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What Is Urban Homesteading?

Urban homesteading means growing your own food, to whatever degree possible, in the city. This often includes scratch cooking and preserving the harvests.

You might have even more questions such as:

  • What is a homesteading garden?
  • What is the meaning of homesteading?
  • How do you define homesteading, or more specifically, urban homesteading?

This post shares why this movement is catching on, what it is, and how you can start right away. This resource guide is great for beginning urban homesteaders!

What Is Urban Homesteading?

What is an Urban Homestead Anyway? Have you heard this term? Urban homestead. What does that even mean? Most people, when they think of a homestead, think of sprawling land, vast fields of growing food, roaming livestock, and self sufficiency. But then you throw the word urban in there, and it creates a whole strange juxtaposition in your mind.

An urban homesteaders chives growing in a raised bed in the city.
Herbs are a wonderful and easy add to any urban homestead.

Urban Homestead Meaning

Honestly, there is a huge range to this, a spectrum, really, but here’s the simple definition. Basically, urban homesteading means growing your own food, to whatever degree possible, in the city. This often includes scratch cooking and preserving the harvests.

There are different facets and tangents you can go out on here, from vegetable gardens, to chickens, to baking the now famous sourdough bread, to living a sustainable lifestyle, but the thing all of these will have in common, is that you are doing them in a smaller urban or suburban space.

Tomatoes growing in a raised bed on an urban homesteading garden in the city.
Tomatoes growing in an urban homesteaders driveway in the city.

Suburban Homesteads

Is this a thing? Yes. In fact, it’s a bit of a sweet spot, because often the suburbs have a little more space than urban areas, which means more room to grow. A suburban homesteader will likely use their own home and accompanying property to grow, harvest, cook, and preserve their own food.

Urban homesteaders in apartments may be limited to indoor, balcony, or community garden spaces. Although, many people in the city also have a small yard or outdoor space to grow, too.

Homesteading in urban and suburban areas naturally leads to a more sustainable, self sufficient, and independent lifestyle.

A basket of green tomatoes in an urban front yard garden.
A basket of green tomatoes in an urban front yard garden.

The Benefits Of Urban Homesteading

This is kind of a have your cake and eat it too situation, because living in the city gives you access to so many resources, convenience, and community. All the amenities are here at your feet, and it is easy to get what you need.

The Beginner's Guide To Urban Homesteading

And through creative means, as outlined here in the free, Beginner’s Guide To Urban Homesteading, city dwellers are still able to get creative and grow their own food in nearly every circumstance.

The Challenges Of Urban Homesteading

While living in the city gives you access to many resources, one thing it does not usually give you, is space. This means while you will be able to grow your own food, it will be on a much smaller scale than what you could do with more property out in the country. 

Urban homesteaders often need to create clever space saving solutions to optimize and maximize their growing space. This can be tricky, but it is entirely possible!

We offer a fabulous on demand workshop to start seeing your space with new eyes, and start building out your garden space. Urban homesteaders also have to make many tough choices and sacrifices because for everything they are saying yes to planting, they are saying no to another.

Urban homesteading workshop and toolbox for creating your garden space in the city.

Rules & HOAS

City laws and ordinances can also make things challenging, limiting things like chickens or other animals urban homesteaders may want to raise. If the urban homesteader has an HOA, there could be all kinds of rules keeping them from doing what they would like to with their space. Limits can control what you grow, what you have on your property, even how tall your grass is!

If you are getting ready to move into a new space, and this is something you are interested in, definitely check out the local rules first.

Urban homesteading requires growing food in smaller spaces in the city. Here an urban homesteader is growing food in their driveway.
Urban homesteading requires growing food in smaller spaces in the city.
Here an urban homesteader is growing food in their driveway.

Why Should I Urban Homestead?

Urban homesteading is definitely not for everyone, and I don’t recommend it for everyone, either. The truth is many of our conveniences and comforts from the store are pretty damn nice! I would only start urban homesteading if you are looking to be:

Homegrown berry pancakes.
One of the best things about growing your own food is all the amazing things you can make to eat. Pictured here, homegrown berry pancakes.
  • More sustainable
  • More self sufficient
  • Spending more time outside and in nature
  • You want to control where your food is coming from
  • You want to eat locally and organically
  • You enjoy or want to learn more about gardening
  • You like (or like the idea of) cooking from scratch
  • You want to be more independent

And still, this is a continuum. This is something you can just do a little bit of here and there. You can grow it to as big or as small scale as feels good to you.

