The advent of our new Urban Homesteading classes, it seems, has coincided with a national resurgence in interest in backyard “farming.” Everything from urban vegetable gardens to backyard chickens to beehives is making big news. Recently, Michael Pollan wrote eloquently of the importance of growing your own food as a first line of defense against global warming. Even more recently, the topic came up again in the context of rising global food prices. And chickens have been in the news over and over again as the latest must-have chic pet (I’ve fallen victim myself - more on that soon). This past weekend, the bees made the news - all over Denver, where the question is whether or not it is legal to keep them (Denver Botanic Gardens has bees at our Chatfield location, but not at York Street).

Our classes at Denver Botanic Gardens are not causing this fascination with urban farming but merely mirroring it, seeking to provide resources and information on the most promising new trends to surface in the burgeoning green movement. A “perfect storm” of issues has converged - global warming, spinach and tomato health scares, rising food prices, and the local food movement, among others - creating a sudden spike in interest in bees, composting, converting suburban lawns into rows of crops and the ever-charismatic chickens.

While we don’t provide beekeeping certifications or encourage people to subvert their local poultry laws, our classes are entertaining, information-rich sessions in which you can learn the ins and outs of backyard animal husbandry. Classes discuss how to know whether the project is right for you, what you need to get started, and the many benefits to your garden, your health and the local ecosystem. In most cases, you get a hands-on experience with the animals themselves.

We hope that these experiences will help people to make informed, conscious decisions about living sustainably in today’s uncertain world. In many places and for many people, living ‘greener’ means incorporating honeybees or chickens into their gardens. For others, it might be simply a patio container of cherry tomatoes, a worm bin in a kitchen corner, or a nest for native mason bees. Many of our programs focus on how to create an ecosystem around your home that supports native pollinators, songbirds and other wildlife.

It’s no mystery that most plants could not survive without pollinators. It’s also no mystery that many pollinators, notably the European honeybee, are in grave trouble due to environmental, chemical and other pressures. This is a problem not only for plants but for us. Every third bite of food we eat is pollinated by a honeybee. Our current food crisis would pale in comparison to the plight we will find ourselves in if we allow bees to continue their precipitous decline - and many other pollinators are threatened as well, including bumblebees (which pollinate tomatoes, among other tasty and quite necessary foods).

Chickens are perhaps less overtly necessary to our survival as a species, but their recent renaissance is an indicator of rising concerns about our industrialized food system and about our disassociation from the source of our food. I am continually amazed at how many people say they want chickens because they just want their children to know, and experience, where eggs come from.

It is also a sign of growing interest in sustainable homes and gardens in which something as simple as a chicken can serve a multitude of functions: process kitchen scraps, safely eradicate weeds, add nitrogen to the soil and compost pile, eat bugs and other critters (did you know that chickens will eat small lizards, frogs, and even baby mice?), and not least provide fresh, healthy eggs or even meat as a bonus.

Food doesn’t get any more local than that. And when was the last time you saw your frozen fish sticks working so hard for you?