Inside Urban Green

A SIP Rooftop Flower Meadow In The City

Click on the photo for a larger version on Flickr

This flower garden is on a Brooklyn rooftop. No, this is not a planter bed. This spectacular array of flowers is growing in portable sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). Compare it to this rooftop garden of similar nature.

These SIPs are the do-it-yourself tote box type. I collaborated with the owner on this project last summer. She did a superb job of plant selection. The plant selection and design was all of her own creation. I provided consulting advice regarding making the SIPs and growing in them. 

This is just a small sample of the results. There are over 70 SIPs that grew flowers, perennials and an incredible variety of vegetables.

For a variety of reasons the project was not published. I look at projects like this from all over the country and have not seen its equal. It warranted a design magazine feature article.

Stay tuned, it will bloom again in the coming year.

Green Solutions: Vegetable Gardens To Go

Ever so slowly there are new small businesses sprouting up around the country that provide "gardens to go". These are companies that provide pre-planted sub-irrigation planters (SIPs) like the EarthBox.

Green Solutions is one of them. They are located out on Long Island here in the New York area.

There will be many more of these companies before too long. It is an idea whose time has come.

via www.plantgreensolutions.com

With the Earthbox you will experience the fulfillment of providing nutritious vegetables for yourself and family.

Urban Gardening: Bad Information At Retail

The Earth Box from the Garden Center is great for those who want a simple, low-maintenance herb garden.

The "Earth Box" in the photo is not the brand name EarthBox. It's the Garden Patch Grow Box, but that's not the most egregious error in this article.

The most damaging inaccuracies are the opinions about clay pots (see below). If you're comparing clay pots versus SIPs for growing any vegetables including herbs, it is simply no contest.

SIPs will out-produce clay pots every time while conserving valuable water and time. Open your mind to SIPs and you can easily prove all this to yourself. Incidentally, it's easy to convert clay pots into SIPs. I had many of them growing plants outdoors in San Diego, including Bamboo and Plumeria. More about that in a future post.

The quality of horticultural advice at retail is abominable, but that unfortunately is generically true of our national horticultural education.

If we don't reform our horticultural education, we are clearly in danger of losing yet another technology based industry to companies like Valcent and other international companies. We are simply not keeping up in the field of urban food production.

Oh well, not to worry, it's only about our economy and new jobs.

via www.mysanantonio.com

There are two types of containers to choose from: plastic or clay. The decision can be made on aesthetics, price and efficiency.

"We usually recommend clay over plastic," said Wendy Meyer of Shades of Green Nursery. "It's difficult to find well-done plastic pots that look good."

But unlike their plastic counterparts, clay pots can get pricey; a fancy, glazed clay pot costs as much as $100, according to Wayne Harrell of the Garden Center.

Lyn Belisle, Web master for the San Antonio Herb Society, recommends using clay containers because they hold moisture better and keep soil temperature steady. But Belisle also suggests having fun with containers and thinking outside the pot.

"I've see herb gardens in sinks, cowboy boots, baskets, colorful tin cans and even a colander lined with moss," she said.

A Personal Urban Food Production System - The Laptop of Fresh Food

Systems like the Valcent VertiCrop are the servers and mainframes of urban food production. Just as in the digital world, we also need distributed food production power brought to the people on a personal level.

Sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) like this one are the PCs and laptops of personal urban food production. You might also think of them as the iPods and iPhones of food.

There is no need to plug them into tillable earth. They are portable. All that is needed is a small space with sufficient sunlight, be it on a rooftop, balcony, driveway, paved patio or even a fire escape. They will produce more food per square foot than in-ground gardening while conserving water and valuable time. This is safe food production with no exposure to contaminated city soil.

Just as with early personal computers, you can build your own. This one is very easy to make, no power tools required. The only out-of-pocket cost was $9 for the box, purchased at local retail (a dollar store).

What we really need, however, is mass production and distribution. SIPs need to be affordable and readily available in local stores supported by visual merchandising. Obviously this would be easy to accomplish. This is very simple technology. All it will take is education and entrepreneurship in the private sector.

Personal SIPs like these would go a long way in helping us eliminate food deserts and help in the fight against obesity. Do yourself and all others a favor by trying these and then spreading the word. Just one SIP!

Recycled plastics (food containers, nursery flats) create the soil platform, soil wicks and water reservoir. Five milk containers are used here (about 2 1/2 gallon reservoir capacity). Cut large slots on the bottom side of the containers  to allow water entry and poke holes in the top side for aeration and drainage of any excess water. An overflow drain hole (top center) prevents over watering. Recycled water bottles create a fill tube.

