Farmyard (Urban Garden)

I first heard about Farmyard when a friend mentioned that she'd gone on their urban farm tour.  Being the fledgling - and well, let's be honest here...struggling and somewhat inept - gardener that I am, I really wanted to see how it's done here in the desert by someone who has planned and cultivated a thriving garden.  I also thought it would be awesome to take a group of homeschooled kids along so they could see a community garden.  Rebecca Kidwell's Farmyard property feeds 15 families through their co-op.  Absolutely amazing.  Anyway, I contacted Rebecca and asked about having a tour for Just Field Trips.  As someone who whole-heartedly supports community gardening, she was enthusiastic about it.  We ended up bringing 30 people onto her Phoenix property.

My mind was simply boggled by the amount of food she is able to grow on her property!  Rebecca led the group around her homestead garden, showed us the different types of vegetables she was growing, and talked about what they do.

In addition to the plants they grow, Farmyard also has chickens and goats!  We got to see the big coop, the pen and the colored eggs the chickens lay.  Rebecca even brought one of the chickens out for the kids to pet.

We concluded our morning at Farmyard with planting either lettuce or peas of our very own.

After I saw what was indeed possible here in the Valley, I began thinking about my pathetic little yard at home.  I have one square-foot garden, which currently has nothing in it.  Last year's yield was, um, meager.  My corn froze to death, but the freezing temperatures that killed my corn (which had COBS that we didn't get to eat! sob) also made my broccoli grow like crazy.  Nothing ever came of my beets or my garlic.  My potato leaves were gorgeous, but I never got any tubers.  My berries all fried to death in the sun this summer.  I have a grapefruit tree and a lemon tree in my front yard.  Both are young trees, definitely not very big.  They are bearing fruit, though.  Beyond that, my yard is all dirt.  I want my yard to look like hers!  I got such tremendous satisfaction from the things that my kids and I planted together that actually grew.  So, since Farmyard does consultations, urban garden planning, and other services, I will be taking advantage of a consultation in the very near future.