Inside Urban Green

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You have found the home of InsideUrbanGreen.org, successor to InsidePlantsLive.org and Greenscaper.net started in 2004.

Sock It To Me!

Recycled socks make excellent soda bottle SIP covers ("cloth cachepots"). This one year old Ficus benjamina cost next to nothing. The plant was propagated from cuttings rooted in the same planter about one year ago. The soda bottle SIPs are free and you help the environment. The polished pebbles cost just pennies.

There are single socks and socks with holes just waiting for a higher calling in life. This is it! It's their big chance! You can help them. 

Incidentally, the Ficus is the same houseplant shown in this prior post.

Clearly The Best Way To Grow Houseplants

The same plant (right-hand photo) converted to expanded clay pebble hydroculture.

I probably haven’t heard all of the lame reasons for growing houseplants in clay or opaque plastic pots but I’ve heard a lot of them over the years. Pretzel logic and ignorance know no bounds.

By now, you likely know that I advocate repurposed (recycled) soda/pop bottle planters as clearly (pun intended) the best way to grow houseplants. They are also the best plant science learning aid that I know of.

Gardener's Supply Is Employee Owned

This slipped by me when it happened back in December. Gardener's Supply is now employee owned. It's great that the employees were able to buy this company from a progressive owner/founder.

I don't know of another company that has strived as much they have over the years to offer a variety of sub-irrigated (aka "self-watering") planters (SIPs).

Manufacturers have come and gone in this product category and it is not easy to maintain a consistent source of supply.

Vermont gardening company sold to employees - BusinessWeek

Burlington-based Gardener's Supply Co. has been sold to its employees.

Kit Takla - Source of Tomato Success KIt Revealed?

This is the sub-irrigated planter (SIP) shown in the TPIE video. It’s called Kit Tapla made by Marchioro, an Italian company.

What is most interesting is that it reveals that the Tomato Success Kit from Gardener’s Supply is evidently Italian and not American.

It remains to be seen whether this SIP continues to be a Gardener's Supply Exclusive as currently claimed. We need more companies marketing SIPs and hopefully they soon become widely available in retail stores rather than online.

There needs to be a much broader retail presence for consumers to become more aware of SIPs and their many benefits for personal and family food production. Currently they are under the radar of mainstream America.

A Glimpse Into The 2010 Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE) Via Video

Each year industry professionals make a pilgrimage to (usually) sunny and warm south Florida to the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE). It is an opportunity to see the latest plants and products, renew old acquaintances and enjoy some warm weather in the dead of winter. You can get a taste of it by watching this video.

View the video www.ballpublishing.com

TPIE is the trade event that offers everything foliage, floral and tropicals…all in one location, at one time, at one place. TPIE’s trade show is more than an exhibit area – it’s 200,000 sq. ft. of living and vibrant plants creating a virtual indoor garden of showstopper displays. With more than 500 exhibiting companies, TPIE offers wholesale buyers the widest array of resources for foliage and tropical plants in the country.

TPIE appeals to all types of commercial foliage, plant & cut flower buyers, including representatives from garden centers, supermarkets, chain retailers, wholesale and retail florists, interiorscape companies, rewholesalers, buying cooperatives, brokers, landscape companies, public gardens and more. The TPIE Short Course is a comprehensive educational conference offering nationally recognized speakers and relevant topics for garden center retailers and interiorscapers. General sessions have appeal for all TPIE attendees.

SIP "Alternative Gardening" In Haiti

We could definitely use some "alternative gardening" with sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) like the EarthBoxes here in the Big Apple. The apple would be a lot healthier if we did.

Why is the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) the foremost promoter of SIP food production rather then U.S. institutions? Why is the USDA and Extension Program so uninvolved? There are also many business opportunities and new jobs to be had in this marketplace.