Container mix (NO top soil) packed down between the recycled plastics creates the soil wicking system. The water from the reservoirs will rise by capillary action creating a uniform distribution of water throughout the SIP. Simply pour water down the fill tube until you see some water exit the overflow drain hole (top center).

The tote box lid with the center cut out makes a retainer for a sheet plastic mulch cover (not shown). Recycle the soil mix bag, black side up. This prevents weed growth and water evaporation.

Garden Patch Grow Box Now On Amazon.com

via www.amazon.com

I hadn't noticed before that the Garden Patch Grow Box is available on Amazon.com. This will help add to the sub-irrigated planter (SIP) customer feedback database.

There are only a couple of reviews at this time but that will increase as more buyers become aware of SIP productivity benefits while saving valuable water and time.

It's time to order seeds and check out SIPs if you haven't already. There is a ton of information, including consumer experience, on this site. Just surf the categories in the right column or use the Google site search (upper left).

If that fails to answer your question, post a comment. If I don't know the answer I know where to find it. I research every day of the week. It's my positive addiction.

Although Not Self-watering, SIPs are Simple!

via www.youtube.com

It's good to see this video demonstrating the use of an EarthBox sub-irrigated planter (SIP) indoors. That is what I'm doing with this "coffee plantation" planter.

There is one caution however. Read the comments in the post about testing soil moisture visually and with a soil probe. I would never add water to an indoor SIP without doing this.

The video illustrates what can happen when you think of these planters as "self-watering" and believe the claim that you cannot over water. While that may be true outdoors (even that is debatable), it is definitely not true when used indoors under significantly lower light.

GreenSolarDude mentions being bothered by fruit flies. This is a common mistake of misidentification. They are more than likely fungus gnats (Sciarid flies) and are a certain symptom of over watering. Fungus gnat larvae live in moist soil at the surface.

The top layer of soil is dry when sub-irrigation is used properly and the flies therefore cannot propagate.

There is another hint of a problem and that is the comment about using "any good potting soil". That is not true.

It is important to read the planter mix label and be sure there is no "top soil" listed in the ingredients. Do not use topsoil (aka native soil, dirt) in sub-irrigation. It is too heavy and does not provide good capillary action and aeration. This too can lead to fungus gnat problems and very likely poor plant health.

SIPs are easy to use, but some very basic information is needed for success, starting with forgetting the misleading term "self-watering". They are not self-watering or automatic. You can plug in your coffee maker and forget about it but not a SIP. SIPs are simple though, once you get it.

Just One SIP!

Conflicting And Contradictory Advice From The USDA

Watch this official USDA video. The photos below are from about the 1-minute mark. These potted houseplants are being watered by a form of sub-irrigation called flood and drain. The USDA is encouraging it because it conserves water and avoids run-off and soil pollution.

What you see in the video is a form of irrigation essentially the same as used in all sub-irrigated planters (SIPs, aka “self-watering”) whether for decorative or edible plants. This includes soda/pop bottle SIPs, planter boxes like the EarthBox, Tomato Success Kit, Garden Patch Grow Box and homemade tote box and bucket SIPs.

The Ficus benjamina trees below are growing in the CuGreen lab using sub-irrigation just as recommended in the USDA video. They are growing in repurposed soda/pop bottle planters. This method has been proven to grow healthier plants while saving water and time.

Do you like being misled by the USDA Extension program when they tell you to top water and incessantly lecture that you must have drain holes? It is fair to say that your tax dollars are supporting inaccurate and outdated advice. You should demand to know why.

This batch of Ficus trees (about 40) was rooted in place in these soda/pop bottle SIPs. The cuttings all rooted within a month without loss. They are now one to two months old and very well rooted healthy plants. Anyone can do this, no green thumb required. These could just as well be edible plants sprouted from seed and just waiting for spring and life outside in box or bucket SIPs.

From Wal-Mart: A Very Small Spa For Your Very Small Plants

Wal-Mart says that these 18" x 7.5" x 7.5" sub-irrigated (called "self-watering) planters (SIPs) are "like a spa for your plants." Giggle, giggle.

Be sure that they are very small plants. Maybe you can grow some salad greens or herbs in these mini-boxes but they certainly are not in the category of other vegetable growing SIPs either box or bucket. They are toys by comparison.

Even so, they are far better than the under-sized drain hole planter boxes I see all over row house Brooklyn neighborhoods. Most of the plants in them look like they have just run a marathon.

Come on Wal-Mart, is this the best you can do? Oh, by the way, even these are available online only.

EarthBoxes At Sears: Sorry, Online Only

via www.sears.com

Sears is not the retail powerhouse of my youth but they are still a widely known brand name to many of us. They were the Wal-Mart of the day back when.

When I spotted an item in one of my alerts that they were selling EarthBoxes it was great news. Then I read that it was online only.