Green Acres II: When Neighbors Become Farmers  When suburbanites look out their front doors, a lot of them want to see a lush green lawn. Kipp Nash wants to see vegetables, and not all of his neighbors are thrilled. "I'd rather see green grass" than brown dirt patches, says 82-year-old Florence Tatum, who lives in Mr. Nash's Boulder neighborhood, across the street from a house with a freshly dug manure patch out front. "But those days are slipping away." A growing number of suburban Americans are earning extra cash by growing food in their backyards. Since 2006, Mr. Nash, 31, has uprooted his backyard and the front or back yards of eight of his Boulder neighbors, turning them into minifarms growing tomatoes, bok choy, garlic and beets. Between May and September, he gives weekly bagfuls of fresh-picked vegetables and herbs to people here who have bought "shares" of his farming operation.Neighbors who lend their yards to the effort are paid in free produceand yard work.

A school-bus driver, Mr. Nash rises at 5 a.m. and, after returning from
his morning route, spends his days planting, watering and tending his
yard farms and the seedlings he stores in a greenhouse behind his house.

Farmers don't necessarily live in the country anymore. They might just
be your next-door neighbor, hoping to turn a dollar satisfying the
blooming demand for organic, locally grown foods.

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