How We Built a Backyard Urban Farm with Fruit Trees, Goldfish River & Tank Pool in Los Angeles

This is not a backyard.

This is an urban farm—altar-born and hand-built.

At Wild & Tame, we're cultivating more than vegetables. We're building a backyard ecosystem that feeds the body, anchors the spirit, and rewrites the story of what a city lot can be.

Our latest addition is sacred and shimmering: a hand-dug goldfish river called Xochi Current. Named for Xochitl, the Nahuatl word for flower, it flows in honor of the Aztec chinampa gardens that once floated through the heart of Mexico City. There, water and soil worked as one. Crops thrived in an aquatic balance. Fish fertilized roots. Beauty fed the village.

Our goldfish river is a humble homage, lined with lilies, growing edible greens on the surface, and alive with movement beneath. The fish do the quiet work, creating a closed loop of nourishment. This is DIY permaculture, urban-style.

An Urban Farm Grown with Purpose

This Los Angeles urban farm grows food, but it also grows memory, meaning, and ritual. It's a layered system of tropical fruit trees, seasonal herbs, native blooms, and story-rich design.

Besides the river, we've planted eleven fruit trees—mango, papaya, avocado, peach, and coffee. Trees are chosen not just for yield but also for cultural memory, climate resilience, and flavor. We keep them low and close, so tending them becomes an act of relationship, not labor.

Just beyond, tucked behind our garage-turned-woodshop, is our stock tank pool—a glimmering circle of cool. It's part of our daily rhythm: swim, seed, rest, repeat.

Our backyard chickens live in a shaded coop lined with fruit trees. Five more trees thrive in their protected space, nourished by the natural rhythms of flock life. This is urban homesteading—with heart and design.

Edible Landscape Design for the City Grower

All throughout the property, native and edible plants weave between trees and borders: milkweed, calendula, bee balm, yarrow, strawberries, and herbs. Every inch serves a purpose, and every bloom belongs.

This is edible landscape design for those who want more than a garden. For those who want a connection. For those who want to walk barefoot across the land, they tend—even if that land is in the middle of Los Angeles.

We call it a wild-crafted farmstead, a backyard ecosystem, and a love letter to land-based living in the city.

Start Your Own Urban Farm—Wherever You Are

Maybe you're not ready for a goldfish river. Perhaps you don't have chickens or fruit trees—yet. Maybe all you've got is a patio, a dream, and a little sun.

That's enough.

Start with one of our Plant Packages—curated collections of herbs, flowers, and vegetables chosen for ease, beauty, and growth.

Or build your own Uprise Garden—a raised-bed system overflowing with marigolds, vegetables, and pollinator magic.

This is how you begin your own urban farm.

With one raised bed.

One bloom.

One sacred decision to grow.