Urban Farming with Dogs

Y’all know we have the equivalent of an urban farm. Urban farming is work, yes, but not nearly as much as a real farm. Urban farming with dogs is just plain fun. The dogs are quite helpful. So long as I give them treats. We’ll walk through some pros and cons of the entire process. Dogs will be given treats as we go along. My dogs.

Deceptively calm dog — Chewy, my Affen mutt, is a wiry, energetic dog. He wants to play much of the time, including play with the chickens and duck. Last year he plucked Pippin’s thigh and she was in recovery on my dining room table for a week. Pippin? She’s a Brown Leghorn hen. And no, Chewy did NOT get a treat. Bad dog. He’s since learned and leaves the chickens alone.

Urban farming with dogs means training and upkeep. Training, because we have some small livestock. Chickens and a duck. Each of the dogs was trained from the very beginning. It hasn’t been a big deal except on a couple of occasions. The plucking, mentioned above, and the big dogs finding a duckling. We’ve changed a lot of things over the years.

An urban farm chicken coop — The chicken coop has come a long way in four years. Urban farming has a pretty steep learning curve. As city dwellers, we don’t tend to think about predators, and when we do, we don’t think they’ll find and attack US. We’ve lost more than a few chickens and ducks over the last four years, including a duck to West Nile. Crazy. Predators have been hawks, possums and raccoon.

The big dogs, Flash and Patches, have been an asset, helping to round up the chickens at night, monitoring for hawks during the day, keeping intruders away.

Going in for the kill — There is NO love lost between Patches and Jimmy the Duck. That duck chases all the dogs, but he and Patches get along better than the others.

Having the big dogs is, I believe, a deterrent to many predators. But not all. But dogs and fowl aren’t the only urban farming elements in our back yard. We also raise some of our own food in the form or aquaponics.

Bearded dragons love choosing their own salad for supper — Sandstorm the Bearded Dragon is not part of our urban farming, but he does love picking his own lettuce from the aquaponics bed. The Asian salad mix is his current favorite. Don’t tell my Hunny that the dragon has been eating our supper.

As large as the aquaponic setup seems to me, it’s not big enough to feed us. We also have a variety of raised beds, including asparagus, tomatoes, onions, peppers, herb beds, sweet potatoes. Those aren’t enough to feed our family. But they make a dent. And Hunny loves playing in the dirt, growing green things. Not only does he love the dirt and green things, he loves living things. Urban farming doesn’t mean just growing our own food, it means fish.

Our back patio and pond — Hunny and Squatch spent the week digging and building a new pond on the back patio. You can see Hunny in the left corner, catching the koi to move them to their new pond. The koi were in an IBC container which houses the goldfish. The goldfish provide nutrients, via their waste products, to the plants in the aquaponic set up. You should be able to click on the photo to enlarge it if you’d like to better see how it’s all done.

At some point, probably next spring, the goldfish will move to the pond and Hunny will stock the IBC with small catfish. They’ll feed the vegetables, then they’ll feed us in the fall. We’ve discussed raising meat rabbits over the fish tank (their waste products feed both the fish and the veggies), but neither of us have the heart to process them.

One last shot of the pond. I’m so proud of Hunny for doing all of this himself (with our boy’s help). His double waterfall is pretty and peaceful.

And it may seem obvious, but the difference, I think, between real farming and urban farming, is that we have nine to five jobs during the day. Our urban farming is an evening and weekend thing, done as much to relax as anything.

Now y’all go give your dogs a Jones Natural Chew! It’ll make ’em smile. Naturally.

Until I write again …

Flea

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