Urban homesteading is about growing your own food in the city. Here is a bowl of fresh picked blueberries.
Urban homesteading is about growing your own food in the city. Here is a bowl of fresh picked blueberries.

How To Be An Urban Or Suburban Homesteader

Well first, what is an urban homesteader? As a school teacher for nearly 20 years, I have to point out suffix rules here—er—is a suffix that means “someone who.” So if you are already growing, cooking, and preserving your own food in the city or suburbs, you are “someone who” urban homesteads, therefore, you are an urban homesteader.

Homegrown culinary and medicinal herbs drying on the porch of an urban homestead.
Homegrown culinary and medicinal herbs drying on the porch of an urban homestead.

So maybe you were already an urban homesteader, but just didn’t know it yet. Or maybe this is something that interests you, and you are looking to get started. In that case, let’s do just that.

Just do it.

While we can often languish in details and planning, often times this our brain’s own subtle way of procrastinating. If this is something you are interested in, I say get started! Now. Like, really.

A homemade pie with fresh grown rhubarb waiting to go in the oven.
A homemade pie with fresh grown rhubarb waiting to go in the oven.

Urban Homesteading For Beginners

Definitely check out this free guide, The Beginner’s Guide To Urban Homesteading, to start thinking about what type of urban homestead you are interested in having. This will show you ideas and resources for how to get started whether you are in an apartment, sharing a room, or even have a house with a small yard.

Raisins made from fresh grown grapes in the city. Huge cost savings!
Raisins made from fresh grown grapes in the city. Huge cost savings!

How to Start an Urban Homestead

If you are looking to get started right away, I highly recommend The Beginning Gardener’s Toolbox & Space Saving Workshop to help you decide where to put your growing space. There are tons of solutions many people miss and some of them are right in front of you! This toolbox also helps you prepare your soil and make a watering plan (the biggest challenge for most gardeners in my opinion, and the most likely cause of giving up).

A suburban homesteader growing tomatoes from seed on their porch.
A suburban homesteader growing tomatoes from seed on their porch.

Urban Homestead Garden

Once you have found a space to start growing, you need to decide what you want to grow, if it grows where you live, and what it needs to grow successfully. Definitely check out these posts for all the deets on that!

When you grow your own onions, you can store them all year. And save tons of money on what you would normally spend at the grocery store. Pictured here are a bowl full of cured red and yellow onions.
When you grow your own onions, you can store them all year. And save tons of money on what you would normally spend at the grocery store. Pictured here are a bowl full of cured red and yellow onions.
Making your own herbs and spices is one of the easiest, cost saving ways to urban homestead.
Making your own herbs and spices is one of the easiest, cost saving ways to urban homestead.
Here is freshly grown and made, red pepper flakes.

Things You Can Do To Become An Urban Homesteader:

I am about to give you a huge list of urban homesteading ideas, but my best advice is to start small. Choose the ones that resonate with you, or feel easiest, and start there. These are both things to try as well as skills to develop.

Homemade vegetable soup canned from urban harvasts preserved to last all year.
Homemade vegetable soup canned from urban harvests preserved to last all year.

Garden

  • Compost Either through your city’s recycling program, or using a tumbler outside, this is a great way to turn your waste into something beneficial.
  • Garden The sky is the limit! Start small with home grown herbs, or add in your favorite veggies. Or maybe plan longer term, growing things you can preserve like onions (for more on how to do that here), or fruit, which can take a few years to develop.
  • Grow food Once you taste the pure joy of savoring your own home grown food (and not paying for it at the grocery store!), my guess is you will want a garden forever.
  • Grow mushrooms They have fun kits you can do indoors now.
  • Grow Herbs One of the easiest things to grow and fancy up whatever you are cooking, herbs are a great place to start, especially due to their medicinal qualities. See more here: Health Benefits of Growing Lemon Balm & Raspberry Leaf Tea
Be creative with your garden teas and beverages. Adding medicinal herbs and berries are delicious and good for you, too. This garden tonic has hibiscus tea, rosemary, blueberry, and goji berry.
Be creative with your garden teas and beverages. Adding medicinal herbs and berries are delicious and good for you, too. This garden tonic has hibiscus tea, rosemary, blueberry, and goji berry.
Freshly baked bread from and urban homestead.
Freshly baked bread from an urban homestead.

