Inside Urban Green

New Jersey » Garden State Urban Farms Helping the Community

Sub-irrigated portable micro gardens like the EarthBox are still an undiscovered urban asset in most cities. Garden State Urban Farms in Orange, NJ is doing its best to change that. GSUF founder Lorraine Gibbons and her staff are doing some great work in local New Jersey communities.

Sub-irrigated portable micro gardens are much more productive than in-ground growing, use significantly less water, and can be moved from one location to another if necessary. They leave no trace in the surrounding soil environment since they are self-contained and there is no nutrient run-off.

Sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) also teach more marketable skills than traditional shovel and hoe dirt gardening. That is what is happening here.

via www.gardenstateurbanfarms.com

This week we planted our first outdoor collard greens of the year. We had help from the Friends of the Lifers Youth Corp, whos mission statement is “to provide programs and services that promote self-sufficiency for citizens who were formerly incarcerated or have a criminal record; and to develop programs that assist in juvenile delinquency prevention, individual development, and community improvement.” They were training on our Newark Beth Israel Farm Lot before they start growing their own Earthbox farm in Jersey City. It’s shaping up to be a fun summer season!

New Jersey » Garden State Urban Farms is on the Move

State Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher says Gibbons’ plans for an urban farmscape are perfect for New Jersey.

“New Jersey has 8.5 million people, so the market is here,” Fisher said. “Every municipality has lots available that are not part of the currently used real estate landscape. Plus, there is a clamoring for this. These concepts won’t work in less populated areas of the country.”

It is great to see more media coverage of the wonderful work that former Brooklynite Lorraine Gibbons is doing with her Garden State Urban Farms (GSUF) business. She is creating food, jobs and community involvement.

GSUF has now added new EarthBox portable micro farms in Newark and Jersey City. The original portable micro farm was under the name Brick City Urban Farms, Brick City being a euphemistic name for Newark. GSUF also grows in a hydroponic greenhouse in Orange, NJ.

It continues to be a puzzle why we do not have businesses like this in the boroughs of New York City. Come on back Lorraine. We need you!

via www.app.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.

Brick City Urban Farms Outreach

Students plant their own vegetables in Newark

It was good to see this outreach by Brick City Urban Farms (prior posts). The beneficiaries in this case are the young students (and their families) of St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey. 

The potential for portable planter farms like Brick City Urban Farms (blog) is enormous. Even bigger is the potential for outreach projects like this school garden. 

These portable gardens can and should expand exponentially through all of our cities. The only thing holding us back is ignorance. 

Where we are today is a testimony to free enterprise and the power of individual citizens to create change. Thank god for blogs, garden forums, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and the Internet. 

Think about what could happen if our horticultural institutions woke up from their deep sleep. Think about what could happen if you became an activist in support of this concept in your city. Among other good things, food deserts would disappear and our national health would improve. 

Students at St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark are tending to seeds and seedlings they planted this spring, a small group of them continuing their watering and staking duties even now -- during their summer break -- to ensure good harvests later this summer and into the fall.

Their duties at the school's new container garden are just one element of a farming and nutrition project begun this spring by journalism teacher Noreen Connolly and Tony Carnahan, the school's director of college guidance. The goal is to get students to think differently about what they eat.

Done in partnership with Brick City Urban Farms, Newark's two-year-old city gardening initiative, the project encourages picky eating on a somewhat higher order than the usual "I hate broccoli" sentiment shared by countless youngsters. Through readings, film screenings, field trips and the gardening, Connolly and Carnahan put fast food under a harsh spotlight and encourage healthier eating.

Read more...

Brick City Urban Farms: A Portable Farm in Newark, New Jersey - Part 2

View Part 2 of the Brick City Urban Farms video. See Part 1 here. 

This is the prototype of portable urban farm businesses that will sprout up in cities all across America. It is an idea whose time has come. 

Brick City Urban Farms: A Portable Farm in Newark, New Jersey - Part 1

This is the first of a two-part video about one of the most innovative urban agriculture projects in the United States. Brick City Urban Farms (prior posts) is located in Newark, New Jersey. The video features co-founders John Taylor and Lorraine Gibbons along with Newark Mayor Cory Booker. 

