Getting started

The path to a microfarm has been long and varied as described in my first blog. I didn't even know what a microfarm was until I watched a video by The Dervaes Family called Homegrown Revolution. The Dervaes' manage to grown 6,000 lbs. of food every year on 1/10th of an acre. They use traditional organic gardening, no funny business, or super fertilizers, only hard work and lots of planning.

That video inspired me and Shelley to approach our garden with a similar goal in mind. We developed a plan where over the next four years we intend to "liberate" our yard, turning it from grass to food growing gardens.

The plan will develop across four distinct stages and goals requiring lots of labor and funds. The cost is why we are spreading it over 4 years. Some of the intended additions, like peach trees and apples, will be an initial large expenses. We both have vowed to not incur any new debt in the creation of our farm so the credit cards stay put.

Last year our garden consisted of two seperate areas comprising twelve to thirteen 4' x 8' raised beds. These we refer to as the lower gardens, they exist at the farthest point from our house in the backyard. Additionally, we have four grape vines on an arbor/fence, 12 gooseberries in a patch along the east side of our house, and a small kitchen/herb garden right outside the back door in two small patches.

This year we began the project. We added 200+ square feet of garden above the old gardens. These are in an area that was a perennial garden. We removed the perennials and added more raised beds. We also removed a 10' x 10' slate patio, converting the area to squash beds and recycling the patio material as a garden walk-way.

This year also saw some permaculture additions. We added two more grapes to the arbor, and two kiwi bushes.

We currently are growing 118 tomatos (paste, cherry, and slicing), eleven different varities of summer and winter squash, two different melon varities, pickling cukes, three varities of cabbage, two varities of pole beans, fava beans, eggplants, six varities of lettuce, two varities of swiss chard, three varities of sweet peppers, and two varities of hot peppers.

This year we hope to produce and harvest 50% of our families food needs for the year. We will increase this target goal each year.

At the end of this season we will start the next phase of the farm. We need to remove a maple tree and an ash to make room for a 6 dwarf apple trees that we intend to train onto a fence. We need to finish removing the remaining perennila bed to make room for a blue berry patch, and we are tilling up the next garden section of 40' x 40', so we can hit the ground running next spring with already amended soil.

The final two phases include a peach orchard in the front yard, a more formalized herb garden, and a shed.