Inside Urban Green

Urban Soil Contamination is a Growing Problem

A professional colleague attended the talk below and said that the audience was rather shocked by what they heard. The talk by soil scientist Thomas Rathier included information about toxic metals soil contamination.

There is no recording of the meeting but there is a PDF report authored by Mr. Rathier and others entitled Lead and Other Heavy Metals in Community Gardening Soils in Connecticut . Anyone who is growing or contemplates growing edible plants in urban dirt should read this document.

I applaud the Connecticut Horticultural Society for sponsoring this meeting. Perhaps they will now be more open to educating their members and other gardeners about the very serious health treat that accompanies growing edible plants in city soils.

At this time, site searches reveal that there is no information on their website about soil contamination. There is no warning to gardeners that they should have a toxic metals soil test before growing any plants in the ground.

There is also no information about sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) that are one of the best ways to eliminate exposure to toxic metals soil contamination. Thanks to a lack of educational leadership, the benefits of growing edible plants in sub-irrigated raised beds is largely unknown by the public.

The situation regarding toxic metals soil contamination is a very serious issue in the greater New York Metro region and at the present time is highly under publicized. My ever-growing database of information about urban soil contamination is now far larger than I ever anticipated. Stay tuned for more information to come.

If you haven't watched Frieda Lim's TEDxManhattan video How to Cultivate a Logo, she talks about urban soil contamination. As the mother of a small child she is particulalry concerned about this health hazard.

The Secrets of Soil: Talk hosted by the Connecticut Horticultural Society Thursday, January 19, at 7:30 p.m., Thomas Rathier, a soil scientist in Windsor, explains how to handle soil in ways that best protect your health and enhance your garden's health. Talk sponsored by the Connecticut Horticultural Society, held at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford, $10 (CHS members and full-time students with ID free). For more information, call 860-529-8713 or visit online.

via www.mywesthartfordlife.com

Solar Powered Screwpump Meets Capillary Action

This is a community garden plot unlike any you will likely see anywhere else in the world. It is the creation of Dr. Duncan Bell, soon to retire from his job as head of Biomedical Engineering at Pfizer/Wyeth.

Rube Goldberg would be proud of his garden and I say that as a compliment. This is how it works. That is a homemade water screwpump on the right. It is attributed to Archimedes in the time of the ancients. Rather than a human powered handle or electric motor to turn his DIY screw pump, Dr. Bell powers it with a solar panel.



The water screw lifts water from the tote box reservoirs up on to a watertight capillary mat bench. He used cotton towels in place of commercial capillary matting to move the water up into the planters. In any case, it is a simple sub-irrigation system modeled after many like it used in commercial greenhouse growing. 

As is typical with sub-irrigation, the plants look very healthy. Dr. Bell’s “autogarden” would be a buzz-creating addition to a consumer demonstration garden. Perhaps we can make that happen.

Read more at nyackbackyard.blogspot.com

EarthBoxes » Farming Concrete for Social Good in New Jersey

Staff photo by Britney Lillya - Jeff Miller, left, and Janisa Holmes plant peppers in EarthBoxes as part of the WorkPlus Program at Westside Court in Salem City.

Portable micro gardens like the sub-irrigated EarthBox provide an ideal way to bring urban food production to the people who most need it.

Why are we not doing more of this in New York City?

Funding dirt farming projects exclusively is a foolish political mistake. Unfortunately, the majority of politicians know little about more modern methods of urban food production. They intuitively believe urban farming in the dirt is a good thing when it is not.

Dirt farming in the city is less productive, runs the risk of contaminated soil and leads young people to very low paying jobs that cannot provide a livable wage in the high cost city. Learning about modern sub-irrigated food production systems however is a good start on a path to learning about science and technology and career paths that can lead to liveable wages.

via www.nj.com

SALEM, NJ — Members of the Salem Housing Authority’s WorkPlus program were out planting and preparing box gardens on a small site in West Side Court here last week — just one of a number of initiatives under WorkPlus to help low-income and rehabilitated residents develop workforce skills.

Minneapolis » A Community Grows in GrowBarrel Sub-irrigated Portable Micro Gardens

She is creating the soil wicks around the recycled plastic jugs that form the water and oxygen reservoir system. It doesn't get any simpler than this. PVC and power tools not necessary. All you need is a water tight container and a place in the sun. It could even be a raised bed made water tight with sheet plastic.

Alex Hemke and Jennifer Nicklay fill a homemade GrowBarrel with soil Saturday at Van Cleve Park. The barrels are a sustainable alternative to a traditional garden.- photo Joseph Michaud-Scorza

A neighborhood community group in Minneapolis is “rolling out” barrels of fresh vegetables in portable micro garden planters they named GrowBarrels.

This is an inspiring story of community involvement in building sub-irrigated (aka “self-watering”) planters (SIPs) from recycled plastic barrels. The interior “plumbing” is also made from recycled plastics following this basic method.

The Southeast Como Improvement Association has discovered the best of all worlds. There is no waiting list in this community garden, there can be an unlimited number of growers and it does not require valuable city land.

Neighbors meet in workshops to build the portable micro gardens but the gardens go home with each of them. Home is clearly the best place to grow some fresh food. Every family member, young and old, can participate.

We could make a very significant contribution to the supply of local fresh food in cities if groups of people in all cities got together to do what these folks are doing in Minneapolis. This could be done block by block. All it will take is some leadership and education about building SIPs.

Look at these photo sets. They tell the story in great detail.

via www.mndaily.com

London » Open Garden Squares Weekend

Open Garden Squares Weekend was held in London on June 11 and 12. It is the biggest garden tour I have ever seen. What a wide diversity of gardens were available for public viewing. You can see an impressive collection of participating gardens photos here (website). Click on Photos under Find out more. Or, click here to go directly to Picasa albums. Kudos to the people who put this online graphics presentation together. Great job!

