Inside Urban Green

City Colleges of Chicago Go Smart With EarthBox SIPs

Watch the progress of an "instant rooftop garden" at the Harold Washington college, one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago. Using sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) like these EarthBoxes it took a minimal amount of time and effort to create a highly productive and portable edible garden for the benefit of the students and faculty.

What you see here is only the initial test garden installed last summer. The plan is to expand the project throughout the City Colleges of Chicago system in the future.

The EarthBoxes were donated by the E.A.T. organization in Chicago. They deserve much credit for what they have done. Read more about the project on the Harold Washington college blog.

We would surely benefit from an E.A.T. type organization here in NYC where we seem to be stuck in the dirt. This too shall pass. The light of modernity is slowly dawning and it will happen before too long.

via eat-chicago.org

Toronto » Rooftop SIP City

Johanne Daoust in Toronto has been most helpful in posting a series of photos with notes that show how she converted her rooftop garden planters into sub-irrigated planters (SIPs - known erroneously as "self-watering"). Her planters include a variety of round planters as well as traditional wooden raised beds one of which is shown here.

The raised bed is shallow (for growing lettuce and greens) so she made the water and oxygen reservoirs from 4" diameter perforated corrugated drain pipe cut in half lengthwise reducing the height to just 2". She used sheet plastic to make the bed watertight (it is black on one side and white on the other).

The photo below shows the all important overflow drain hole tube (lower left). This is the feature that is critical to keeping the system in balance and preventing overwatering.

 She covered the reservoir pipes with landscape fabric. This prevents soil from falling through either the perforations or the open ends of the pipe.

This is a good idea and one that I will use in the future. Note that she folded back the landscape fabric in the photo (upper right) so that you can see the construction.

Here you can also see planter mix added to create the soil wicks (spaces between the pipes).

The next step is to fill the planter to the rim with planter mix before sowing seeds or setting starter plants.

See her Flickr photo set for views of how she converted other planters including ceramic with a drain hole into SIPs using methods very similar to what you see in the planter bed photos.

Brooklyn » A Portable Micro Farm on a Personal Scale

Tammy Scileppi did an excellent job of describing Frieda Lim's rooftop micro farm. Unlike the shipping container urban farm, you would not need a crane and a heavy-duty truck to move her farm. The sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) are easy to move with a hand truck and a van.

SIPs are highly productive, water and time saving growing units that are perfect for nomadic city life.

They are also the safest way to grow food in the city where the soil is often contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead and arsenic. So, why aren't more urbanites using them? All it takes is education and leadership that currently are woefully lacking. 

via www.greenpointstar.com

You don’t need a green thumb to become a savvy gardener and urban farmer. We’re seeing a new era of personal food production unfolding, and it’s all about DIY and sustainability. With prices for fresh produce rising almost weekly, it’s the perfect time to learn how to grow your own. All you really need is a patch of outdoor space and ample sunlight—like a rooftop, balcony, porch, fire escape, or even a friend’s concrete driveway. A viable alternative for city folk, micro-gardens have amazing advantages over the old-fashioned kind.

From May to December, busy Brooklyn mom, Frieda Lim grows a bounty of succulent vegetables, herbs and edible flowers in her rooftop micro-farm atop the 2-family Gowanus home she shares with her husband and 4-year-old daughter.

Lunch at Sixpoint » The SIP a Keg Planter Project

If you don't know Cathy Erway, she is author of The Art of Eating In, a food maven and blogs about it.

In her spare time Cathy is also a rooftop farmer having launched a micro farm atop the Six Point Craft Ales brewery in Red Hook Brooklyn last year.

What is particularly unique about this micro farm is that Cathy crafted her planters from recycled beer kegs.

Last years creative idea has become even better since Cathy discovered the benefits of sub-irrigated planters (SIPs).

Having an open mind, she was more than willing to convert part of the micro farm to test the SIP concept. You can now think of these planters as SIP beer kegs for a bit of a pun.

