Here is a picture of the Harvest Heartland Gardens at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Mo. They have a 12 acre exhibit up there that includes a garden created by Rosalind Creasy about edible landscaping. She is the queen of edible landscaping. These are some of the things I want to explore as I go along with my projects. I have plans, y'all. Wish me luck.

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.” Isak Dineson

There is so much work to do. I have never been afraid of hard work. I was a single parent, working full time, and going to school all at the same time, for years and moving several times in between all that. These were things I wanted to do. Things I wanted to be successful at, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I have always been energetic, OK, obsessive maybe, about the things I’m passionate about – being a mom, education and now sustainable farming or organic gardening. Now that I’ve decided to find out about sustainable farming (on a micro level!) I can’t get enough information about it. I know this winter I will spend many long, dark, cold evenings reading up on all the new things happening in the field. No pun intended…lol, well maybe. I believe we haven't treated this world very well and I can do something to make it better, even a little, will be fun and worth my while. I love picking and eating something I have grown. I hope to eventually be efficient enough to grow enough fruit and vegies to feed me and my girls and their families. But there is so much to do.
Sometimes I stand out in the backyard looking around and thinking about the things I want to do and then I see myself at the age of 97, bent over, a straw hat over my long gray hair, ( what an imagination, eh? as if I'll have any hair by then.) still working on my list of things I want to do in the backyard. Maybe that’s a good thing. If I get to 97, I will most likely have to have the great grandkids help me in the garden, which is something else I’m passionate about, getting children involved in growing things. One of my only memories of my grandma Mae is when I was about 7 and she and I went into her garden in Great Bend, Ks and picked Black-eyed peas for dinner. We were not a close family and so memories of her are few but I’ve never forgotten being in the garden with my grandmother. She always had a garden my father said. Grandma Mae went through the depression with 7 children, running her own resturaunt. Born in 1900, she grew up in Vinita, Oklahoma. They were poor with 10 kids in the family. In fact, one of the only pictures I have is of my grandmother as a teenager and her family in their garden. My father had a garden for many years, I remember him always growing tomatoes. Tomatoes tasted better when I was a child then they do now. Now tomatoes are grown for looks and the ability to be dropped from 3 feet and not break. In other words so they can be transported all over the country without shattering. So they are tough with no flavor. I want to grow heirloom tomatoes asap, so I can try to recapture the sweet/tangy taste of the old time tomatoes that I remember back in the 60's.

Next year, I'm a poultry farmer

I can’t wait to get chickens. I’ve had chickens before and they are fun to watch as well as the free eggs. Simple pleasures for simple minds, I’m thinking. I could never eat one of my chickens. If I get to know them (and I will), I could never kill them. I’m going to have to turn Vegetarian, I guess. The biggest problem for me is that if you buy from McMurray Hatchery, which is a well respected national hatchery you have to buy 25 at a time. That’s a lot of chickens. A lot of eggs, hmmm, maybe I’ll go into business, I’ll sell them and get rich!! A good thing is you can buy all girls, that means no loud roosters to piss off your neighbors!I’ve done a little research into what kind of chicken I want. I’ve decided on light Brahma chickens because they are a great breed for
backyard flocks. Light Buff Brahmas produce medium size brown eggs and tend to be rather large birds. The Brahma breed is good-tempered, enjoys interacting with people, and is not aggressive toward other chickens. They are a great addition to any flock with their mild manner and pretty black and buff feathers. Brahma chickens also have feathered legs. The gentle Brahma personality makes this chicken breed an excellent choice for children.
These fine feathered friends can contribute to the social, economic, and environmental well- being of your community.
Why raise Chickens? They help out in the garden and the neighborhood by: improving garden health, suppressing pests and weeds, and building soil fertility, giving neighborhood children the opportunity to learn where their food comes from, and producing nutritious eggs to be enjoyed by their caretakers and sold at farmers’ markets.
And aren’t they purty? They’ll add a little color to the garden and make fertilizer too. Unfortunately, I have to wait till next spring to get them….I’m going to need a coop and a way to keep my dog Titan from eating them…bad doggie.

what is a Pocket Farm?

Also called Micro Farming, City farming, and suburban homesteading, they thrive on city lots to multi acre sustainable farms. The Slow Food Movement , Slow food USA, the growing compassion for our environment, and the new trends for buying and eating local has been the steam behind the growth of small and micro farms in the big cities and suburbs. Over the last 50 years or so, the rise of factory farms all but wiped out the small farmer.
A friend who used to spray crops in the 70’s told me once that he only sprayed chemicals when the farmer had a problem, now the farmer has to put down chemical after chemical just to get things to grow. Our small creeks are rarely flowing with water anymore (only after a storm) they are usually just mud pits because of the chemicals that wash into them from the farmers fields.
The proliferation of farmers markets has renewed an interest in locally grown, better tasting, and more diverse selection of locally produced food. Farmers Markets are not just a place to buy food, but it’s also a social event. It supports small farms and farming families.
Every Pocket Farm is different. Just as each sculpture is different for the sculptor. The diversity is what makes discovering these pocket farms an experience. Whether it’s a farm where you pick your own Blueberries or a micro dairy with mini goats providing milk for artisan cheeses, Micro Farming is a fast growing alternative to traditional monocrop soulless factory farming.
My heroes are many but the ones that come to mind regarding micro farming is the Dervaes family in Pasadena, California. They grow over 350 varieties of herbs and vegetables on 1/10 of an acre. That’s six thousand pounds of food annually. They use and produce solar power and biodiesel. They like to think of their project as “the little homestead that could - doing more with less”. Here is their website:

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/04/24/urban-micro-farming/