For backyard-farmer companies, business is bountiful
Ignoring his aching back, Todd Lininger squatted down on his knees and inched his way around the vegetable field.
The yields were up on three arugula plants. A snail crawled in the row of lettuce. And it looked like the onions might be ready for that night's dinner.
All in all, not a bad harvest — considering that these crops were growing in a Lilliputian backyard plot in a Claremont cul-de-sac.
Lininger calls himself a farmer, though he doesn't ride a John Deere and never sees a sun set over the fields. Instead, he tends a succession of peewee suburban plots as if they were the sprawling ranches of the Central Valley.
"The sign of success used to be who had the best lawn," said Lininger, 41, as he pinched the dead leaves off the plot's lone beet. "Now, it's all about how much food you can grow."
Homeowners who want fresh cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes but don't have time to grow their own hire Lininger's company, Farmscape, to do the work for them. But don't call him a gardener: It's more like farming by the foot. And the 6-foot-4 ex-Marine, skinny as a snap bean, says he can barely keep up with demand.
There's a mini-boom in such mini farms. Scores of businesses like Farmscape are sprouting up nationwide, from My Backyard Farm in San Clemente to Your Backyard Farmer in Portland, Ore., and Freelance Farmers in New Haven, Conn.
Many of these small businesses have emerged because of the country's sluggish economy, as people who hunt for work are marketing themselves as urban farmers and catering to a clientele hungry for a cornucopia without the sweat.
Some of these microfarmers were landscapers looking to expand, said Lisa Munniksma, managing editor of Urban Farm magazine. Others were fledgling entrepreneurs seeking a niche in the green economy.
Curtain
On average, the companies charge between $900 and $2,000 to have a section of land dug up — or to build a raised bed — that's big enough to grow enough edible plants to feed a family of four.
