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Green Acres II: When Neighbors Become Farmers
Wall Street Journal ^ | April 22, 2008 | Kelly K Spors

Posted on 04/22/2008 3:54:04 PM PDT by Lorianne

BOULDER, Colo. -- When suburbanites look out their front doors, a lot of them want to see a lush green lawn. Kipp Nash wants to see vegetables, and not all of his neighbors are thrilled.

"I'd rather see green grass" than brown dirt patches, says 82-year-old Florence Tatum, who lives in Mr. Nash's Boulder neighborhood, across the street from a house with a freshly dug manure patch out front. "But those days are slipping away."

work.

A school-bus driver, Mr. Nash rises at 5 a.m. and, after returning from his morning route, spends his days planting, watering and tending his yard farms and the seedlings he stores in a greenhouse behind his house.

Farmers don't necessarily live in the country anymore. They might just be your next-door neighbor, hoping to turn a dollar satisfying the blooming demand for organic, locally grown foods.

INDEPENDENT STREET BLOG

Kelly Spors on opportunities down on the yard farm. Read the latest post and share your thoughts.Unlike traditional home gardeners who devote a corner of the yard to a few rows of vegetables, a new crop of minifarmers is tearing up the whole yard and planting foods such as arugula and kohlrabi that restaurants might want to buy. The locally grown food movement has also created a new market for front-yard farmers.

"Agriculture is becoming more and more suburban," says Roxanne Christensen, publisher of Spin-Farming LLC, a Philadelphia company started in 2005 that sells guides and holds seminars teaching a small-scale farming technique that involves selecting high-profit vegetables like kale, carrots and tomatoes to grow, and then quickly replacing crops to reap the most from plots smaller than an acre. "Land is very expensive in the country, so people are saying, 'why not just start growing in the backyard?' "

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: gardens; landuse; propertyrights; zoning
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To: Steely Tom

That is Oliver’s mom.


21 posted on 04/22/2008 4:55:44 PM PDT by steveo (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
He must not have any teenagers living in his neighborhood!

No, only whiny old ladies.

22 posted on 04/22/2008 4:58:46 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Steely Tom

“Hail to the countess
Hail to the countess
We’re so glad you’re here.
Hail to the countess
Hail to the countess
Raise your glass of beer.”
As sung by the HYPAS...


23 posted on 04/22/2008 5:00:13 PM PDT by steveo (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.)
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To: Lorianne

We lived in a new subdivision with an HOA association in Atlanta. Never again!!!
We now live in an antique house in an old established neighborhood in a small town in NC. We can paint our door any color we like and have. It’s purple, a very tasteful purple that looks great with the gray body and off white trim. ;) And we can plant anything we like in our yard. At least for the present. The town is establishing a historic district and our street is being considered for inclusion. I have neighbors who are totally against it while I’m sort of undecided. I hate the thought of having to get permission to do anything to a house or property that I own.


24 posted on 04/22/2008 5:00:50 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: steveo

No idiot (me) that was Lisa’s mom that was the countess.


25 posted on 04/22/2008 5:01:17 PM PDT by steveo (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.)
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To: Steely Tom

I don’t think she ever was a regular. Lisa used to call her and she occasionally visited to try and entice them back to NY.


26 posted on 04/22/2008 5:02:31 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: Gabz

One for your lists?


27 posted on 04/22/2008 5:02:41 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
Get some evidence to lock his a## up.
28 posted on 04/22/2008 5:07:14 PM PDT by Justa (Politically Correct is morally wrong.)
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To: BGHater
Property rights, gotta love them. More power to him.

If more people are smart, they'll do the same.

Food prices are going to soon take a giant leap as the cost of gas filters back through from the truckers who haul 98% of the things we buy, including food - the gas hike HAS to be recouped from the shippers who will then pass it on the to buyers who will pass it on to US.

Many trucking companies right now are experiencing drivers who lease from them turning in their leases and walking away. They simply cannot survive on these prices - deisel is way above $4...try taking on 300 gallons of that at a whack...

Hundred's are going bankrupt.

If something isn't done fast, there's going to be a lot less goods moving.

Supermarkets stock enough food for their areas for 2 days, folks.

Society may never have been as vulnerable as we are now, totally dependent on others for our very food.

When I was a kid on my grandparents farm in the 30's-40's, 86% of the nation was rural and had gardens.

