EcoLocalizer

There’s been plenty of recent talk in the media about “recession gardens.” I’ve kind of thought that urban gardening was just a good, wholesome way of healthy living.

Here in St. Louis, Backdoor Harvest seems to agree. And that’s fantastic news for me — and novice gardeners like me — because I’ve got almost no idea what I’m doing when I start digging into my yard.

Lucky me, my wife, who knows a little more than I do about plunging seeds and such into our tiny backyard plot, enjoys doing the research to figure these things out. Even luckier for us, Backdoor Harvest is hanging its open-for-business shingle in the coming days, just to help urban growers, even ones as inexperienced as in the Williams household.

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I can’t possibly lay out the schematics of this business better than Backdoor Harvest has in its own words and creative, storytelling imagery (as evidenced above). But I’ll gist How it Works here, and urge all readers to visit the site for elaboration.

In short, we’re talking about a community-supported agriculture (CSA) organization. Backdoor Harvest aims to assist all urban locavores in their efforts to eat prime homegrown produce, using a multi-phase plan. All steps will be managed by Backdoor Harvest farmers, who will make weekly visits to tend the garden.

Cycle 1: Choose vegetables to plant and evaluate your yard for garden opportunities

Cycle 2: Design garden

Cycle 3: Install and plant the garden

Cycle 4: Maintain plants and promote growth

Cycle 5: Food is washed and left in a basket at members’ back doors

Cycle 6: Share with your neighbors

Members are welcome to participate as much or little as they have time and inclination to do so, and can choose among three membership options, as explained in Backdoor Harvest’s online FAQs:

Private Crop Member - where what you see is what you get. Your entire bounty is all yours. Good membership for those who enjoy canning their own sauces, salsa, pastes, and freezing veggies for winter.

Crop Share Member - We share your crop with your neighbors, local farmers markets and local independent green café’s/restaurants. How cool is it that you are involved in producing for your community! This membership is discounted.

Cropless Member - For those people who wish to have fresh, local produce but they have no yard or sunlight in which to grow it. These members will receive a basket each week with produce provided from “Crop Share Members” in their area.

For a closer look at what this group is about, to ask questions and to meet the farmers behind the harvests, stop by the Backdoor Harvest booth at the upcoming St. Louis Earth Day Festival, Sunday, April 26, in Forest Park.

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