Simply put, a SPIN farm is made up of several small city plots of land that constitute a SPIN farmer's land base. These plots usually consist of private yards, vacant lots or school yards. The urban location of the farm takes advantage of the heat island effect created by asphalt, concrete and houses. Nearby buildings often provide protection from wind and other weather elements, creating beneficial microclimates for greater crop yields and earlier harvests.
The farm is a for-profit business, not a community garden. The farmer does all the work, even though the plots are in various yards. Yard owners themselves do none of the work, but enjoy many benefits.
SPIN farmers grow more in less space due to intensive growing (closely-planted crops) techniques. Quickly maturing crops such as greens and radishes are planted in succession, right after the previous crop is harvested – making it possible to get two or even three mature crops in one growing season.
Because we make the soil work harder, it's important that we improve and maintain its health. By amending with organic materials (compost, composted manure, bone meal, minerals, etc.), and using only organic farming practices, we provide the plants with maximum food for healthy, disease-free growth.
We compost all plant material from the gardens on site and return the composted material back to the soil, thus improving its capacity to grow more food.
Because the plots are small, most of the SPIN farmer's work is done by hand without the use of machinery. There may be initial tilling to prepare the soil, but with the use of composting and mulching, there may be no further need for machine tilling. This reduces soil compaction and noise pollution and increases the microorganism populations within the soil.
TerraNova is bringing a new type of farming to the Durango, Colorado area with Small Plot Intensive farms. What's different about this type of farming is that the farm's land base is divided into small plots made up of various yards within the Durango city limits, rather than one large land mass in a rural area.
Individual homeowners provide the land and water, but one farmer does the soil preparation, planting, cultivating and harvesting. The homeowners do none of the work, but receive part of the harvest in return for use of their land. It's a for-profit business, not a community garden. The urban location takes advantage of the warmer microclimates in town created by pavement and buildings.
TerraNova practices various organic and Permaculture methods of growing. Our goal is to increase Durango 's food security, reduce the distance our food travels to market, and use our land and water resources more wisely by reducing the area taken up by non-productive, high-maintenance lawns.
Tired of mowing, watering, feeding and weeding your lawn? Is it scraggly, patchy, and brown? Would you prefer to see a lush food garden in its place? Hand it over to TerraNova Urban Farms and you'll soon have a beautiful farm plot blooming where your headache-producing lawn once ruled!
The only thing expected of you is making your space and water available. TerraNova Urban farmers do all the work. In exchange you will receive a portion of the bountiful harvest as it becomes available.
You'll also feel the satisfaction of knowing you are part of feeding Durango – helping to provide your community with increased food security. Your soil will improve from season to season as we return nutrients through compost, organic fertilizer and minimum tilling. We aim to keep all of our plots visually neat and beautiful with the addition of flowers and, depending on the space, some minimal landscaping techniques.
We are currently looking for more in-town plots to cultivate.
If you're interested in having your yard become part of our urban farm, please consider the following:
Of course we'll always look at a yard even if it doesn't exactly meet the criteria above. Please contact us if you have land to offer.
We are working on a collaborative relationship with Your Backyard Harvest, another urban-plot farm in Durango. With the produce of these two farms, plus potentially others, we plan to have CSA memberships available for purchase soon. If interested in joining, please e-mail us or call to let us know. CSA memberships need to be purchased by [date to be announced].
We hope to have a wide range of produce available throughout the 2011 growing season either at Durango Farmers' Market or through our CSA. This includes fresh greens, root vegetables, herbs and cut flowers.
We are currently seeking yards in Durango to add to our urban farms land base. If you are interested in volunteering your yard, please click on Use My Yard!
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Chris Brussat is the farmer behind TerraNova. He is passionate about growing local organic food and about strengthening Durango's food security in increasingly uncertain times. He's been growing food since he worked in his father's commercial greenhouses at the age of 14. He was the main force behind a large family garden in southwest Oregon for several years while growing up. Most recently he battled heat, sun, wind, hail and plagues of grasshoppers while raising chickens and growing a large organic garden in northern Arizona. |
Since moving to Durango in September 2008, Chris has held positions at Nature's Oasis natural food store and Maria's Bookshop. He also co-owns an online-only business which retails antique prints and maps (www.DarvillsRarePrints.com).
Chris enjoys studying about Permaculture practices and intensive, organic food growing methods. He has a backyard garden based on the raised bed Square-Foot Gardening principles. He's eager to continue his practical education in yards throughout Durango!
Please e-mail us at Chris@TerraNovaUrbanFarms.com or call 970-403-2257.
Please enjoy these photos of our garden beauty until we post our 2011 plot photos.
Community Roots farm in Boulder, Colorado
Your Backyard Harvest in Durango, Colorado
Durango Telegraph: Urban Agriculture in Durango
Wally's Market Garden in Saskatoon, Canada
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