There are many unique aspects of this project. The most significant is the use of portable EarthBoxes (prior posts) on land with a temporary use agreement. This approach could be used in every city in America. Sub-irrigated planters will produce more food per square foot than any other method while saving precious water and time. This is a demonstrable and provable opinion. 

When and if the time comes to relocate the farm it will be a relatively simple matter to load the boxes on a truck and move them to a new location. 

The Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen) will do everything within its power to get projects like this started here in New York. It is an idea whose time has come and a major CuGreen business priority. 

It you are interested in starting a project similar to Brick City Urban Farms (blog) here in New York City, no matter the size, please contact me.

Bob Hyland

urbangreenscaper [AT] gmail.com 

Tail Fin Gardens and Food Efficiency

Even though expected, the news yesterday morning shocked me. What an unbelievable turn of events the GM bankruptcy is for those of old enough to have lived through its storied history. It was hard for me to believe the NY Times headlines, even more difficult when I followed this timeline. It mirrors much of my life.

Sadly, the GM bankruptcy reminds me of much of the U.S. horticultural industry as related to urban agriculture and urban gardening. It reminds me that some of us still like to drive around in vintage Caddies with tail fins. More power to them if they can find it.

There are also those in the back-to-the-land community who still believe in “tail fin” gardens powered by dirt. More power to them too if they can find it.

The problem is that most of us now live in the city with scarce and often contaminated land. Tilling this land if you can find it is not the smartest thing to do. This is particularly true with the advent of portable sub-irrigated box, bed and bucket planters.

So, why are we still planting “tail fin” gardens when the proven technology is here to create modern “food efficient” and portable urban gardens. All you need is a sub-irrigated box, bed or bucket and six or more hours of sunlight. You don’t need access to tillable land to grow contaminant free vegetables...no crane, no rototiller, no shovel, no hoe or rake, no backache...no worries.  

A tailfin urban farm on a roof - 150,00 pounds (75 tons) of soil and a crane

 
Brick City Urban Farms - A modern food efficient city farm - 500 EarthBoxes

Brick City Urban Farms Starting Season Two

Photo by radio station WBGO 88.3 FM

This is John Taylor, one of the founding partners of Brick City Urban Farms in Newark, New Jersey. Read more about this most unique urban agriculture business. The planters are sub-irrigated (aka self-watering) EarthBoxes. There are 500 of them here and more on a rooftop garden nearby. 

I had the pleasure of meeting John and partner Kirsten at the farm several weeks ago. They are truly urban agriculture pioneers. This photo and the WBGO slideshow on Flickr show the start of the 2009 growing season. 

It will be interesting to see if we have some new urban farms of this type in other cities this growing season. I will do my best to find them. If you know of one please share it with all of us. Projects of this type belong in every city in the U.S. and around the world. 

Via: City Farmer News

Resource(s): EarthBox

SPIN Farming in the City

This is Somerset Tank Farms in Philadelphia. The farmers follow Small Plot Intensive (SPIN) guidelines and grow in tilled earth. Watch a 3 minute video of the making of this farm. Note that SPIN is a business model. It is methodology rather than an ideology. 

 

These are photos of two locations of Brick City Urban Farms in Newark, New Jersey. This farm also follows SPIN methodology but in a very different way. There is no need for heavy equipment such as you saw in the Somerset Tank Farm video. 

These are EarthBoxes both on the ground and on a roof. They afford a level of flexibility not possible with tilled earth projects. Portable sub-irrigated growing units like the EarthBox and others allow a variety of business options.  

One option is to provide sub-irrigated planters to those who would like to do some of their own food production. 

A New Definition of Community Garden

Davie Village Community Garden from Michael Levenston on Vimeo.

This is a building demolition site in downtown Vancouver. Rather than a temporary parking lot, the enlightened developer created this well designed temporary garden space for city residents. 

Couple this idea with the sub-irrigated box garden at Brick City in downtown Newark. It raises legitimate questions about so-called community gardens that aren't universally available to all citizens. 

Why define community garden only as land with access to turned earth? Why does it have to be limited to the plot of land defined as the community garden? In my opinion the definition of a community garden is long outdated and we should rethink its meaning. 

Grow boxes can be distributed to everyone in the community. Rather than a garden limited to a privileged few, benefits of the garden should be available to everyone with no waiting list.