Fresh Food in the City: The Bucket Brigade

Thanks to Green Roof Growers Heidi and Bruce, there is a new small space vegetable garden in an illogical location in Chicago. This sub-irrigated (aka self-watering) bucket garden is along the side of the Avalon Community Church. That is Rev. Paul Robeson Ford standing in the background. He and his congregation deserve much credit for their open mindedness to new ideas. Check out this slideshow. Perhaps we will see some photos later this summer of the tomatoes climbing the fence trellis to the right.

Sub-irrigated bucket gardens like this could be “greening” food deserts all over the United States, all over the world. All it will take is education of the type supplied by Heidi and Bruce. 

Back in the old days before pumps, we put out fires with buckets. That's where the term "bucket brigade" originated. Rather than all the nostalgia about dirt based Victory Gardens from WWII, we need to revive this memory of the past but in modern form. 

Sub-irrigated planters, or SIPs as many call them, represent a modern, 21st century “bucket brigade” method of growing food in the city. If the lack of fresh food is a "fire" in the city, this is one way to put it out. 

I can see on the web that modernity is slowly taking hold. It should have happened long ago if not for the rather retrogressive mindset of our horticultural institutions. They appear to be stuck in a drain hole. 

Through the power of individuals working together, we can overcome this. Institutions will follow “we the people”. Please join the parade. Blog, text, Twitter and talk about what you’re doing. We will all benefit. 

A note about utility bucket esthetics: The primary mission here is to grow fresh food in the city rather than to paint pretty pictures. The utilitarian look of these planters can easily be upgraded with some type of decorative facade. Bright color spray paint would do the job for kids gardens. My background includes both landscape architecture and interior plantscaping. The routine practices of both these professional disciplines would convert this garden to a pretty picture garden in short order. They do it every day. Think recycled lumber for starters. 

Comments

[cl]

Wow，great content and your blog template is so beautiful. Is this template free or not. If so, would you please share this template? if not, how much does it cost? Thanks a lot!