The Simple Difference Between a Farm and a Garden

Gardening has always been a part of American home life, with tens of millions of homes across the country sporting one. That got an extra boost during the pandemic-era lockdowns, naturally enough, with even more people exploring the possibility of a small backyard, rooftop, or community garden. And with food prices rising, even more people are starting to contemplate the unused outdoor spaces on their property, dreaming of low-cost vegetables.

If you've got a sizeable garden operation that has gone way beyond a gentle hobby, you might wonder when someone crosses the line between "gardener" and "farmer." If you're feeding yourself, are you a farmer? Do you need acres of land, or does a rooftop container operation qualify? Do all farms have livestock and heavy equipment like tractors?

The answer isn't obvious--there's a lot of disagreement about the difference between a farm and a garden. But, unsurprisingly for a capitalist society, the answer is rooted in money.

Farm to table

Complicating the definitions of "farm" and "garden" is the urban farm boom we're going through, driven in part by restaurants and hotels that have started to grow their own produce right on their property (or very nearby), allowing them to source their vegetables and other ingredients directly. If you think of a garden as a hobbyist space where retirees or housespouses calmly weed and pluck, and a farm as a sprawling property where hardy folk sweat to feed the country, where do these sorts of growing operations fall on the scale?

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According to the federal government, the container gardens used by businesses like these would probably qualify as farms, actually. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) doesn't define a farm by its acreage, or what it grows, or how many people work there. It defines it by revenue: "A farm is defined as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the year." So even if you have a bad year, if you typically earn at least $1,000 from what you produce, you're a farmer. Similarly, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines your business as a farm if you "cultivate, operate, or manage" the space for profit, meaning you make money by selling what you grow or raise on the property. The IRS does, however, state that if the farm isn't your primary income, it's a "hobby farm" and thus not legally a farm for tax purposes.

Food for sale

The common link here is producing food of some sort for sale. These definitions make a few things clear: It doesn't matter how much land we're talking about--a backyard or a rooftop qualifies--and the volume of what you're growing or raising doesn't matter, either: only the amount of revenue you're bringing in. Notably, you don't actually have to make a profit to be considered a farm. If you sell your goods "for profit" (which is a goal, not a result) and earn at least $1,000, you're running a farm in the eyes of the government, even if you actually lose money on the operation.

What it comes down to is how you use the food you produce: If it's primarily for personal use--that is, feeding yourself and your family, or simply as a hobby--then it's a garden, even if it's huge. If you sell a significant portion of your produce for money, then you're running a farm, even if it's tiny.