportunities.

Backyard Harvest is a community-building program in urban Permaculture. The program provides both garden fresh food and garden education for homeowners, renters and neighborhoods, as well as entrepreneurial and small-scale food production training for our farmers. Our farmers contract with homeowners, renters and communities to create gardens in their backyards, maintain the gardens and harvest all of the produce weekly for each family.

After hiring three outstanding urban farmers, our team set out to grow a diverse array of vegetables, herbs & edible flowers for 15 South Minneapolis households. These garden-owners came with a wide variety of garden experiences, expectations & income levels. Some sought to learn gardening skills by following along with their farmer while others were just getting started with gardening & cooking fresh seasonal foods. So what did they think?

According to our end-of-season survey, for garden-owners the experience of having a garden in their yards ranked right up there with receiving high quality, fresh produce. Learning about gardening techniques, plant varieties & cooking with fresh produce were important parts of this experience. Garden-owners also report having made related changes in their lives such as connecting more with their neighbors, buying other locally produced products & becoming more adventurous in their cooking & eating. Garden-owners were overwhelmingly in favor of recommending Backyard Harvest to their friends, family & neighbors. In fact, many have told us that they have already done so!

Full Service Garden Options 2010

Comprehensive, professional garden design: permaculture’s holistic principles applied to designs listed below. Each layout includes over 30 different crops.

Personal urban farmer: regular visits to keep weeds and pests controlled, harvest vegetables, herbs and edible flowers

Site assessment: help choosing garden layouts, options and placement

Soil testing: we take the samples; U of M Lab does the testing

Compost blend and soil fertility inputs: a blend of plant-based compost, composted manure, compost tea, fish emulsion and organic fertilizers

Garden set up and tear down: spring and fall includes installing fencing

Plants and seeds: all heirloom and/or organic

Watering system (timer, hose, sprinkler)*: keep those sprouts moist!

Straw mulch: protects soil and helps keep weeds in check

Harvesting and planting materials*: bags, twine, wash tub, cooler, pest deterrents, etc.

Insurance

Also included: Garden journal: updates from your farmer and observations, experiences and wishes from you

E-newsletter from us: permaculture insights, tips, recipes, program news and events

Community events: mid-summer picnic, canning bee, harvest party and other opportunities
You provide: Cardboard mulch: easily and effectively start a new garden in an existing lawn by laying cardboard over the grass. This kills the grass, allowing it to break down into a nutritious addition to your soil. We simply build your garden on top!

Fencing (pest and pet control): protect your investment with a simple fence

Garden layouts: Traditional Keyhole Flower Petal

100 sf, 14’ x 10’ 100 sf, 18’ x 8’ 120 sf, 17’ diameter

80 sf, 11’ x 10’ 80 sf, 13’ x 6.5’
Options: Heirloom potato bin Strawberry companion bed Asparagus companion bed

2.5’ diameter bin 8’ x 3’ with chives and borage 8’ x 3’ with dill and alyssum

* One-time set-up cost. Back-to-back growing

See more about there program here and here.