Animals, Hunt, & Gather

  • Raise Chickens This is something that is really gaining popularity in cities. My garden is pretty plant based, but go see my friend Heather at The Greenest Acre for all the ins and outs of raising your own chickens.
  • Bee Keeping I love watching my cousin do this! Having bees is great for your garden, too.
  • Hunt, Fish, Clam, and Crab Even though we don’t have space for animals in the city, there are still local designated areas that you can hunt, fish, clam, and crab for yourself.
  • Forage Free and easy, foraging is a great way to feed yourself. Roadside blackberries are a favorite of mine, but there are tons of local, native foods to forage. Just be sure you know what you’re doing out there! You want to choose safe plants that have not been sprayed.
One way to start urban homesteading is bee keeping. Here a bee gathers pollen from a giant sunflower.
One way to start urban homesteading is bee keeping. Here bees gather pollen from a giant sunflower.

Cooking, Stocking, & Preserving

  • Create A Homestead Kitchen Using what you grow and forage is kind of a big deal when it comes to homesteading. Check out our amazon shop to well equip your homestead kitchen .
  • Cook From Scratch Using what you grow and forage is kind of a big deal when it comes to homesteading. Here are some recipes to get you started:
  • If you’re looking for more guidance and recipes, try our Homestead in the City course. It has a whole module on cooking, and comes with a bonus mini cookbook filled with plant based, gluten free healthy recipes.
  • Freezing This is such a great method for fruits, vegetables, and even make ahead meals. This will really help you eat healthily from your harvests all year long.
Freezing the fruit you grow is an amazing way to eat for free from your urban garden all year. Here are some just picked, flash frozen raspberries.
Freezing the fruit you grow is an amazing way to eat for free from your urban garden all year. Here are some just picked, flash frozen raspberries.
  • Canning The go to of many homesteaders! Who doesn’t love a pantry full of gorgeous homegrown meals feeding you all year long?
  • Dehydrating This is one of my favorite methods of preserving. You can read more here, How to Harvest & Dry Your Own Herbs, or check out our amazon shop for my favorite dehydrator.
  • Home Brew If you enjoy some occasional bevvies, consider making your own beer, wine, cider, juice, and kombucha. Check out How To Make Cider From Apples for how we make cider from our home grown apples each year.
  • Have A Well Stocked Pantry My friend Rachael is a pro at this, and so helpful to others. You can visit her over at Half Moon Ridge. Also, check out our Resource Page for my favorite suppliers to keep a full, happy pantry all year.
A woman drinking hard cider on a porch with flowers and seeds in the background
You can also brew your own favorite beverages from things you’ve grown on your urban homestead. Some favorites include juice, beer, wine, cider, and kombucha. Pictured here, apple cider.

Sustainability

Many people get into urban homesteading because they want to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Here are some things you can do if this is part of your goal. Please note that some of these are easier things that you can start right away, and some of them are next level stuff that can be more of a long range dream. Don’t try to do all this stuff at once!

Happy Hour from the garden: A platter of home grown veggies.
Creating your own Happy Hour from the garden saves time and money. Pictured here, a platter of home grown veggies.
  • Get off grid
  • Make Your Home More Sustainable
  • Become More Self Sufficient
  • Learn How To Make Things Homemade
  • Buy & Create Sustainable Products
  • Collect Rainwater
  • Take Up Sewing & Mending
  • Soap Making
  • DIY 
  • Learn New Skills
Urban Garden with Raised Beds
Growing your own food is more sustainable.
This driveway city garden cuts down on the costs and emissions of getting your food elsewhere.

Be A Part Of Your Community

One of the best parts of urban homesteading are the connections you make with your community. Being out in your yard or community garden more often will help you connect more with others and get to know people.

These new friends can be both “in real life,” as well as online. The internet has brought people from all over the world with similar interests straight to us in the most convenient ways possible. Use that! If you are looking for an online community of other urban homesteaders, check out our free facebook group, Urban Homesteading, to ask questions, share stories and photos, and get to know others with similar struggles, goals, and dreams.

