
Photos by Maria Finn of the blog City Dirt.
You might not recognize these wooden boxes as remnants of the citrus industry that covered the valleys east of downtown Los Angeles. They used to hold and transport oranges. Thanks to Farmlab, they have returned to use as 'agbins'' to grow vegetables in the city.
Farmlab has installed some form of sub-irrigation (aka self-watering) in the boxes to enhance their use as vegetable growers. The boxes on legs in the upper photo are for harvesting rainwater, what little there is in Los Angels. How well I know from living there for many years.
I found this a most interesting repurposed box idea. Surely there are many more yet to be discovered. There are all kinds of boxes and containers used to store and move materials in other industries. All it takes is some creative thinking for us to find them and put them to good use producing food in the city.
Farmlab is a brainchild of architect Lauren Bon.
Not a Cornfield artist, Lauren Bon resides in Los Angeles and holds a Masters of Architecture degree from MIT and a BA from Princeton. Ms. Bon is a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation and President of Not Cornfield, LLC. Her recent urban, public and land art projects in the U.S., Hong Kong, Belfast and Northern Ireland, as well as her role as a trustee, make her uniquely poised to build the capacity of the Foundation in the area of site based philanthropy, serving communities through education, civic, health, artistic initiatives and programs. Not a Cornfield art project is being developed through a grant by Annenberg Foundation.
Sub-irrigation by the Knowledgeable
Knowledgeable professionals know about sub-irrigation. It happens to be one of the significant aspects of this award winning installation donated to the Cathedral City Senior Center. The seniors who care for these plants now know about its benefits. It would be great if they were here in New York City instead of Palm Springs.
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Posted by Greenscaper on August 24, 2008 at 08:27 AM in Clay pots, Container Gardening, Editorial Comment, Education, Interior Plantscaping, Science, Urban Agriculture | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)