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In todays day and age, small backyard farms are not only trendy, they are a way of life where you can grow your own food to live a healthier lifestyle.
From growing your own herbs, vegetables and fruit to even having your own small livestock like chickens and honeybees, there are so many things you can do to grow your own food right at home.
Growing your own food has many benefits including:
There are some simple ways to grow your own food, and we are going to highlight some easy ways to do so by partnering with our friends over at The Farmers Cupboard.
Here is their top advice for how to start a small backyard farm.
There are many styles of gardens you can have in your own backyard to grow your own food. These include:
A patio garden is great for anyone living the condo or apartment lifestyle, anybody who has a very small backyard or who wants to grow food right outside their back door, like on their deck.
A garden bed is a style of garden dug down into the ground. It is great for root vegetables like carrots or beets, or for above the ground vegetables, like tomatoes or corn.
Of course, you will have to monitor where you want that garden to grow and determine how much sun that area gets before deciding on plants sun-loving vegetables or shade vegetables. A garden bed, once dug, cannot be moved.
A raised garden bed is great for someone who has the backyard space to build up walls to keep a garden in. The benefits to a raised bed include not having to bend over to pull weeds and harvest, and it is harder for airborne weed seeds to get into.
Having backyard chickens is one of the most enjoyable parts of having a backyard farm. They can be free-ranging (benefits include they dig up weeds in a garden, however, they can also eat your garden if not controlled), or can be kept in an area by the coop.
The biggest benefit to having chickens of course, is the fresh eggs, but we love watching them run around and chase the bugs and play in the yard. Chickens will have you laughing constantly -they are full of personality and bring such a great amount of happiness.
A chicken, depending on the breed, age and time of year, will lay anywhere from 1-3 eggs every 1-3 days.
If owning chickens sounds daunting, or sounds like too much work you don't want to let them out in the morning and put them away at night, there is a really great item you can buy to take some of that extra work away, and that is an automatic chicken coop door.
At The Farmers Cupboard, we installed an automatic chicken coop door, and have rave reviews for it. It opens with the sunlight and closes after the sun sets, but we have the option to set it for whatever time we want it to open and close at.
Because chickens instinctively go into the coop when it is getting dark, they go in on their own and it keeps them in and safe all night.
Read the review of this chicken coop door right here
This is for the more experienced backyard farmer, but beekeeping is a wonderful hobby that brings you fresh, backyard honey and pure beeswax to make candles and other things with.
The Farmers Cupboard has great resources on how to start beekeeping.
Growing herbs can be a great place to start if you are not sure about starting a full on garden or chickens and honeybees. Herbs can be grown inside or out, and there are great herb growing kits you can order to start off with.
Many of the popular herbs people enjoy growing include:
There is so much you can make with herbs, it is another great way to start the backyard farming aesthetic.
If you really are not sure where to start but you want to live the backyard farming life, then start by making your meals from scratch. Learn what it is you want more of: is it the fresh produce and the taste of fresh herbs? Do you want your own backyard eggs in your food? As you cook more, you will learn what it is you need and go from there.
Backyard gardening and healthy eating tend to go hand in hand, but everyone has their own personal taste in what they want their food and gardening to reflect.
You could always start a backyard flower garden for fun as well if you enjoy cut flowers and are not sure where to start. That will get your hands dirty and get you out there in the first place.
We hope you found this article helpful in learning how to start a small backyard farm. Remember, you can grow food in any lifestyle; whether you have a house with a big backyard, a small place with a tiny yard, or a condo or apartment. As long as you have access to water and sunlight, you can grow your own food.
Here is a Pinterest pin you can save to your backyard gardening ideas board, be sure to pin it and come back again soon!
Happy gardening!
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