Inside Urban Green

This is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week ... Oct 23-29, 2011

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Thanks to a post on the Root Simple blog (formerly known as Homegrown Evolution), I learned that this is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.

I have been diligently researching this subject over the past year. My finding demonstrates what I view as malfeasance on the part of NYC horticultural institutions and the USDA Extension program in failing to adequately alert the public to the widespread urban gardening problem of toxic metals soil contamination, lead in particular.

There is one clear message. For the safety of you and your children, do not grow edible plants in urban soil without first having the soil tested for toxic metals contamination.

Stay tuned. There is much more to come in a series of posts on the subject that will continue through the coming week. This is clearly a topic that deserves your Tweets and Facebook postings.

via www.rootsimple.com

It's been one hell of a week. First we find out, via a soil test, that our backyard may have high levels of lead and zinc. We'll write a lot more about this once I confirm the results--I've sent in another sample to a different lab. And my doctor has agreed to give me a blood test. Whatever the results, I want to help get out the word about this serious issue--ironically, next week is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.

PS102 And TGC: Cultivating Food, Connecting Minds, Harvesting Hope

Last week The Growing Connection (a UN organization) officially welcomed PS102 here in Brooklyn into their international network of EarthBox food gardens. TGC director Bob Patterson conducted a most informative presentation and EarthBox workshop for an interested group of teachers and parents. Parent coordinator Margaret Sheri organized the meeting. It was a pleasure to be in the audience.

All PS102 students will benefit from the EarthBox food garden. They will learn much about plant science and modern methods of growing food in the city, no tillable land required. They will be in good company with other EarthBox SIP gardens like the Googleplex garden in California and their regional office in Manhattan.

Third grade students will also have the opportunity to communicate with students in another country via the TGC network. They will compare notes about their EarthBox SIP gardens as well as learn about each other’s cultures. What a great learning opportunity at such an early age. 

There are many schools considering the installation of dirt gardens. Instead, I would highly recommend a TGC EarthBox SIP garden as a much wiser investment of time and money. With SIPs all you need is a sunny space, even if it is on concrete or blacktop.

There is no need to till the ground (which may be contaminated) or rip up a paved surface. SIPs will produce more fresh vegetables per square foot than in-ground or raised bed gardens while conserving water and time. Since they are portable they can even go to homes during summer recess.

More widespread publicity and information about The Growing Connection would save many schools from spending a significant amount of money unnecessarily on in-ground gardens that will not produce as much or teach as much as a TGC EarthBox garden.

Growing Food, Growing Minds

Photos Rana Abu-Sbaih

Parent Coordinator Margaret Sheri and her green team parents held another open house today at the PS 102 PONG. It was a gorgeous fall day made even more beautiful by the presence of groups of young students shepherded by their teachers.

This, after all, is what this garden is really all about. Growing tomatoes is significant but growing minds is far more important. This was just the beginning of using the new garden as an outdoor classroom. It was great to see it happen!

Margaret reports that 56 staff members visited, 22 scheduled their classes to come into the garden, and four even visited today with no advance planning. What a great start!

Margaret and the parents who have worked so hard to make this all happen deserve a standing ovation.

View the full photo set on Flickr. (click on the slideshow icon at the top of the page)

Welcome to the PS 102 Garden

The PS 102 garden was open for parents and neighbors to visit last Thursday. It was great to be a part of this event and be among so many enthusiastic parents.

Parent coordinator Margaret Sheri along with a core group of parent volunteers deserves much credit for organizing it. She reports that fourteen more parents signed up for volunteer work in the garden. School principal Theresa Dovi paid a visit and was obviously pleased with the rebirth of the garden.

This is just the start of something big. There will be many more parents and teachers participating in this project along with students over the coming school year.

See the PS 102 photo set on Flickr. It now has many more photos including those from the garden open house. We can thank Sarah, a new friend of the garden for taking the pictures.

PONGs: The PS 102 School Garden Planning Ahead

Garden Coordinator Margaret Sheri & parent Edwin Andrade - Photo by Greenscaper
Parents Chris Sichler & Edwin Andrade - Photo by Greenscaper

Portable Outreach Neighborhood Garden (PONG) PS 102 Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

Yesterday was a beautiful and productive day in the PS 102 PONG. A group of interested (and interesting) parents met in the garden and we had a sub-irrigated planter (SIP, aka "self-watering") workshop among other activities. How nice it was to meet at this picnic bench under a shade tree on such a nice day.

In the top photo we see garden coordinator Margaret Sheri and parent Edward Andrade working on a plan view of the current garden. Measuring what is here now and documenting it is perhaps the most important step in developing this neighborhood treasure. It is nice garden now and the future potential is awesome.

Led by parent Chris Sichler, some very beneficial cleanup work was also accomplished. Chris did a yeoman’s job in sorting stuff and cleaning out the tool shed. We know what we have now. He also cleaned out the rotary composter that has been standing idle. For sure, we will have a school composting program along with rainwater harvesting in the coming years.

