And just think about the benefits you'll reap from having your own homestead. You'll eat foods that are the freshest you can possibly get. Foods that still have all their vitamins and minerals because they haven't been in storage somewhere for days, weeks, or even months. Foods that are picked at the height of ripeness that have so much more flavor then those that are picked green and left to ripen in storage. And then there's the money saved when you grow your own and don't buy over-priced produce from the stores.
You may be thinking that you don't want all the work involved in digging up your yard and removing all the grass but you don't have to do all that to have a garden. You can use raised beds to grow enough produce to last at least through the growing season, if not the whole year. And vertical gardening, which lets you grow plants in a vertical manner rather than horizontal, is a great boon for those with little to no land.
Container gardening is a good way to grow food and recycle old items at the same time. You can use old plastic tote boxes, tires, wagons and the list goes on. If you can put soil in it and it will hold up to water, you can use it for growing. Just make sure there are no toxic chemicals in or on it.
Grape arbors are both pretty and practical. PVC pipe can be used to make an upright strawberry bed that doesn't take a lot of space. Ornate gates can be used to grow beans upwards making a pretty and functional addition to your yard. Tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, small pumpkins, runner beans, and a lot of different squash varieties can be grown vertically.
Herb beds are also a wonderful option. You can even grow herbs in old wooden pallets or containers. However you choose to grow them, the taste of fresh picked herbs is so much better than store bought ones.
You can even raise your own meat on a city lot. It depends on your city's rules and regulations so you'll need to check with them before starting but most cities allow a person to raise rabbits and some cities let people have up to 6 hens but no rooster. Even if you can't have a rooster to have more chicks you still can get fresh eggs from the hens. And you can use a chicken tractor to let the chickens free range around your yard, reducing the need for purchased feed and giving you better tasting eggs chock full of minerals and vitamins. Some cities allow people to have a couple of mini goats so check that out. Two small mini goats could give you fresh milk on a regular basis.
So if you're thinking there's no way to turn your yard into food for your family think again. Do your research on the web. You'll find lot of ideas on container gardening, raised bed gardening, vertical gardening, raising meat animals in the city, and more.
Do yourself and your family the best favor you ever could by preparing for your future needs now instead of waiting. The old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", holds true in the prepping world. The more you prepare now the better your chances of survival when the world goes to hell in a hand basket.
Prepping Granny