You can read Cathy’s own words about the sub-irrigated keg planter test.  She is overjoyed to see the superior growth of the plants in the SIP keg planters.

via lunchatsixpoint.com

It’s high time I shared the revelation that’s come to our rooftop garden. This project has been months in the works, and years if you count the work of my consultants on this project, who have dedicated their life’s work to exploring and sharing the virtues of SIPs (sub-irrigated planters). And now that the sun has been beating down hard on the rooftops of Red Hook, these uniquely outfitted keg-containers have proven themselves so much worthy of the effort that was put into them. The plants in SIPs are really outdoing all the others.

Last fall, I became aware of a gardening tip ardently encouraged by a horticulturist named Bob Hyland, of Inside Urban Green. His recommended system for healthy, productive plants in tight quarters such as the city was by sub-irrigation.

Portable Micro Gardens » Elevated Sub-Irrigated Salad Bar

via www.re-nest.com
source: Instructables

This is a great idea for a sub-irrigated (aka erroneously as “self-watering”) micro garden that can grow fresh food just about anywhere in the city.

While it will not fit on a fire escape like my salad bar, it will fit on a balcony, rooftop, driveway, row house paved patio or other paved surface. It would fit in most of the spaces shown in this neighborhood site survey I did here in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Elevated portable micro gardens like this will not only produce a ton of fresh vegetables but you will not strain your back growing them.

An elevated planter like has a second major benefit. The valuable space under it is available for storage. Remember that the sub-irrigated planters above are self-contained. There is no drainage to damage what is under them and if located on a balcony annoy the neighbors below with dripping water.

I would not make the tote box planters as described from the Instructables directions. It is an outdated method. These photos show a much simpler DIY tote box SIP made with recycled plastics, in this case ½ gallon milk containers. You could also make the water/oxygen reservoirs using inverted recycled nursery trays, or other recycled plastic food containers. The fill tube is made from recycled water bottles nested to fit.

The partial amount of soil is there to demonstrate the wicking system. Fill the SIP to the top before planting. The soil mix surrounding the reservoirs creates the wicks. It is a good idea to tamp the soil down with your fingers to improve the capillarity of the wicks. You do not need any yoghurt containers, pond baskets, PVC pipes, etc.

If I made this table I would hide the tote box SIPs. Draw curtains would be a simple way to do it and at the same time allow easy access to items stored below. Incidentally, the green tote shown was a Christmas item from a local dollar store. I do not like looking at blue or gray plastic boxes. I know…picky, picky.

There is more about this tote box SIP in a prior post that is also a Google Doc.

Edible Manhattan » A Sub-irrigated Portable Rooftop Micro Garden

It was good to read this informative Edible Manhattan article by Rachel Wharton that gives some well-deserved recognition to portable micro gardens that incorporate sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs).

The Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn publications have done everyone in NYC a public service by doing what our horticultural institutions are failing to do and that is to inform the public about the major benefits of progressive food production technology. They help give everyone from kids to seniors a green thumb

We have serious problems regarding obesity, nutrition and job creation. While not a complete solution, these modern methods of urban food production can make a very significant contribution to solving these problems. They are simple to use and clearly belong on everyone’s menu of food production techniques.

I have some ideas about job creation in particular that I will share in the very near future. Jobs, jobs, jobs are the top priority. Without them we don’t all eat.

A SIP is essentially a planter that has been converted so that the bottom is a water reservoir under a lightweight potting mix. You fill up the reservoir rather than watering the soil and the water trickles up instead of down. With a SIP, you lose less water to evaporation and your plants stay happier and grow healthy with less attention. It’s a concept that’s been used in fields in Europe for years, says Lim, who learned the technique from Bob Hyland, a Brooklyn urban farmer extraordinaire who makes it his mission to get others to grow their own food. (BrooklynBased.com ran an excellent feature on Hyland and Lim last year.)

via www.ediblemanhattan.com

NY1 Video » Slippery Slope Sub-irrigated Rooftop Micro Farm

Frieda Lim's Slippery Slope rooftop micro farm was in the news again yesterday. The video is not embeddable so click the following link to watch it.

via statenisland.ny1.com

On a rooftop in Gowanus, Brooklyn, urban farmer Frieda Lim uses a special gardening method called sub-irrigated planting (SIP). Lim harvests greens, tomatoes, herbs, beans, okra, cucumbers, chiles and flowers from 75 plastic containers on top of her apartment nearly all year long, and calls it "Slippery Slope Farm."