It is such a pleasure to be a part of this PS 102 parents “green team”. I was amazed at what was accomplished. A somewhat sleeping garden is now wide-awake. What a future!  

See the complete PS 102 photo set on Flickr and view a slideshow.

First Fruit from the PS 102 PONG

Photo by Greenscaper

To the eye of an experienced gardener, there's nothing particularly significant in this photo. It is simply a ripe but juvenile yellow bell pepper. To appreciate this photo, you need to know the back-story of how the plants in the PS 102 PONG* bounced around the neighborhood in recycled pop bottle planters before they found a home in the sun.

It's history now but the significance of this heirloom bell pepper is that it's from a plant that grew from adversity with the very significant help of the sub-irrigated planter (SIP) that it is growing in. But for the SIP, it is unlikely that it would exist.

At the risk of being maudlin, I think of it as a symbol of the use of urban greenscaping and modern methods of growing food in the city in spite of adversity such as contaminated soil and lack of tillable land.

Even though late in the season, there are many more pepper and heirloom tomatoes ready to ripen. With a little bit of luck, there should be some juicy ripe tomatoes for the children, teachers and parents of PS 102 to enjoy before too long.

Incidentally, the pepper is gone. It became the "first taste" for Margaret Sheri, proud mother of the PS 102 PONG. She deserved it!

* PONG - Portable Outreach Neighborhood Garden

Garden Patch Grow Box in the City

Thanks to the collection of customer supplied photos on the Garden Patch Grow Box website we have this one taken in Cincinnati, Ohio. How many children ever have the experience of eating a fresh tomato like this in a chain link fence and concrete world? This photo speaks to the realities of urban life. There is no dirt here and if there was you probably would not want to grow in it.

We live in a brownstone in the heart of Downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. There is very little space to plant tomatoes in our back lot and even less sun to do it in. I have struggled for years to get anything to consistently grow back there. This year I decided to try the Garden Patch planter. It allowed me to place the plants directly in our little patch of sun. As you can see they are doing very well.

-Erik & Max B. Cincinnati, OH

When I saw the photo, it immediately reminded me of the PS 102 PONG across the street. If the heirloom tomato plants had been planted on time, they too would be covering the chain link fence like this and already producing juicy heirloom tomatoes. Patience, it will happen! Stay tuned!

There is another very important message in this photo. It speaks more loudly than my words. Look at the difference in plant health and robustness between the Garden Patch Grow Box (prior posts) and the top watered drain hole planters. I see this every day in my travels around the web.

Top watering in drain hole planters is the leading cause of weak, spindly and generally unhealthy plants whether edible or decorative. It is clearly an erratic method of container plant irrigation.

Sub-irrigation does make a difference despite all the doubters in the rather dogmatic drain hole community. It is clearly time for our horticultural and botanical institutions to move into the 21st century from whatever prior century they live in.

SIP Planting Progress at the PS102 PONG

Installed on July 13, 2009 Read more...


Photo taken yesterday, August 23. 2009. Click on photos for a larger view on Flickr.

PONGs - No Construction, Heavy Equipment, or Earth Moving! 

Notice that the sub-irrigated planters (SIPS) were moved from the path to the fence which acts as a trellis. It will be interesting to see how high the heirloom tomato vines climb by the end of the growing season. Stay tuned!

Even though the planting was delayed by almost two months, there are now many heirloom peppers and tomatoes on the plants.

See a photo set slideshow on Flickr.

More about PONGs

Success Finally: A Caged Tomato at PS102 PONG

Better late than never, is an heirloom Black Giant purple tomato wannabe looking through the chain link fence surrounding the PS 102 PONG. It is a minor miracle that it is here. It has been one predicament after another, all of them created by humans rather than the plants.

There has been absolutely no problem with the seeds, plants or sub-irrigated bucket planters (SIPs). The SIPs, true to form, work like a charm. If all goes well this little guy will become a large juicy purple heirloom tomato easy to see by everyone walking by the garden.

Stay tuned to see what may be the only photos of Black Giant tomatoes on the web. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds sold out and removed the photo from their website. I searched but could not find any other photo of this soon to be purple beauty. 

Las Palomas de PS 102 PONG

A new gardener has arrived at the PS 102 garden. The first time I spotted this Mourning Dove fledgling, he was sitting on top of one of the sub-irrigated bucket planters. He obviously was enjoying his perch on the plastic mulch. This city bird is obviously compatible with the built environment integrated with the natural world.

I had spotted his mother previously and when I saw her fly into some tall bushes I knew there was a nest. This little guy is the proof. I’ve also discovered a female fledgling.

So, we can call the PS 102 PONG the garden of the doves if we like. What a good omen for the student garden club that will start here in the fall.