Private institutional,commercial and communal gardens in all parts of London are welcome to take part in Open Garden Squares Weekend. The event, which originally created access to private squares in central London, now embraces a wide range of little-known and hidden green spaces across the capital.

Following are a few photos from the "new gardens" (i.e. first time in the event) category. They display some interesting diversity in conrast to the rather mono-culture community garden scene here in NYC. 

With sheet plastic liners already installed these raised beds could easily become sub-irrigated. The benefits would be healthier plants and greater productivity while saving water.

Two of the FARM:shop founders in front of a vertical hydropoinics garden. There are also aquaponics, a hoop house in the back and chickens on the roof.


Food From the Sky rooftop garden over a supermarket. Boxes should be sub-irrigated. They did not know at the time of the original installation. They do now.


Skip (dumpster) garden. Should be sub-irrigated. A false bottom would be a good idea. There is no need for the planters to be the full depth of the skips.

New Gardens - Open Garden Squares Weekend - Picasa Web Albums

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!

Florence, Italy » A Guerrilla Gardener's Portable Sub-Irrigated Community Garden

Back at the end of April, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Giacomo Salazonni, his lovely wife Melissa and their baby son at Bryant Park in Manhattan.

It was a delightful time but all too short. I have no doubt that we will meet again before too long. Perhaps one day next year I will enjoy their company again in Florence, Italy where they live.

Giacomo is a very creative architect who obviously understands the potential for portable micro gardens using sub-irrigated "plumbing". He gets it.

What you see here is what should have been done long ago here in New York City and other cities across America. The community garden Giacomo founded offers portable micro gardens for adoption to local citizens who do not have access to tillable land but do have access to sunlight. Adequate light is all they need to produce fresh vegetables within easy picking reach.

The size of portable, expandable community gardens like this is unlimited. There is no waiting list as there often is in conventional earth bound community gardens. Everyone is first in line with no need to dig in the dirt or worry about the potential hazard of lead contaminated soil.

Portable sub-irrigated micro gardens are a highly productive and hygienic way to grow food in the city. They also save precious water and time for busy urbanites on the go. 

Why is it that we do not have even one community garden like this here in the supposedly smart, hip and sophisticated “Big Apple”? 

via www.guerrillagardener.it

We started!

Finally we created the pilot project for more Community Gardens like this to come.

Victoria, Australia » Urban Community Gardens on a Personal and Block Level

Urban Food: Neighbourhoods from VEIL on Vimeo.

Victorian Eco Inovation Lab Melbourne, AU

This concept would work even better in the city using portable micro gardens (aka sub-irrigated planters SIPs). It is particularly suited to row house neighborhoods. It has the potential to provide local fresh food far beyond the production capacity of all the existing conventional community gardens combined.

It is true "farming concrete" rather than a marketing effort to promote outdated communal gardens that serve only a privileged few. Instead, think CSA on your block.

There is no need to wait. This is doable now...this year. All it will take is some creative thinking, organization and most of all leadership. All it will take is just one block of motivated, open-minded neighbors here in Brooklyn to prove the concept.

There is no doubt in my mind that the portable micro gardens will work. Even kids can easily understand how to grow in them. They are also user friendly for seniors. It's simply a matter of people organization.

Regardless of my current medical issues, I will do everything I can to make it happen.

Using my landscape architecture trained eyes; I did a photographic site survey here in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the fall of 2008. Most of the photos are front yards but there are many backyard views also.

Each photo represents a potential portable micro garden even if only a few square feet. Think on a micro iPad, iPhone personal or family level. It's an incremental private enterprise numbers game powered by individuals who live in close proximity and know each other...or will get to know each other better. Modern urban gardening like this can be a daily and weekend block party. 

This photo set demonstrates a variety of urban front yard attempts to grow some edible plants, most of them feeble. Think what could be done with highly productive portable micro gardens coupled with the knowledge of how to use them. The urban food production potential is awesome.

Consumer Website Review » Home Farming - Triscuit - Kraft Foods

This website is promoting a national "home farming day" and is funding a number of community gardens in low income neighborhoods around the country.

It is a partnership between Kraft Foods/Triscuit and Urban Farming, both of Michigan. Read their recent press release.

The project gardening expert is "hortitainer" Paul James. Watch the container gardening video (not embeddable or linkable) in particular for a sample of expert advice. His feet are firmly planted in a prior age of dirt and drain holes. He is a smooth talker as are all of the morning show gardener types. It is unfortunate that he has not kept up with the times in his profession.

Bottom LIne

Considering the low educational value and the outdated practices promoted by this project (see scorecard following) it is a fair question to ask if this is "good green money" from Kraft? I have no doubt they will get a return on their investment by selling a ton of their "center aisles" stuff, much of it in low income neighborhoods.

What's  your opinion? Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman where are you when we need you?

Site Searches Scorecard follows:

Meet Giacomo » A Guerilla Gardener in Italy Who Understands La Sub-irrigazione

Giacomo Salizzoni is a creative architect and guerilla gardener in Florence, Italy who understands the benefits of modern urban food growing methods like sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs).

The community garden he started is a model for city dwellers around the world to emulate. The more gardens we have of this type, the more we will all learn. I do not know of even one New York City community garden using modern methods like portable micro gardens (aka SIPs). We have a lack of education and leadership that keeps us stuck in the dirt.

Watch the La Sub-irrigazione presentation (in Italian). The photos are largely self-explanatory and will give you a sense of what they are doing. Regular readers of this blog will see some familiar graphics.