Backyard gardening has always been a profitable hobby, but Christian Kimber of Three Crows Farms has turned residential farming into a constructive career that increases the amount of local produce at the market.

Kimber runs a multiple site farm using his own garden along with eight different sized plots in his neighbours' yards, which produces a large amount of vegetables he then sells.

"Basically people lend me their yards and in exchange I bring them, in some cases, a bag of produce per week, and in other cases I plant a small garden that I tend to and they are welcome to pick at their leisure," said Kimber, a member vendor of the Cranbrook Farmer's Market.

The use of small plots of residential land not only benefits Kimber's business, but the land owners get to see their otherwise unused and unkempt yards turned into productive and fruitful gardens.

"Some people are just happy that they have that much less lawn to mow," said Kimber.

"And they are very interested in the process and people are very engaged in seeing the food growing in their yards."

The contracting homeowners may have offered up their back- or front- yards to Kimber because of a lack of time or energy to work in their gardens or on their lawns, and now they are able to see their gardens blossom without the workload.

"I'm sort of rehabilitating existing gardens," said Kimber. "And when things don't do well they are concerned, when things do well they are pleased. Its fun to have a really engaged partnership with the people I deal with. You really get a strong sense of community."

The community is also essential on the other side of the business, selling his products at the Cranbrook Market.

" Basically anything I bring to the market sells really well," said Kimber. "So my greatest challenge now is to bring more to the market, and a greater variety. And to address that challenge I need more workshop capacity and fridge space."

Establishing his business plan in March, this is Kimber's first season gardening full-time and being a vendor in the Cranbrook Market- and there are a lot of lessons to be learned along with figuring out how to expand.

"This is a start up year, there are a lot of new challenges," said Kimber. "And I am confident that by the end of the year I'll know so much more so that next year will be a lot easier."

The future of Three Crows Farms includes a new house and workshop in the Elizabeth Lake area, along with some greenhouses, an expansion of the amount of gardens Kimber farms in, a large variety of crops, and an expansion of sales to include supplying for local restaurants.

"A little bit bigger every year," said Kimber. "I'll be running at least a dozen gardens in the next two years. And I'd like to beyond simply farming, offer a gardening service."

Kimber is dedicated to providing a variety of fresh produce, but he is also invested in the production methods of his vegetables.

"Doing it on a small scale, a lot more by hand, a lot more small simple machines like bicycles and wheel hoes, using real straight forward machines that have a high liability, and a little bit of human power seems to be, in many ways, a real effective way of doing things," said Kimber.

Some of this idea comes from SPIN-Farming, standing for small plot intensive farming, developed by Wally Satzewich who operates in 25 residential backyards in Saskatoon- and also the growing development of urban farming in Canada and America.

"The whole urban farming idea is quite new to Cranbrook and I get a lot of raised eyebrows about it, but when you go to centres like Vancouver its quite a movement," said Kimber. "I'm certainly not the only person doing it and its not a completely original idea, but getting it going in Cranbrook, I'm one of the first."

Kimber's locally grown crops include lettuce, beets, and swiss chard- which are his bestsellers- along with herbs, spinach, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, and onions which you can purchase Saturdays at the Farmer's Market.

And while Cranbrook may be known for being a hard climate to grow in, Kimber says its all about finding what works for our area.

"I'll be experimenting for the next 20 years," said Kimber. "There's always room to make it a little better, a little easier, a little stronger."