Inside Urban Green

Where in the World is Greenscaper?

The last post on this blog was more than two months ago. This is probably the longest time out since I started blogging eight years ago. 



Those who know that I am pushing 80, have gone through prostate cancer treatment, two knee replacement surgeries and significant hearing loss in the past couple of years might think that I had gone to meet my maker. 



Not so! In fact, I am still on the planet here in Brooklyn and am now walking on two new knees. Through the miracle of modern medicine, I have two straight legs, can walk normally and for the first time in over 25 years will be walking free of pain in a few months.



Hallelujah! 



If these legs are made for walking (hark Nancy Sinatra), they are going to walk me back to California early next year. Well, not literally. I may take a train instead of flying and stop in Chicago and Milwaukee on the way. There are projects and people I would love to meet in these cities. I might also stop in Denver where I first fell in love with the West back in my IBM days.



Those here in New York may be interested in an event scheduled before I go. On Wednesday, November 7, there will be a three-hour sub-irrigated planter (SIP) workshop (from 6-9 pm) at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It is sponsored by the ever-popular GreenBridge program of BBG. We can thank Robin Simmen, Director and Nina Browne, Manager for their progressive vision in sponsoring this event. 



The workshop is not just about houseplants. It will be about growing all rooted plants in SIPs. If they have roots, it does not matter whether they are decorative or edible. All terrestrial plants love sub-irrigation whether indoors or outdoors. Everyone will take home a soda bottle SIP and know how to use it. 



Even better, I have decided to give away the plants in my lab to workshop attendees. This includes plants growing in conventional potting media as well as clay pebbles (hydroculture). Most people are unaware that both sub-irrigation and hydroculture are simple forms of hydroponics.



Research tells me that hydroponics (including aquaponics) will play a dominant role in the near future of urban agriculture. With that said, all workshop attendees will leave with a basic understanding of hydroponics through the use of SIPs.

Growing some plants in SIPs will help immeasurably to demystify this subject. Even better will be to demystify and debunk some of the urban myths that plague the hobby of growing plants in containers. 



Surprise, surprise! This workshop including the SIP take-aways is free! 

Act quickly to reserve a space.

Stay tuned for more details about the workshop along with information about the future editorial content of Inside Urban Green.  


Sub-irrigated Raised Beds at the Garden of Wonder, PS 133

Raised bed planter kit converted to sub-irrigation - Click photo to enlarge

The Garden of Wonder at PS 133 in Brooklyn now has five sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) of the raised bed type, including a partially planted demonstration planter. All planters are prefabricated kits from Home Depot.

The sub-irrigated raised beds are in addition to 70 tote box SIPs and 30 feet of dual-track sub-irrigated rain gutter system housing a garden of large round planters.

The benefits of all sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) over traditional top-watered beds for vegetable growing is increased productivity (up to 50%), reduced water usage (up to 90% less) and ease of use for all gardeners, novice or experienced.

They are also the safest, most hygienic, way to avoid toxic metals contaminated urban soils. The plant root system in SIPs is never exposed to the underlying soil. The same cannot be said for conventional raised beds.

Research shows that city soil contamination is widespread and under-reported by the gardening media. Lead contamination is of particular concern where there are young children involved.

Although the planter kits are relatively lightweight cedar, they will likely outlast heavier planters because they are not exposed to water. Sheet plastic liners make them watertight.

You can assemble the kits with a screwdriver, but it is much faster to use a power drill (screw driver attachment). You will also need a drill to bore a hole for the overflow drain hole. A heavy-duty stapler is the best way to fasten the liner. A rubber mallet is also helpful when assembling the planks and corner posts.

After installing the liner, the next step is to create the water/oxygen reservoir system. We used recycled nursery flats installed upside down for these beds. They are quick and easy to install and you will be helping the environment by keeping them out of landfills. Find them at your local garden centers and/or landscape contractors.