This jar of home grown dried and saved dill seeds is a delicious and nutritious way to preserve the harvest.
This jar of home grown dried and saved dill seeds is a delicious and nutritious way to preserve the harvest.
  • Become More Active In Your Community
  • Learn
  • Meet With Others
  • Shop Local Farms & Stores
  • Buy In Season From Farms, Friends, & Farmers Markets
  • Support Community
  • Follow & Connect With Other Urban Homesteaders on Instagram
Group of friends who just made homemade apple cider

Urban Homesteading Instagram Accounts

Here are a few urban homesteading instagram accounts you should be following! These creators have inspirational ideas to learn from and are an excellent way to build a digital community.

  • Artful Gardening: A true artist and gardener, Christina, and her husband Walter built an Urban Oasis on their small lot right in the middle of the city. They have taken advantage of every square inch of space. The backyard integrates art with their garden/ entertaining area. They grow everything in mostly sub-irrigated containers. Last season they picked over 500 lbs of tomatoes! With a little planning, small space container gardening can provide you with more than enough produce to feed your family all summer long.
  • The 12th Street Garden This lovely account (truly the ultimate urban homestead—you have to check it out!) started back in 2020 with the purchase of a 1947 home. Although July has been gardening since 2011, this new property opened many new doors and windows to expand her experience. July and her husband, Troy put their heads together to come up with ideas for the new spaces. July wanted to turn the entire front yard into garden beds, a blueberry patch, and to throw in a couple fruit trees. Troy added solar to the 2 greenhouses, built a rain catchment system, created the watering grids, and built many fences, beds and trellises. Each season 12th Street Garden becomes a bit more self sufficient.
  • Cultivator Kitchen: A long time favorite of mine, Cultivator Kitchen is run by Rachael J who grows fruit trees, berries, and a raised bed vegetable garden on a city sized lot just north of Chicago. She focuses on urban vegan homesteading and sharing garden-to-table recipes.
  • The Little Green Shoot: If you like this blog, definitely go check out our instagram page where we share all kinds of growing, harvesting, cooking, harvesting, and preserving tips for urban homesteaders!
For more urban homesteading musings, join us on instagram!

Urban Homestead Examples

There are many urban homestead examples to see and get inspiration from. This whole site shares examples of mine, and you can see more on Instagram & TikTok. I would love to see examples of yours! Please share in the comments to be a part of our community so we can all learn from each other.

Are You Ready?

If you’re ready to start your own thriving urban homestead, and would like more detailed guidance, click here! Homestead in the City is a friendly, simple, robust and detailed course that will take you from beginner to urban homesteader in one growing season!

Learn everything you need to know about garden planning, space creating, planting, growing, harvesting, cooking, and preserving. Filled with tips to save you time, money, and heartache, this is our most popular course!

To learn more about growing your own food, even in the city, and also how to cook recipes that are compatible with healing, using foods you’ve grown yourself, check out our star spangled course, Homestead in the City.

Urban Homesteading Course
Grow your own grocery store.

Other Posts You May Enjoy

Here are some more articles that may be helpful to you on your journey.

Home grown herbs and veggies making their way to become pickles.
Homegrown herbs and veggies making their way to become pickles.

Just Getting Started?

Grab our free guide, The Beginner’s Guide To Urban Homesteading to learn more about how to get started with making this dream a reality for yourself.

The Beginner's Guide To Urban Homesteading

Come Say Hey!

I would love to get to know you more and see your garden (or your dreams of one)!

Please join our facebook group, Urban Homesteading, to ask questions, share stories and photos, and get to know others with similar struggles, goals, and dreams.

Turn your front yard into a vegetable garden. Pictured here, Romaine Lettuce in a raised bed.
Turn your front yard into a vegetable garden. Pictured here, Romaine Lettuce in a raised bed.

Looking for more information?

Follow The Little Green Shoot on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest, where I share tons of free tips and ideas.

Disclaimer: The Little Green Shoot is not a doctor, and does not even play one on TV. Please consult your medical professional for medical advice.

This post contains affiliate links, and The Little Green Shoot may earn from qualifying purchases.

A Casual Garden Stroll In June
Join our facebook group for community & support on your urban homesteading journey!

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