Up on the Roof » Farming Hong Kong's Urban Island

For just $15 per month, Lam rents out toolbox-sized planter boxes to businessmen, elderly couples and families alike, and even runs horticulture classes. He uses imported soil from Germany to fill his planters and lets the humid, subtropical climate do the rest.

I can't tell if these planters are sub-irrigated but the plants look like it. The garden is obviously healthy, lush and suggestive of sub-irrigation. In any case, Mr. Lam obviously knows how to grow and evidently has a head for business as well.

I spent 10 days in Hong Kong back in 1986 and did not want to leave. I called it New York east...way east and would go back there in a heartbeat. It is a beautiful city with great energy. Once I get new knees, I may go there next year and do some consulting. That would be a lot of fun.

The ideological obstructionism that permeates the NYC urban horticulture scene is intellectually stifling. Neo-Luddism is alive and well here. It is reactionary energy that this country does not need. We obviously need to be exploring new and creative ideas to solve 21st century problems.

via edition.cnn.com

Hong Kong (CNN) -- On the roof of a 21-story office building in Hong Kong's eastern district sits a grassy patch of hope that agriculture can thrive even in one of the world's most congested spaces.

The rooftop is managed by local entrepreneur Osbert Lam, who spends his afternoons amid the rows of planter boxes teaming with long beans, tomatoes and herbs that occupy his urban farm.

Philadelphia » Help Kickstart the City's First Portable Micro Garden Rooftop Farm

If you live in or near Philadelphia, or just care about progressive urban food production, this is a very worthwhile civic endeavor.

Much will be learned from this project that will benefit all citizens of the region as well as virtual urbanites online everywhere.

It is good to see that they are not simply craning a load of dirt on the roof and calling it a farm. There is no future in doing that.

In addition to seeds and farming tools, our $5,000 budget includes building sub-irrigated rooftop farming planters that will allow us to test several combinations of planter design, growing media (soil) and crops suitable for rooftop cultivation. We are partnering with PRooF (Philadelphia Rooftop Farm) to test their rooftop planter prototype and encourage city-wide rooftop gardening.

 Pledge some financial support here: www.kickstarter.com

Cloud 9 Farm is a burgeoning rooftop farm in Philadelphia. In addition to growing and selling organically grown produce locally, we aim to improve food security in the city by conducting research and providing educational programming on urban rooftop agriculture. We are thrilled to be the first rooftop farm in the city of Philadelphia, but are even more excited to pave the way for others to follow!

The Weighty Issue About Rooftop Gardening

It was good to see web penpals Heidi Hough (Chicago) and Johanne Daoust (Toronto) quoted in a recent Associated Press article about rooftop gardening. Both Heidi and Johanne are experienced urban rooftop gardeners who deserve recognition for what they do.

Their openness to new ideas and willingness to experiment is admirable. Far too many urban gardeners are anchored in tradition and unwilling to change.

Heidi has been growing in sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) made from recycled utility buckets since 2007. Johanne is in the process of converting her traditional planters to sub-irrigation for the current growing season. 

The subject of rooftop gardening weight loading is an important topic. Any significant addition of weight to a roof poses a risk and should be checked by a licensed architect or engineer. It is analogous to having a professional toxic metals soil test before planting edible plants in urban soil,

While the article attempts to be informative, it is far from accurate and in my view reflects poorly on the AP editors and fact checkers. It starts with the first sentence “On the roof of the Glide Memorial Church here, gardeners use wine boxes and coconut cores.” 

“Coconut cores” was mistakenly used for the word coir. The residue from making coir fiber known as coir is an increasingly popular horticultural substitute for peat moss. Many believe that it is more sustainable but it is no lighter than hydrated peat moss.