Source: Project Medishare

Via: The Growing Connection (FAO organization)

In May 2008, Project Medishare began experimenting with 20 of the 220 Earth Boxes which were donated to Project Medishare by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In partnership with Project Medishare and The Global Institute at the University of Miami, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida (IFAS) has been providing technical assistance for the Millennium Village Project’s agricultural program.

The program is an effort to begin an alternative growing program for the vulnerable (elders, sick, handicapped), children and adolescents.

Thanks to Project Medishare’s Agronomist, Ronal Bien-aimé and IFAS’s Florence Sergile the Earth Boxes experiment proved to be a success and has expanded from the trial garden to the clinic in Marmont so visitors and patients can see the possibilities of alternative gardening, and the link between nutrition and good health.

Micro Gardens: A Way To Feed Kids Nutritous Fresh Food In The city

How many kids in your city have ever eaten a fresh carrot?

If low cost micro gardens can supply fresh food for these kids in Ecuador, why aren't we feeding kids in New York City the same way? It would definitely help fight childhood obesity and diabetes.

The South American Regional Office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization calls it "simplified hydroponics" but it is more widely known in the FAO as "micro gardening".

Guess what! It's really sub-irrigated planter (SIP) gardening, also known erroneously in the U.S. as "self-watering”.  Bret Harte school kids experienced the benefits when they visited the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Technology in Chicago.

Incidentally, someone can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that there would not be EarthBoxes at the Smart Home but for the intervention of The Growing Connection, a branch of the UN FAO. These EarthBox SIPs were not originally included in the Smart Home design. As an afterthought they parked them on the entrance steps to the museum. There are now EarthBoxes on the upper deck of the Smart Home which is where they should have been when it opened two years ago.

A Vertical Garden From Germany

This is a vertical garden (aka living wall, green wall) from Germany. Note the larger size individual planter boxes. They are large enough to accommodate plants growing in clay pebble hydroculture, which is what this company does.

The boxes could also be soil-based sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) to grow vegetables.

The system as shown is most probably not priced for the consumer market, but who knows what it could be with widespread consumer acceptance and volume production. For the time being it is a design well within the capabilities of DIY PVC pipe construction.

Automatic translation with Google toolbar installed on Firefox.
Source: www.dieraumbegruener.de

Help Fight Childhood Obesity One SIP At A Time

One sub-irrigated planter (SIP) box or bucket for every child would make a big impact on childhood obesity. Americans of all ages should be provided with basic knowledge about modern methods of growing some of their own fresh food without access to tillable earth. We do not need expensive school gardens to accomplish this.

I have some new ideas for the coming year but need help. I am not an experienced political activist but plan to become one. The Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen) will be knocking on a lot of doors this year. If you are interested in marching in this parade please contact me. Help of all kinds is needed. Thanks for thinking about helping!

Bob Hyland

urbangreenscaper [at] gmail [dot] com

Garden Patch Grow Box Customer Photos

Periodically I remember to check the customer supplied photos on the Garden Patch Grow Box website. It is an interesting source of information. If you are not familiar with it, the Grow Box is a sub-irrigated planter (SIP) very similar to the EarthBox but less well known.

In any case, what strikes me is that the majority of the photos are of SIPs in the suburbs with this exception. There are a couple of others on balconies but most of the photos have grass lawns or contain some other clue that the location is suburban or rural.  

My belief is that this is directly connected to the gardening consciousness associated with having a traditional yard. The majority of people intuitively think of gardening in the dirt. No yard, no dirt, no gardening.

Due to our retrogressive horticultural education, the lay public does not know that fresh vegetables can be grown in a SIP box or bucket anywhere there is sunlight. It does not matter if the surface is grass, blacktop or concrete. Who knew?

The other thing to note about these photos is that all the people are white. That reflects much about our horticultural institutions and education. People of color living in our cities are not well served by these institutions.

I live in New York City and see it first hand. Even though the city is a melting pot of races and cultures, the institutions of horticulture are predominately white. If we are ever going to solve our problems associated with childhood obesity this needs to change.

via www.agardenpatch.com