One thing I need to get better at is long-term planning. I do a lot of planning as a Software engineer, sure, but that kind of planning has a very short event horizon. You plan for the following week or month - more than that doesn’t make sense because the landscape and priorities have changed multiple times by that point.

With agriculture though, it’s the complete opposite. You might be able to plan 10 days out for microgreens or 3-4 weeks for baby greens, but most other crops require planning months in advance. Then you have to figure in succession planting, cover crops, etc. Some of the larger and grant-related projects I’m aware of required planning a year or more out.

Because you have to plan so far in advance, it can also be hard to pivot when things change or something goes wrong. As I start to build Serenity Valley, I figured I’d begin by coming up with a general long-term plan, and go from there.

An Urban Farm

When it comes to growing, I have two main options - grow in a city, or in a more rural setting. My preference would definitely be rural; however, there are a few issues with that.

• Access to land - Land prices continue to rise, and “investors” continue to buy a rising share of what’s available. In addition to that, finding something that’s suitable for growing AND affordable is extremely difficult.

• Access to markets - In the off-chance that you can purchase property, many times it’s so far removed from markets that you’re looking at hours of travel for weekly farmers markets or deliveries

Because of those two reasons and the fact that I’m already in an urban area, I’ve decided to focus on building an urban farm, which makes it easier to attend farmers markets and reach customers. That comes with it’s own set of problems though

• Space - Working with what I have, a single residential lot isn’t a lot of room for growing food on a commercial scale. Especially when you have to share the yard with pets and the conformity required by subdivisions and HOAs

• Government overreach - There are often rules that force you have have your yard look a certain way. I’ve also noticed more stories recently about local governments taking farms by force through eminent domain for “the common good”

Gradual Improvements

I’d love to have more land, but before I jump into that, I’ll focus on improving my skills and capabilities. I have two main growing areas in my back yard at the moment.

I’ll continue improving these two sections, turn other parts of the yard into growing areas, build an indoor hydroponics system in my garage, and solidify my growing processes. At that point, I can start looking to expand and purchase or lease additional property - whether that be traditional land or a warehouse for indoor growing and hydroponics.

Quick Crops

In The Urban Farmer, Curtis refers to crops that grow in less than 60 days as “quick crops”. Initially, I’ll focus on growing these kinds of produce and gradually expand into other areas. Once I have rotations and my systems in place, I can then start expanding into other areas such as herbs, and fruits.

Consistency

One of the biggest issues I’ve faced in the past is irregular attendance at markets. Some of it has been due to sporadic produce (ie - lack of planning), and some could be attributed to laziness. This makes it difficult to build a customer base though, and erodes confidence. One of my main goals is to start producing a consistent quantity of produce over time, and having that available through different channels, such as local farmer’s markets and Farm stops

My hope is that, with a basic idea of where I want to go, I’ll be able to take small steps and eventually get there!