At any given time, we had months worth of food on hand, either in the garden and orchards or in gleaming jars in the cold cellar. Eggs and hens in the coop, beef, milk, cheese and butter in the barn, so to speak, fish in the waters and meat in the woods.

How much food on hand do most people have now? How long could you put food on the table if the sh*t hits the fan?

29 posted on 04/22/2008 5:08:27 PM PDT by maine-iac7 (Just a Typical White, gun-toting, Jesus-loving Gramma)
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To: Califreak
Watch the British TV comedy, “Good Neighbors” about an identical situation. Snobbish neighbor lady, henpecked husband and two Mother Earth News, back to the land types, Tom & Barbara Good, next door.

Very funny series! Penelope Kieth plays the perfect social climbing snob, her husband Jerry is a decent sort, always caught in the middle. Tom Good is a very likable sort and his wife Barbara is the ultimate cutie.

Netflix has it on DVD.

30 posted on 04/22/2008 5:09:09 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
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To: kalee

What’s wrong with using the backyard?


31 posted on 04/22/2008 5:10:07 PM PDT by GAB-1955 (Kicking and Screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven!)
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To: kalee
I have neighbors who are totally against it while I’m sort of undecided. I hate the thought of having to get permission to do anything to a house or property that I own.

You don't own it, you just have one less landlord than other renters. Don't believe me? Try not paying your rent to the goobermint and see what happens.

32 posted on 04/22/2008 5:11:39 PM PDT by magslinger (cranky right-winger)
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To: GAB-1955
What’s wrong with using the backyard?

Story says that's where his greenhouse is - where he gets the seedlings started...

Probably better to have the garden in front rather than the greenhouse, eh wot?

33 posted on 04/22/2008 5:12:09 PM PDT by maine-iac7 (Just a Typical White, gun-toting, Jesus-loving Gramma)
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To: kalee

Penelope Keith make me laugh till I hurt.


34 posted on 04/22/2008 5:13:12 PM PDT by razorback-bert (If yer gunna regret this in the mornin, we kin sleep til afternoon.)
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To: bpjam
>>this is EXACTLY what Homeowners Associations are for.


35 posted on 04/22/2008 5:13:57 PM PDT by LomanBill (A bird flies because the right wing opposes the left.)
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To: razorback-bert

She’s a hoot! I loved her in The Good Life/Good Neighbors and To The Manor Born.


36 posted on 04/22/2008 5:16:22 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: Lorianne

In my best Homer Simpson voice, “Mmmmmm, ka-a-a-ale”


37 posted on 04/22/2008 5:26:14 PM PDT by neefer (It takes a village and a few loyal henchmen.)
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To: GAB-1955

The Goods used their back yard for their livestock, chickens, a cow and a pig, IIRC. They used to walk the cow and pig down to Surbiton Commons to graze. An act that was found to be entirely legal because that was one of the Commons original purposes and was still on the books. It was one of the funnier episodes.

They had fruits and veg growing everywhere else as they intended to become entirely self sufficient. It was a very funny program.

My husband and I aren’t planning self sufficiency. We do have a veg garden in the rear of our house with grape vines and a few fruit and pecan trees and we have flowers and herbs elsewhere around the property. We also have 4 ducks. Duck eggs are the best for baking! I would like to have a few chickens and I am looking into a cow share for milk (the cow lives at the farm we just get the milk) but no plans for a pig. ;) If we would happen to move, I would like some horses and maybe a small flock of sheep. We have been looking at property in southern VA, but so far haven’t found the house that screams “This is it, I’m the one you want!”. Oh well no hurry.


38 posted on 04/22/2008 5:33:40 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: Califreak
LOL< I gave my neighbors teen daughter a Radish that she saw me pull out of the ground.
She wouldn't eat it because she saw me pull it out of DIRT. I doubt kids these days
would graze on a neighbors garden.

I once asked a friend of mine' daughter where hamburger came from,
she said the grocery store. She had no idea that cows were hamburger meat. LMAO, now she say's cows are fun to eat.

39 posted on 04/22/2008 5:34:12 PM PDT by MaxMax (It's not the politics I despise, It's the politicians for being so stupid..)
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To: Lorianne
"I'd rather see green grass" than brown dirt patches, says 82-year-old Florence Tatum, who lives in Mr. Nash's Boulder neighborhood,

There's a Bobbie Dooley in every neighborhood...

40 posted on 04/22/2008 5:46:07 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie
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