Stories from UBC Farm, Vancouver BC – Growing Farmers: Feeding The City

Doug’s 1949 Farmall Cub parked in his 1/4 acre market garden. Photo by Doug Zaklan.

Doug Zaklan: Building an Urban Farm from the Ground Up

By Kate Petrusa
UBC Farm
Feb 16, 2012

Excerpt:

In March 2011, Doug asked his uncle if he could grow food on his existing ¼ acre garden at the back of his home. He was surprised when his uncle gladly offered “as much land as you can handle”. When Doug took on the ¼ acre garden last year, parts of the garden had existing beds, but about a third of the area was sod. Doug and a group of devoted friends turned in the sod with shovels and tilled with a rototiller in order to create 11 new beds. Doug produced enough food to attend four markets at Surrey Central Farmer’s Market that summer, a 10-minute drive from the farm.

Starting and managing a ¼ acre market garden and small flock of 23 chickens in Surrey and his fulfilling his 22 hour per week responsibilities at UBC Farm in Vancouver, meant that he was not home as often as he needed to be. However, his busy schedule helped Doug hone the secret to his success: “just charge it”. In other words, “you just gotta do it.” It also meant that he had to build two automated systems on his farm: one for irrigating the garden and another opening the chicken coop door.

See the UBC story site here.