A story.
Wife and I bought a home in town. Lot was only 150 ft wide but 1000 feet deep. Property beside was the same. So we had this big field behind our house. Beautiful. 2nd day we moved in, went downstairs for a cup of coffee. Looked out back and there was a guy plowing up our backyard! Wife had a come apart so I went out back and asked him, basically, WTF? He said I’ve been planting this property for 40 years! Corn, tomatoes, squash, peas, cucumbers, pretty much any kind of produce you could think of.
Turned out it was a great way to not have to mow a 3 acres of backyard. Plus, we got all the vegetables we wanted!
There is something to be said about having a neighbor that gardens in a big way.
The next farm over from us (horse farm) is owned by a guy who is ex-Amish & his ‘English’ wife. Summer of 2020, while we were all TRAPPED IN OUR HOMES, I went a little NUTS on the tomatoes - planted 36 of them or some insane number, so I had PLENTY to share.
Enos said to me, ‘Woman, you sure can grow a tomato! These taste as good as the ones my Mom used to grow on our farm!’
He was SO appreciative, and I felt greatly complimented coming from someone that had grown up in that hard-scrabble life. ;)