Other recycled food containers such as milk and juice bottles, produce containers (ex. mushrooms) also work well. Perforated, corrugated drain pipe (aka ag pipe) works but you may have to special order it at your local home improvement store.

Final steps are the addition of a fill pipe in one corner and one or two overflow drain holes (1/2" clear plastic tubing extending from one of the reservoirs through the wood to the exterior). 

Adjacent sub-irrigated "bean bed" with 2-week old bean plants grown from seeds planted by students from PS 133

Stay tuned. There are many more photos to come showing other wonders of the PS 133 Garden of Wonder.

Update on Nikki Counts Sub-irrigated Rain Gutter Garden

The update on the sub-irrigated rain gutter garden is at about the 2-minute mark. Nikki Counts tells us that temperatures have gone as high as 106 degrees. Think about maintaining a garden like this without sub-irrigation. It is a testimony to her sub-irrigated rain gutter system that the plants are doing so well. 

If you are new to sub-irrigation, know that the key to success with sub-irrigation is the water & oxygen reservoir system under the plants. The unique aspect of the rain gutter system is the fact that the reservoir is external to the planters rather then internal and provides auto-irrigation to all of the planters.

This is a very creative idea from Larry Hall in Minnesota. It is a major contribution to the field of sub-irrigated planter systems and has stimulated other gardeners to create variations of the system. You can see the evidence of this on the rain gutter garden Facebook group.

via Nikki Counts www.youtube.com
Prior post about her garden

A 30-Day Old Rain Gutter Garden On a Deck Produces Amazing Results

The vast majority of rain gutter gardens (and other sub-irrigated gardens for that matter) are not in the city where they are most needed. They are in the suburbs and the country. This sub-irrigated rain gutter garden is on a deck attached to a house with a large yard. It looks to be in the country. In any case, the garden is of above average health and does not require a green thumb. Anyone can do it.

This garden could be on a balcony, rooftop or in a row house yard in any city in America. Why aren't sub-irrigated gardens of all types more widely seen in the city? If you have read this blog for a while, you probably know that I believe the cause is our shamefully retarded urban horticulture education. What is your opinion? 

via www.youtube.com 

Meet the WonderBox

Meet the WonderBox! Finally...a window box that's a plant grower...not a plant killer. It is sub-irrigated and made from a commercially available planter.

See and learn more about it tomorrow at the Wonder Garden! There's a 2 gallon reservoir and it still has plenty of room for plant roots. Row house gardening, in particular, will never be the same.

Click image to enlarge

The Garden of Wonder on PS 133 Green Campus

The students and community of people at PS 133 Green Campus grow food at the same time they are recycling and conserving water. Visit the campus from 10 to 1 tomorrow and find out how to do it at your school. The school is located on 4th Avenue at 8th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It will be a pleasure to see you there. Bring lots of questions!

Hard working volunteer Maria adds an impromptu element to the Garden of Wonder sign made from recycled plastic bottles. See how the sign was created on Flickr - Photo by Greenscaper

Click on image to enlarge

Pas de Deux on Stage in a Raised Bed SIP

Linnea intently watches big sister Auden dance the steps - photo by Greenscaper

This past Tuesday was a volunteer workday at the "Garden of Wonder" on the green campus of PS 133 in Park Slope, Brooklyn (4th Avenue near 8th Street). The camera caught these young volunteers taking a break for some fun.

This is just one vignette from a day of productive work by a group of moms and their kids led by Garden of Wonder coordinator Frieda Lim. It would be hard to find a better group of volunteers than this group of moms and kids. It was my great pleasure to be there. 

That said, the same has been true of all the volunteers since the start of this project. You will see more of them in Flickr photo sets coming soon. The primary task of this particular day was to convert some existing raised beds to sub-irrigation (and assemble some new ones).

These planters are just one of several variations on a theme of sub-irrigation methods for growing green in the concrete jungle that surrounds most city schools (and homes). There are traditional top-watered raised bed planters like this all over New York, but I know of only a couple that are sub-irrigated. I wonder how they are doing. PS 20 are you listening? If you know of others, let us all know. Send some photos and I will blog about them.

