Gaining Ground: 8 places to grow food if you don’t have access to land

how to garden without a yard

The number one reason I hear for why people aren’t growing food is that they don’t have access to garden space.

For people who have their own yard, starting a garden is easy. But for those who don’t have easy access to land, starting a garden takes a little more effort.

In this article we’ll look at how to find places to grow gardens, and how to make the most out of the spaces you find.

​1. Use the Neighbor’s Lawn
It may seem odd in our modern American culture, but in other places around the world people frequently share yard and garden space with their neighbors. If you’ve been eyeing that nice sunny lawn next door, dreaming of filling it with fig trees and big red tomatoes, what could it hurt to ask? Go on, go over there, bring some seeds and a smile, and ask!

I have seen spectacular gardens come together when a group of neighbors with adjacent yards take down the fences between their lots and share the land communally. All the ideas in this book are most effective when done in community, with the people who live nearby. This doesn’t mean everyone can’t have their own space to do as they choose — only that the natural ecology is allowed to be more…