Inside Urban Green

Chicago » E.A.T and EarthBox Grow Together on Uncommon Ground

This news is from the recent EarthBox education newsletter. It is about some smart Chicagoans collaborating to promote the use of modern methods to produce local food.

The partners are E.A.T., which is an acronym for Education, Agriculture and Technology, Uncommon Ground, a popular Chicago restaurant chain and EarthBox, the leading producer of sub-irrigated portable micro gardens.

The Chicagoans behind this collaboration are Ken Waagner, founder of E.A.T. and Helen Cameron, co-founder of Uncommon Ground. Both of them are experienced urban food growers and well versed in using modern methods like the EarthBox whose education program is led by Molly Philbin, a progressive urban food professional.

Finding Ken Waagner solved a mystery for me. I wondered how the EarthBoxes appeared on the steps of the Museum of Science and Industry, site of the Smart Home. They were obviously an afterthought. Chicago can thank Ken for the fact that these modern portable micro gardens are now part of the Smart Home.
 
Ken worked closely with The Growing Connection, a UN Organization, to make it happen. Thanks largely to him; the Smart Home and the museum “steps garden” continue to delight Chicago children and parents.

Chicago can also thank Helen Cameron for her leadership in growing some fresh food for her restaurants in EarthBoxes along with her custom made planters. Uncommon Ground is now an educational resource for families as well as a great place for them to dine. 

With the launch of this new program, Chicago will have even more opportunities to grow, learn and eat fresh local food. Read on.

Chicago is "growing" by leaps and bounds -- that is, many people are growing their own produce in EarthBox systems and in other gardens as part of a citywide program called E.A.T., which is an acronym for Education, Agriculture and Technology. E.A.T. is centered on using the World Wide Web and technology to connect, inform, and empower individuals with regard to growing food, eating healthier, and building community.  

An EarthBox SIP Garden Blog

If you are new to the concept of portable micro gardens using sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) it is helpful to see what others have done.

Note that the planters are in a backgard on top of gravel. They could be on concrete in any city in the USA.

Lisa-Marie is blogging about the progress of her EarthBox SIP garden. She comments about both the successes and minor setbacks she has encountered. Take a look.

via blog.lisa-marie.net

Fresh Produce From an EarthBox SIP Garden

This impressive array of fresh vegetables is from a garden using EarthBox type sub-irrigation planters (SIPs). Photos of the garden are on Facebook.

Two things struck me when looking at the photos. One is that even using SIPs, there is a variation in the quality of the plants I see in my research. Some people simply do a better job of growing regardless of the method. My guess is that it involves time spent, attention given and regional climate differences.

The second observation is that the majority of SIP garden photos I see are of gardens in suburban and rural areas. That is just the opposite of what I would expect considering the benefits of SIPs in cities where tillable land is scarce, expensive and often contaminated.

My belief is that people with backyards are much more used to growing food than city dwellers. Many of these more experienced gardeners have quickly understood the benefits of SIPs and have adopted them.

I also observe the lack of education about SIPs here in NYC and other US cities I have studied. Education is clearly the missing ingredient holding back the use of modern methods such as SIPs.

I am currently doing a walking tour site survey of my neighborhood and photographing people’s efforts to grow some edible plants. It is a very sad story. Stay tuned.

via www.facebook.com

Chicago » Uncommon Ground Creates New Uncommon Dining

Uncommon Ground, whose rooftop garden has been in the urban agriculture spotlight many times, is the site of a new restaurant with a unique sidewalk garden.

Who would know that there are 47 EarthBoxes helping to form this sidewalk dining space? The EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs aka "self-watering") are concealed inside decorative planters.

This type of installation is similar to the PS 39 school garden here in Brooklyn. In this case, the planters were made from recycled wood pallets and the SIPs from tote boxes.

We are likely to see more and more of this type of installation in the future. The SIPs are more appropriate to be a plumbing system hidden behind a more decorative facade just as is done in a home kitchen or bath.

The source of the information is E.A.T., a Chicago organization I will blog more about in a future post. The E.A.T organization acronym stands for education, agriculture and technology. It was good to find it. We need more organizations like it that recognize the role of technology in the field of urban food production. 

via eat-chicago.org

EarthBoxes at Uncommon Ground on Clark Street

Jersey City, NJ » Farming Inner City Concrete with Brother Barry

They're "farming concrete" here in Jersey City. When growing in sub-irrigated portable micro gardens like these EarthBoxes, this lot could just as well be blacktop or concrete.

