Inside Urban Green

EarthBoxes Are Now Available In Canada!

EarthBoxes are now available in Canada from Kind Gardens based in Vancouver, B.C.

I wish them the very best of luck and will be following their blog in my reader.

Website: www.kindgardens.com
Via: SimplyGoingGreen.ca 

Green Walls Around the World: Check Off Nova Scotia

If we're building a green wall (aka living wall, vertical garden) to go around the world, check off Nova Scotia, Canada. Well, not all of it, but at least one wall at the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) Centre for the Built Environment in Dartmouth.

It's great to see these young people stretching their minds and experiencing something other than a horticultural world of dirt and drain holes. Well done NSCC! 

via www.greendiary.com (see more photos)

Not only will the green wall (living wall), installed at Nova Scotia Community College’s (NSCC) Center for the Built Environment, bring a shade of green to the Waterfront Campus, it will also create habitat for numerous creatures and purify the air as well. Laden with no less than a 7,000 plants, the wall will be a breathing canvas that changes with every season.

No Mold If You Stop Being A Drain Hole Dodo

 

The biggest horticultural hoax I know of is the need for a drain hole in a plant pot. It isn't just a myth. For some who spread the myth the word lie is more accurate. 

I'd vote for the return of tarring and feathering for some house plant growers  who intentionally propagate this myth when they know it isn't true. Most of them also continue to use the inaccurate and misleading term "self-watering". There is no such thing. The professional and technical term is sub-irrigation. 

Is The Extension Program Worth The Money?

From what I observe about the quality and modernity of Extension information concerning urban food production, the answer is no. The needs of urban society have moved beyond dirt and drain hole solutions.

— (Danville) Commercial-News

"No one doubts it provides important information and activities to today’s families, but the question must be asked whether there might be better — and less expensive — ways to distribute that information."

via www.rrstar.com

Finances force big changes

The University of Illinois Extension recently announced changes caused by the financial crunch now all too familiar with state and county agencies. For now, Extension services will continue.

A New Green Wall In The UK: Yet Another First

It seems as if there is a new "living wall" (aka green wall, vertical garden) "first" at least once a week. Is the planet destined to be covered with green walls?

This one in the U.K. has the distinction of being temporary. It's part of the construction fence, or hoardings around the new Library of Birmingham building. 

Although not quite portable, this living wall will move on to another construction project when the library is completed in 2012. Then it will be relegated to being the second, third, or who knows what place "hoardings living wall" in the world. Alas, such is life in our fast changing, fifteen minutes of fame world.

via directoryofbirmingham.com

The Library of Birmingham is set to demonstrate its green credentials before it is even built with the introduction of a world first – a ‘living wall’ on the site hoardings in Centenary Square.

Planter Box, Raised Bed SIPs: Home Grow Micro Farms

Home Grow Micro Farms is a sub-irrigated planter (SIP) service business in Los Angeles.

The last time I blogged about them they were in Austin, Texas. That's okay, I move around too. L.A. is no doubt a much bigger market for a business like this. 

This blog post got my attention in that they are not just using EarthBoxes but also providing wooden box SIPs. In my view the potential market for raised bed and box SIPs is enormous.

via earth911.com
Website: Home Grow Micro Farms

In a city of cement, die-hard gardeners usually have to content themselves with a window box of gardenias or a series of never-ending potted plants. The prospect of growing anything even remotely more ambitious is extinguished by factors that characterize an urban environment, such as lack of living space.

Planter Box, Raised Bed SIPs: Cabbage Patch Garden

It's good to see the sub-irrigated planter (SIP) concept taking root so to speak. Nice job! See more photos on the website and Facebook.

There is no doubt that we will see many more sub-irrigated raised beds and planter boxes in the future. It is an idea whose time has come.

via www.startribune.com
Website: CabbagePatchGarden.com

Plant to eat local

Dan "Dick" Larsen, a local maker of custom cabinets, says he's trying to start a vegetable revolution. Larsen builds and sells 4-by-2-foot cedar planters with a sub-irrigation system that waters plants from the bottom. The reservoir is replenished as needed, so planters could sit for a week untended -- nice for cabin owners. You can choose pre-sown seeds for each of the three containers, or plant your own. The Cabbage Patch Gardens are built in northeast Minneapolis and delivered to the customer's front door in the metro area and western Wisconsin. Cost is $129.99 per planter. For more info, visit www.cabbage patchgarden.com.

Brick City Urban Farms Is Now Garden State Urban Farms

I thought that I posted about the new name of Brick City Urban Farms (prior posts) but discovered that I didn't. The new name is Garden State Urban Farms under the ownership of Lorraine Gibbons.

As explained in the following Dodge Foundation blog post, it was touch and go regarding continued use of the land being used for the EarthBox urban farm in Newark, New Jersey. The good news is that they have had a reprieve for growing on the land this coming 2010 season. 

More good news is that they also now have a hydroponic greenhouse. I'll post more about all of this in a future post.

via blog.grdodge.org

The highly successful, model urban farm owned and operated by Lorraine Gibbons of Garden State Urban Farms (formerly Brick City Urban Farms) at the corner of Washington and Spruce Streets in Newark is in search of a new plot of land for next year’s growing season.

EarthBoxes: A School Garden In Brooklyn

 

Kudos to EarthBox and P.S. 107 for publishing this about the EarthBoxes in the school's garden in Brooklyn. Read the following particularly if you are a parent, educator or administrator involved with the education of urban children. 

It would be good to get Mayor Bloomberg to visit and learn that there's more to urban gardening education then publicity events with Rachael Ray. I have nothing but praise for what Rachael is doing but dirt gardening is not likely the future of fresh food in the city.

Gardening in the ground is more of a throwback to a bygone time in rural America. Modern methods such as sub-irrigated planter systems are much more appropriate to urban life in the 21st century. 

The use of sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) in the P.S. 107 school garden is a living and growing example of a more modern approach to urban food production be it in a school yard, on a rooftop, a paved driveway or on a balcony.

SIPs put urban food production directly in the hands of individuals of all ages and incomes whatever the color of their thumbs may be.

via www.themulch.com

The concrete schoolyard at P.S. 107 in Brooklyn, New York has been transformed into a robust vegetable garden! Teachers and parent volunteers began the EarthBox project together last summer.   

Michele Israel, Co-Chairman of the PTA Garden Committee, describes the evolution of the project: "Although P.S. 107, an urban public elementary school in Park Slope, is two blocks from Prospect Park, most of its students live in apartments and have no access to hands-on gardening opportunities.  

Mayor "Tech Mecca" Speaks?

live streaming video from disrupt at livestream.com

New York is a "tech mecca"? Huh? It looks you have an unplugged USB connection somewhere your honor. You might have someone on your staff check it out.

There is a whole new technology field of personal food production that is far more appropriate for city dwellers than digging around in dirt that is often contaminated. This urban ag technology includes sub-irrigated planter (SIP) systems, hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics. 

The Big Apple isn't even close to being a player in this new industry that can create new jobs along with fresh food. National recognition in the technology field of urban food production is an attainable goal but it appears that we lack the civic leadership at this time to make it happen. That can change very quickly with public awareness and activism.

via www.wired.com

New York’s billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg threw down the gauntlet to Silicon Valley on Tuesday in a bid to attract the next generation of technology startups to the Big Apple, listing a number of ways in which New York ranks superior — everything from IT and advertising to fashion and culture.