The Urban Harvest Guide

Discover how you can build food security and resilience through urban gardening and local food systems, right from your patio, suburban backyard, or neighborhood garden. The Urban Harvest Guide is for anyone seeking a more sustainable and nourishing lifestyle—wherever you live. And it’s not limited to growing vegetables; you can harvest bushels of fruits, herbs, luffa sponges for cleaning, and much more, in almost any space and climate. Author Elise Pickett provides you with the tools and inspiration to reconnect with where your food comes from by growing your own crops, locally sourcing what you can’t or don’t want to grow, and reducing your dependence on industrial supply chains. This comprehensive guide blends practical gardening instruction with strategies for seasonal eating, blueprints for maximizing your growing space, tips for scaling up gradually, and ideas for building supportive community connections, from plant swaps to harvest potlucks. Elise—who grows one-third to one-half of the food her family of four consumes annually on a 5,600-square-foot (1/10-acre) lot—demystifies self-sufficiency and shows that you don’t need a rural homestead to achieve abundance. Through intentional choices and local collaboration, The Urban Harvest Guide offers an encouraging approach to cultivating personal and community resilience right in the heart of your city or suburb. Chapters cover: - Choosing crops based on space, season, and lifestyle- Growing in containers, in raised beds, and in the ground- The basics of permaculture, cover crops, and succession planting- Pest management, organic compost, and efficient watering- Sourcing meat and protein to supplement your harvest- Creating a resilient local food network- Garden-to-table recipe inspiration

Elise Pickett is the founder of The Urban Harvest, an online education platform and garden business that has helped over 100,000 people across the United States grow food and live more sustainably. Elise began gardening in 2010 as a personal response to the health impacts of industrialized food. By 2014, she founded The Urban Harvest to serve others looking for approachable, practical ways to make the same lifestyle shifts. Elise holds a degree in wildlife ecology and conservation with a minor in zoology from the University of Florida. She worked as a biologist for six years before transitioning into organic gardening. Her training includes hands-on experience through WWOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms) with farms in Colombia and Chile, as well as observation and volunteering at farms across the United States. She completed a six-month Urban Agriculture course under Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and a pioneer of contemporary urban agriculture in the United States, and holds a seventy-two-hour Permaculture Design Certificate earned under Koreen Brennan of Grow Permaculture. Elise also operates a retail seed store, hosts garden workshops, offers digital courses and consultations, and has self-published a seasonal recipe cookbook. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Foreword by Joel Salatin Introduction: More than Seeds and Soil Part I: Foundations of a Local Life Chapter 1: Why Local, Why Now? Chapter 2: Mindset and Motivation for a Rooted Life Chapter 3: A Blueprint for Your Growing Space Part II: Grow, Nourish, Thrive Chapter 4: Setting Up the Garden Chapter 5: Choosing Your Crops Chapter 6: Growing It Out Chapter 7:Scaling Up and Sustaining Chapter 8: Beyond the Garden—Adding Livestock to Your Ecosystem Part III: Living Local Year-Round Chapter 9: Cooking from What You Grow (or Buy) Chapter 10: Sourcing Produce Locally Chapter 11: Sourcing Meat and Protein Chapter 12: Rooted in Community Afterword: Growing Together Appendix I: Living Local Year-Round Appendix II: Microgreens Quick-Start Guide Appendix III: Garden Budget Breakdown Notes Further Resources Acknowledgments Index About the Author