This isn't about farmer wanabee hipsters and yuppies, it's about growing fresh food and fresh new outlooks for people living in very difficult environments. Where is the leadership to make this happen in all concrete jungle neighborhoods across America?

via www.youtube.com

EarthBox » Farming Concrete

This blogger chronicled the amazing growth of two tomato plants with a number of photos starting on May 23, 2011. See the day 2 photo after the jump.

Note that the sub-irrigated portable micro garden (an EarthBox in this case) is sitting on concrete. It could just as well be on concrete in any city in America. All it takes to do this is sunlight and significantly more enlightened education than we currently have.

via peterlabissoniere.posterous.com

Meet Rachela the EarthBox Elf

With all of my medical stuff recently I have definitely needed an attitude adjustment. You never know where it's going to come from. Mine was in the form of Rachela the EarthBox Elf. The photo was in my inbox this morning.

This young farmer cutie is the daughter of one of my earliest readers. Avi Solomon has been a supporter and advocate since way back when before Rachela arrived on the scene. Avi was then living in Israel.

He is a technical writer par excellence and may yet convince me to self-publish a book about portable micro gardens and sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs).

Come to New York Rachella. EarthBox needs you. We need you!

Hold it...we have a late breaking report from dad.

This is two year old Rachela's second season growing tomatoes. She simply ate them last season but this year she was actively involved in all the stages of planting and growing  the tomatoes in the Earthbox SIP.

She's very punctual about watering the SIP, knows not to pick the green ones, and blesses the plants with a daily prayer "to make tomato feel better". We also watched the bee visit the tomato flowers.

Rachela also shares her harvest with her classmates at weekly "tomato picking picnics". Nobody's said no to eating them yet. Using the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato allows us to share the bounty without worrying about running out of ripe, sweet tomatoes.

A Well Engineered Backyard Portable Micro Farm

What an impressive fresh food-producing machine we have here in this well engineered backyard micro farm. The organic farmer is Flickr name mangrovefarms in the San Francisco Bay Area. It appears that mangrovefarms could produce enough fresh vegetables to feed many more than just one family.

The first time I saw this type of simple wood plank enclosure for sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) was Russ Cheatham’s rooftop garden in Chicago. It was featured in a Chicago Magazine article.

This simple box framing does wonders in concealing the SIP "plumbing" that is analogous to the plumbing in a kitchen or bath hidden from view behind decorative cabinetry.

Note that the plumbing also includes an auto-irrigation system. Incidentally the red covering is sheet mulch that eliminates weeding and helps conserve water.

Concealed SIPs can be commercial planters like the EarthBox or its clones such as the City Pickers (Home Depot), or DIY versions made from tote boxes, kitty litter containers, utility buckets or other recycled watertight containers. It does not matter. All they need is a place in the sun and a minimal amount of water.

Efficient portable micro farms like these, work just as well in any urban setting be it a row house rooftop, back yard, driveway or school yard. They will grow food on top of any sun-lit man-made surface such as concrete, blacktop or wooden decking. 

Urban micro-farms like this would go a long way towards solving our widespread problems of obesity and hunger. A further benefit is that these self-contained gardens are hygienic. They can essentially eliminate exposure to contaminated soil which is much more prevalent in our cities than urban agriculture boosters acknowledge.

Toxic metals soil contamination is clearly a young child health issue not to be ignored. I can support that statement with a very signicant database of scientific papers and reputable media articles that I am accumulating in my research on the subject.

Vienna, VA » Florimontes’ EarthBox Garden

Vito adopted what he considers the best system by far for growing tomatoes. Several years ago, he bought Earthboxes from a professional tomato farmer in the Tampa area. The leaf compost he’s created and a water-soluble fertilizer are mixed in the Earthboxes’ soil which is hydrated by a watering tube on top.

via www.connectionnewspapers.com

Garden part of man’s Italian heritage.

In Vito and Toni Florimonte’s early June home garden are tomatoes that rival those of early July. Some are of Italian seeds, some heirloom. There are a variety of pepper plants and beans, eggplant, zucchini, lettuce, turnips, beets, cucumbers, raspberries, thornless blackberries and grapes.

There’s a separate garden growing traditional Italian herbs, such as oregano, basil and two types of garlic bulbs. Looming over the plants and vines are birdhouses hand-carved by Vito, perched on archways standing tall in the garden.

"The garden is part of my heritage," said homeowner and gardening aficionado Vito Florimonte, whose family has southern Italian roots. "We always had a garden back home.

"What I get out of this is high-quality good vegetables. The thing of it is when you plant your own seeds, you get to pick the varieties of vegetables you want. Like the heirloom tomatoes or the Italian pole beans. You can’t buy the plants or seeds for those at Home Depot."

 

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.