Your Farm in the City: An Urban-Dweller's Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals

The most complete book on urban farming, covering everything from growing organic produce and raising chickens, to running a small farm on a city lot or in a suburban backyard.

Eating locally and growing one's own food is a rapidly evolving movement in urban settings — Hantz Farms in Detroit has transformed 70 acres of abandoned properties into energy-efficient gardens, and Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a 6,000-foot vegetable farm in Brooklyn, New York, yields 30 different kinds of produce, while private square-foot farms are cropping up in cities all over the country.

Created by Lisa Taylor and the gardeners of Seattle Tilth, Your Farm in the City covers all of the essential information specific to gardening and farming in a city or town. Clear, easy-to-follow instructions guide and inspire even the most inexperienced urbanite in how to grow and harvest all types of produce, flowers, herbs, and trees, as well as how to raise livestock like chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, and honeybees. Important information particular to gardening in a city or town is included, such as planning and maximizing limited space, building healthy soil, managing irrigation, understanding zoning laws, outwitting urban pests, and being a considerate farming neighbor.

With 100 two-color instructional illustrations throughout and dozens of vital resources, Your Farm in the City is the most practical, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow guide to the burgeoning trend of urban farming.

"This upbeat manual for aspiring urban gardeners features a gritty but whimsical, graphic-heavy, reader-friendly layout and a 21st-century attitude that will appeal to a younger generation of gardeners intrigued by the idea of growing their own food while living in the city. Chapters on planning a city 'farm' (which Taylor likens to the more modestly titled kitchen and victory gardens), intensive growing with vertical plantings, and seed starting lay out the basics in a welcoming, unintimidating manner. Discussions of preserving food and urban farm husbandry, from chickens to bees, as well as detailed information on growing a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, edible flowers, and herbs, are thorough enough to be useful and realistic. Numerous sidebars and boxes feature supplementary information as diverse as designing with children's propensity for jumping over plant beds in mind (make them narrow so the kids won't land in the middle of the bed) and recipes for exotic treats like green tomato muffins and calendula salve. Abundant, clear drawings, from oversized illustrations of insects to plans for hoop houses and beehives, make up for the lack of photographs. (Mar.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright PWyxz LLC)

Lisa Taylor is the Education Program Manager for Seattle Tilth. She is a co-author of the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide and a frequent speaker on soils, compost, edible landscaping and children's gardening. She facilitates training for teachers and others interested in schoolyard gardening and is passionate about teaching children and their parents where their food comes from and how to care for living things.