Why bother to add sub-irrigation "plumbing" you ask? Do it and you will soon see the benefits with your own eyes. You will see plants growing taller, wider and stronger. You will see more veggies per square foot than you've ever seen before. You will also experience doing less work because of the built in water supply system that saves time and conserves water.

What's good for you is also good for the environment. Water conservation is still a largely undone task across America and a day of reckoning is coming.

Traditional drain holes do nothing but waste water. Once you understand sub-irrigation, you will realize that they have absolutely no functional value. Drain holes should go the way of gas guzzlers and plastic shopping bags.

Would you like to know more about modern methods of growing food in the city? Come to PS 133 on 4th Avenue near 8th Street this Saturday, July 14 from 10am to 1pm. If you forgot that Saturday is Bastille Day, not to worry. Sarah, mom of the red dress dancers, will be serving some refreshments in honor of the day. Fourth Avenue isn't the Champs-Élysées but we're working on it.

I too will be enjoying Bastille Day for three hours while demonstrating different methods of making sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) and answering your questions. I have many demonstration props to help resolve mysteries that may remain from learning on line. Your questions and participation will be most welcome and not just helpful to you but all who are there.

Not to worry if you cannot make it this Saturday. There will be five (5) more open house Saturdays at the PS 133 Garden of Wonder this summer. The last one will be August 18 also from 10a.m. to 1 p.m.

Stay tuned for lots more about this green campus project including information about the “vertican” strawberry garden, tote box tomato garden, rain gutter garden as well as the raised bed SIPs. In addition to more posts there will be many, many photos uploaded to Flickr. Have no fear, this project is well documented.

Click photo to enlarge

Facebook Group » Sub-irrigated Rain Gutter Gardens

Larry Hall, inventor of the sub-irrigated rain gutter garden, started a Facebook group. What a great idea!

The group is attracting a wide range of gardeners who obviously enjoy fresh produce as well as thinking out of the box. None of us has a monopoly on creative ideas. The synergy of open-minded people working together elevates the level of new thinking to heights that are difficult for one mind to create alone.

Larry has done us all a public service by making his rain gutter garden idea open source and just as important providing a communication channel for it to evolve into new personal food growing methods yet to be imagined.

I learn something new every time I scan through the photos and read the comments.

via www.facebook.com

An Edible Garden of Eden in the California Desert

If this looks to you like a mirage (or a Photoshopped photo) you're not alone. I could hardly believe my eyes when I opened the following video of a sub-irrigated rain gutter garden. Well, it's not a mirage and this "edible Garden of Eden" is located somewhere in the California desert. It looks a bit like a lunar landscape.

If you're wondering about the structure, it makes the garden safe from desert animals. Wait until you see what's inside. I'm sure the local animals salivate when they see the green feast beyond their reach.

It baffles me that all of the rain gutter SIP gardens I've looked at are in the country or suburbs. I've seen none in the city where lush, productive gardens like this are precious assets. It seems that gardeners outside our cities are better able to think on their own and garden outside the box so to speak.

The only urban rain gutter garden I know of in NYC is the one we built on the PS 133 Urban Green Campus. If anyone has information about an urban sub-irrigated rain gutter garden please share it with us.

via www.youtube.com

This video does a good job of showing the piping and connections. As you will see, it is really quite simple.

via www.youtube.com

A Sub-irrigated Rain Gutter Garden Worth Crowing About

This video shows a sub-irrigated rain gutter garden set up by a gardner named Nikki Counts back in May of this year. The planters are recycled kitty litter buckets mounted on vinyl rain gutters following the creative idea of Larry Hall in Minnesota.

Now have a look at her garden in June. What a fabulous vegetable garden this is.

Note that Nikki has not installed float valves and tubing for auto-irrigation yet. She simply adds water to the rain gutters each morning with a hose.

via www.youtube.com