SEATTLE, WA by Barbara Adams www.BarbaraBerstAdams.com ."It takes multiple streams of income to successfully live off of a farm," says Lynn Gillespie, owner along with her husband, Tom, of The Living Farm in Colorado. "We are one of the last "larger" farms left in the area. The others have all sold out or divided. We have been doing it for 21 years. Tom and I have both had our main source of income come from the land for our whole marriage. Our kids have had both parents at home for the upbringing."

The larger portion of the farm - 130 acres plus 80 leased acres -- is Lynn's husband's business. "He grows hay, silage, and grains," she says. "He makes compost, chicken feed and dairy ration. He pastures horses, runs a heard of 20 pasture fed natural beef cows, and has pigs and meat birds that he feeds his grains too."

However, Lynn has a business of her own within this acreage. "I plan on grossing $65k this year in this space," she says of her approximately two-acre operation; which she calls a micro eco-farm within her macro eco-farm. It consists of her greenhouses, outdoor gardens, chicken houses, parking lot, and barns. "I can keep better than half for my wages if I am careful with my spending. I like to buy new things to experiment with. I am always trying a new grow method or different system."

Lynn continually watches for new opportunities and listens to intuition that might be telling her how to evolve her business. "We built the first greenhouse behind our house on the farm in 1987," she says. "My first crop was bedding plants. I sold out in three weeks. Then in 1991, we built a 30'x100' greenhouse and 24'x100' foot work room and retail center. I grew bedding plants in the spring and summer and hydro-organic tomatoes in the winter. Over the course of the next few years we built three more greenhouses. Around 2002, I started growing more winter vegetables. Currently I grow veggies in four houses. This year I am going to add organic vegetable starts."

Lynn has developed a unique raised bed growing system to keep her production high (see more about this below). Using cinder blocks as the sides for the beds and high quality weed barrier over the ground where the gardens will grow, she's found a no-till way for those without he-man muscles (or a bribable husband!) to set up a prolific gardening system, indoors or out. And, as many people who "micro farm" know, once you have raised beds filled with fertile soil that's replenished each year, you basically have a blank canvas that can have a new painting - new crops -- each season, guided by your own good business sense. There are no contracts or big equipment investments in producing one particular crop. "I like to plan each year with whatever I am in the mood to grow. I am constantly changing what I am focusing on. It doesn't really matter; I sell out of everything I grow."

Marketing

"We live in a county of 15,000 people," Lynn says. "Our population is sparse. Back when I first started the greenhouse business, I put up a few flyers in town, a sign on the road and a few ads in the local paper. This worked fine. I also started a newsletter that I sent to my customers. This was really effective. Every spring I would write about what we were offering and put a few coupons at the bottom and a majority of my customers would come back. My mail list was over 1000 when I stopped. I stopped because of the price of postage, and that caused a decline in my customers. That consistent (communication with customers), in their mail box -- or now email box -- is a really great way to get and keep customers."

Expansion

Lynn plans to offer agritourism to boost income for both her and her husband's farming operation. She has just begun offering an e-book, Cinder Block Gardens, detailing her cinder block growing method, including how to lay out each block and how to space garden crops within it. And she realizes she enjoys teaching others how to earn income with their gardens as she has done. "I want to grow farmers," she said.