Can I rent your yard?

I can pay you in produce.

Wally Satzewich and Gail Vandersteen of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan started renting their neighbors yards when they realized that small-scale urban crops fetched a far higher profit than did the large-scale vegetable growing operation they had on a 20-acre farm north of the city. Most people don’t use their yards to their fullest potential and Wally and Gail are taking advantage of this unused ‘farmland’ themselves.

Vandersteen says, “They think it’s too much work, but the truth is, this is much less work than mechanized, large-scale farming. We used to have a tractor to hill potatoes and cultivate, but we find it’s more efficient to do things by hand.” You may be asking yourself how can this be more profitable?

Their savings over large-scale farming comes in operation costs. The city provides irrigation, there is always plenty of compost around, the urban setting repels pests, and the market is not far away. On such small plots as are found in urban lots, typically ¼ to ½ an acre, all the harvesting can be done by hand. And because the plots are usually unused anyway, rental costs are minimal. Many people volunteer their backyards in exchange for fresh produce and those who want money, charge very little.

What a wonderful way to help the environment too. More plants will of course attract more insect and wildlife. The added value of a ready-made garden plot could increase your property value. Maybe if enough people see what can be grown in their own yards they will be more inclined to carry on for themselves. This leads to less transportation of food to market.

Wally and Gail sold the 20-acre farm and now Wally operates Wally’s Urban Market Garden which is a multi-locational sub-acre urban farm. It is dispersed over 25 residential backyard garden plots in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, that are rented from homeowners. The sites range in size from 500 sq. ft. to 3000 sq. ft., and the growing area totals a half acre. The produce is sold at The Saskatoon Farmers Market.

Wally and Gail created a company called SPIN, Small Plot Intensive based on minimal mechanization an maximum fiscal discipline and planning. Their concept inspired Philadelphia’s Somerton Tanks Farm.

This concept is catching on because the idea is so simple that it can be done everywhere. It’s true, gardeners can be made as well as born.

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Reflecting on past spaces

I was sitting on the back deck yesterday afternoon looking out over the beds I have planted. They really have come a long way from when we first moved here.

I went to the computer and began looking at some pictures I had taken before the projects were started and it felt good to compare how the yard has changed.

Here are a couple of pictures of the backyard in April of 2005:

This one shows the new raised beds I had just built and filled with soil and compost.

The back fence needs some sort of vine and shrubs to 'pretty it up' a bit. That's an apple tree in front of the beds.


This one shows a concrete pad that had a dog house on it and the area to the right is the future site of a perennial flower bed.

A plum tree is against the fence to the right of the apple tree.


These next two pictures show the backyard in May of 2006:

That's a cherry tree to the left and a box elder hanging over my shed from the yard behind us. This tree is the home to hundreds of box elder bugs. Nasty flying red things that are just bothersome. They say these bugs don't eat anything in the garden and so far I guess that has been shown, but they are messy.


Nothing much has changed here. I did dig up the future perennial bed on the right next to the fence and am getting rid of the weeds and will add compost etc before planting it in Spring 2007.

I have decided to pile compost material on the concrete pad hoping to get some compost. I know it isn't an ideal location, being on concrete, but at least it's a start.


These final two pictures show the backyard in July of 2007:

The 'Heritage' raspberry bushes behind the cherry tree finally produced and they were plump and juicy.The plants are five years old this year and I was told they don't produce before this age.



Here the perennial bed has finally been planted and almost everything is surviving, much to my surprise. I do have a record of killing off plants. I'm thinking that just maybe I am beginning to get the hang of this gardening thing. I did just feed everything a couple of days ago, so that's a positive thing.

Looking at the grass I can see it is beginning to return to a semi-healthy state. In 2005 I attempted to feed it on what I thought was a regular schedule but by 2006 I could tell that I did not yet understand how or when to do it. So, I hired a lawn service in 2006 before I did irreparable damage. Now I understand that I am supposed to sprinkle the lawn with some sort of compost/top soil mixture and aerate it every year.

I did have it aerated last year and again this year. When they aerated it this year their machine would barely dig into the ground which led me to ask questions about why. It seems that I may not be watering it well enough and I suspect there are other problems that I have not yet been 'made aware of'. It seems there always is something additional that needs to be done or I need to add a little 'finesse' in doing it the way I am.

As far as watering goes, I keep hearing and reading that you should water about 20 minutes several times a week with an occasional 'deep watering' but that is if you have an installed irrigation system, which I don't. You can see the garden hose laid out across the lawn and this is my irrigation system. I followed the 'experts' advice attempting to get enough water on the backyard and my wife took care of the front yard. I noticed she watered a lot longer than I did but I didn't say anything until towards the end of the year. The result was that the front yard greened up a lot better than the backyard. So, I am convinced that I need to water a lot more.

Boy, this learning process is long and arduous. If only I had an expert that can look at it and tell me (complete with a proper schedule) what to do then I would have the confidence to do it myself. I guess learning is a reward in and of itself so I have to keep learning in order to keep being rewarded.

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Diversity is making a come back

Saw this wasp just this morning.

It is the first time I have seen one of these since my childhood in Indiana.

This is a good thing to see one of these because they live off of caterpillars. Of course, it means there are caterpillars about. But it also means that the insect diversity is beginning to grow here and that is always good news.

Here’s some text from everythingabout.net when I searched for the name of this wasp. It is a Thread-Waisted wasp but we used to call them paper wasps.

“Wasps are highly important to ecosystems. Sawflies consume vegetation and so limit plant growth. Most other wasps are either parasitic or predaceous and therefore play a vital role in limiting the populations of thousands of other insect species. All wasps are eaten by other species, thereby providing many links in the food web. Many parasitic wasps have been cultured and used in the biological control of agricultural pests. Although a few of the stinging wasps are considered nuisances, they also provide benefits. Yellow jackets and paper wasps, for example, prey on caterpillars and other larvae that can destroy crops. Wasps feed on flower nectar and play a role in pollination.”

I haven’t seen much caterpillar damage to my garden yet, I attributed it to having so many birds around. I have six bird feeders throughout the yard that I fill almost daily and just figured their part in pest control is working, but now that I have seen this guy hanging around maybe he is the one that is helping to protect my plants.

Here is a caterpillar I found a couple of weeks ago on one of the Primrose Fireworks. I took care of this one myself but I'm sure there are others around, or maybe the Thread-Waisted Wasp got one of his own. This little beauty is called a Hyles gallii and is the larvae of the bedstraw hawkmoth pictured below.


I'm pretty sure I have seen a few of these around.

Should I be worried for the butterfly population that I'm trying to attract? I'm thinking, maybe not, because nature has a marvelous way of balancing things out so I’m just happy to see the diversity starting to come back.

Yesterday I saw a large bumblebee on the salvia, first time I have seen one of those in the garden. I got this picture from the site mentioned above. I didn't have my camera with me when I saw it.

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