I’ve heard this criticism of urban farmers before, particularly of Curtis Stone, who we had on with Rob Avis last Thursday. What’s sustainable about annual veggies in backyards? They rototill, weed, use plastic, etc. etc.

I have considered these criticisms, but looking at the alternative, consider one of the staples of the American Dream; the yard. Americans devote more land to yards than to agriculture; the patches of grass surrounding our houses are routinely spread with pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides to maintain a grassy monoculture, and while they are pretty, they are an ecological disaster.

What Curtis does is replace yards with organic vegetables. And I have no doubt that organic veggie gardens are better for the earth than your typical yard. Moreover, if all our veggie production were moved to suburban backyard farms, that’d free up a lot of space for agroforestry, holistic grazing, and other agroecologies. That’s my take on that.

Last Thursday we had Curtis and Rob Avis on our webinar to talk about year-long production a la Curtis’s farms in a passive-solar greenhouse a la Rob’s designs. Check it out below.

They are launching a course (signups end today) on passive greenhouse design & year-long production. I don’t think there’s anything else like it out there; if you’ve ever wanted to make a living from farming your own backyard, or if you’ve ever wanted a crash course on passive-solar greenhouses, give it a look.

Signup ends tonight (Sunday) at midnight Mountain Standard Time.