Suburban Farming in Boulder, CO
By Vanessa Richins
Kipp Nash lives in suburban Colorado, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a farmer.
As he explains on his website, “Believe it or not, we’re operating our Community Roots project from a rental home. We moved in in the fall of 2005 and this is where the whole idea started.
One day, looking out upon the back yard I thought about how we could grow veggies here in the backyard, and then we could find willing neighbors in our area to offer us their backyard for growing vegetables. If we could find enough backyards, maybe we could grow enough vegetables to sell at market to support ourselves financially. We could also start a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program right here in the neighborhood…YES!!!”
He was able to start farming in the yards of eight of his neighbors, and Boulder Community Roots Farm was born. Last year, on land totaling less than a half an acre between all plots, he was able to gross $6000 by selling vegetables and herbs through community garden shares. This year, he hopes to expand the program and make $15,000.
Mr Nash is working to help the community, too. One project that started in 2008 is a “Community Roots CSA Outreach”. They found 5 low income households who would be the beneficiaries of free shares in the CSA program.
Another program is called “Community Fruits”. They find fruit trees in the community that are not being fully harvested. They would give a portion to the homeowner, part to those who harvested the fruit, some through the CSA program, and some sold at the farmers market.
Finally, the Boulder Community Roots Farm is expanding to a new neighborhood.
What an exciting project! Have you removed your lawn in favor of a vegetable garden?
December 5th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
My husband is rather conventional, so he would never let me replace the lawn with veggies! Besides, I still have young kids who need space for running around. I am planning to increase the size of my garden this spring, though.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I’m currently shopping for a new house in the Minneapolis area. I’m finding that I have to be careful about HOA’s, because many of them won’t allow me to remove my lawn and replace it with a veggie garden. My realtor is looking for a house for me keeping in mind that once I move in, the lawn is gone.
I’ve been reading about Mr. Nash, and I love what he’s doing! Thanks for bringing his work to a wider audience.
February 21st, 2009 at 10:49 am
[...] Urban Garden Casual - blog post about the project [...]
April 7th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Hyperlocavore.com is a social network built to help folks build yardsharing groups and serial yard farms. The idea is to gather together and produce as much food as possible in our yards. The problem is not all of us have time, strength, green thumbs etc. Hyperlocavore.com comes in there. Hooking up apartment dwellers, older folks, people with itchy gardening hands with other folks who want to grow their own in their yards but could use a few extra people to help. Everyone gets cheaper tastier fruits and veg, lawns become gardens, neighbors get to know each other and kids learn all about where food comes from by learning to grow it with their friends and neighbors.
December 17th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Wow! Good to know Boulder Community Roots Farm is continually expanding and growing. I love the kind of project they have and their aims. Great job guys!