Urban Agriculture in LA Backyards

Do you live in an urban area but crave the freshness of homegrown?

Well now, if you're an LA resident, Farmscape is here to help.  This new urban agriculture company is proving that there's enough of an appetite for residential farming to turn the proposition into a high-growth business. 

Home Grown tastes better!  (Photo via GOOD)

According to GOOD, "Projects range from a rooftop garden on a downtown Los Angeles highrise to small plots for families. An exciting project in the works is a three-quarter acre-sized farm for a restaurant in the West San Fernando Valley. And the diversity of the projects is echoed by the diversity of their clients. "When we first started, we expected that our clients would be of a higher income level and would be two-parent working families," says Rachel Bailin, Farmscape's marketing manager. Instead, Farmscape has been delighted to build gardens for preschool teachers, single mothers, and institutions and businesses that want employee gardens as perks."

An Urban Garden (photo via Farmscape)

So far they've installed more than 300 urban farms throughout the L.A. area and maintain 150 of them weekly.

Bailin says the challenges of farming in Los Angeles are manifold. "You have to account for  spaces that haven't had life or biodiversity for decades and then you kind of have to bring it back." The company uses raised beds to avoid contaminated soil and drip irrigation systems to provide water.

Read more at Good Magazine or on Farmscape's website.   

-Katie @KatieGMG
Garden Media