You don't need an acre of land to start a farm. In fact, there is a new organization ready, willing and able to help you start one in your back yard or by the side of your house.
It is a still a work in progress, but you already see things - edible things - growing at Paul Morgan's Manoa home and this only started in December. It's called Island Foodscaping and it's the brainchild of Franz Franzmeier.
"I graduated from the UH with a family resources degree, so I love the idea of working in the garden and all so like I said, growing enough food for your family so I really came in touch with what it takes to grow your own food and how easy it really is," said Franzmeier of Island Foodscaping.
Paul Morgan's side yard isn't all that huge - but Franz and his crew have created edible gardens in smaller spaces than this.
"The smallest we can do is a 4 by 8 raised garden bed so just the other day we were working in Palolo and they have just a little area so just enough for a 4 by 8 garden bed and just the other day we did a whole back yard, they didn't want any more grass so that was a fun project to do, said Franzmeier.
All the work is done with re-cycled material.
"First off, we got a terraced garden bed where we used urbanite where we use recycled concrete," said Franzmeier. "So we stacked that up. In those beds, we got some papayas, we got some regular peanuts, okra, squashes, we got some pigeon peas."
Working in partnership with Island Foodscaping is Perma-Blitz, a group of volunteers helping with the hands-on work which is all organic.
"Part of what's important to us is being good stewards of the land and part of that is what we use to grow our food," said Matt Lynch of Perma-Blitz. "When we use organic practices, we're actually taking steps to nurture and re-generate the soil of the land around us."
Volunteer three times and YOUR yard could get a treatment. Homeowner Paul Morgan is looking forward to the transformation.
"Yeah, we want to do papaya and arugula, and squash and kalo, of course, and the sweet potato - it will be great," said Morgan.
The phone number for Island Foodscaping is 352-8973.
