Farm Calls: Apple & Peach Trees for an ‘Urban Ag’ Market Garden

This week, Mark Robson – Dean of Ag & Urban Programs – received a query from a community garden manager about expanding their small-scale ‘urban ag’ market garden to include fruit trees. She asked, “We want to add approximately 12 fruit trees. What varieties of apples and peaches do you recommend for small-scale operations?”

Choosing varieties is just one of many steps to growing fruit trees successfully. Let’s work through some of the challenges participants in a community garden will face before getting down to specific variety recommendations.

Crisis Fatigue and Ag in the Middle

For over a year we've been talking about creating a program that would help Ag in the Middle farms better cope with the special problems of farming on the urban fringe.

This month, Sustaining Farming on the Urban Fringe - Crisis Fatigue and Ag in the Middle, discusses our program designed to move Ag in the Middle farms toward sustainability through detailed analysis and education. And, we touch on barriers to program implementation under current conditions of "doing more with less." Companion handouts for actions that Ag in the Middle farms can take to improve survival are included in this announcement.