Inside Urban Green

Urban Soil Contamination is a Growing Problem

A professional colleague attended the talk below and said that the audience was rather shocked by what they heard. The talk by soil scientist Thomas Rathier included information about toxic metals soil contamination.

There is no recording of the meeting but there is a PDF report authored by Mr. Rathier and others entitled Lead and Other Heavy Metals in Community Gardening Soils in Connecticut . Anyone who is growing or contemplates growing edible plants in urban dirt should read this document.

I applaud the Connecticut Horticultural Society for sponsoring this meeting. Perhaps they will now be more open to educating their members and other gardeners about the very serious health treat that accompanies growing edible plants in city soils.

At this time, site searches reveal that there is no information on their website about soil contamination. There is no warning to gardeners that they should have a toxic metals soil test before growing any plants in the ground.

There is also no information about sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) that are one of the best ways to eliminate exposure to toxic metals soil contamination. Thanks to a lack of educational leadership, the benefits of growing edible plants in sub-irrigated raised beds is largely unknown by the public.

The situation regarding toxic metals soil contamination is a very serious issue in the greater New York Metro region and at the present time is highly under publicized. My ever-growing database of information about urban soil contamination is now far larger than I ever anticipated. Stay tuned for more information to come.

If you haven't watched Frieda Lim's TEDxManhattan video How to Cultivate a Logo, she talks about urban soil contamination. As the mother of a small child she is particulalry concerned about this health hazard.

The Secrets of Soil: Talk hosted by the Connecticut Horticultural Society Thursday, January 19, at 7:30 p.m., Thomas Rathier, a soil scientist in Windsor, explains how to handle soil in ways that best protect your health and enhance your garden's health. Talk sponsored by the Connecticut Horticultural Society, held at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford, $10 (CHS members and full-time students with ID free). For more information, call 860-529-8713 or visit online.

via www.mywesthartfordlife.com

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

TEDxTalks » Two Smart Berkeley Business Heads Score Success with Mushrooms

It was pleasure to find this TEDx video about some very smart young business heads from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, California. It is particularly refreshing in that we have a plethora of rather noisy Berkeley foodies and Alice Waters Edible Schoolyard (all dirt) acolytes here in the Big Apple.

This is the story of a very clever entrepreneurial idea that literally mushroomed into a local urban agriculture, urban food and consumer product business success.

When we are more successful in getting the attention of other entrepreneurial minds we will most likely witness an explosion of new businesses, jobs and urban food production products in the U.S. It should mean many new businesses and jobs that currently do not exist.

We just need to get past the often anti-business hippie mentality that currently dominates the conversation, particularly here in NYC. Based on daily research, there is no doubt that this too shall pass. It will just take some time.

It is encouraging to see that many progressive business ideas have already emerged with many new aquaponics, hydroponics and other innovative urban agriculture businesses popping up across the country. Stay tuned for many more new blog posts about them. 

Note the bright red TEDx logo in the video. If  you have not seen it, check out Frieda Lim's How to Cultivate a (TEDx) Logo video. Her very green version of the logo has a surprising secondary function.

Their website: BacktotheRoots.com

Read more about Nikhil and Alejandro

TEDxManhattan - Marianne Cufone - Recirculating Farms Coalition

This is Marianne Cufone's TEDxManhattan presentation mentioned in this prior post about her and the Recirculating Farms Coailition.

Keep in mind that sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) for consumer use have the same water-conserving benefit of a recirculating farm. You might think of them as cousins in their environmental mission. There is no runoff and waste of water in a closed-system SIP. Aside from a small amount of evaporation, all of the water goes directly to the plant's root sytstem.

Note the green TEDx logo on stage. If  you have not seen it, check out Frieda Lim's How to Cultivate a (TEDx) Logo video. The logo has a surprising secondary function.

via TEDx YouTube Channel

Marianne Cufone is the Executive Director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition. She is an environmental attorney, and long time sustainable food advocate. Marianne is a professionally trained health supportive chef.

She has worked in natural resources management, focused on oceans, fisheries and seafood, for over a decade, in which time she has challenged and helped write and pass many significant state and federal policies and laws.

She directed the fish and oceans program at Food and Water Watch (2007-2011), managed the Gulf, South Atlantic and Caribbean fisheries programs for the Center for Marine Conservation (1999-2003), and is the founder and managing partner of Environment Matters, a consulting group that provides legal, policy and communications support to non-profit organizations (2003-present).

Previously, as an adjunct professor in law and environmental studies, and currently, as a guest lecturer at various academic institutions, Marianne helps to develop future advocates.

 

Aquaponics » A TEDxTalk by Charlie Price of Aquaponics UK

If you are new to aquaponics, this TEDx video is a good introduction to an important urban food production subject. Charlie Price of Aquaponics UK does an excellent job of explaining the basic principles and potential of aquaponics.

via TEDx YouTube Channel

If you visit YouTube, check out Frieda Lim's How to Cultivate a (TEDx) Logo video if you have not seen it. It surprised a lot of people in the audience and watching on the web.

At UCLA » Re-Imagining Agriculture: Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship in Southern California

If your interest is entrepreneurial urban agriculture, there is a do-not-miss event coming up at the UCLA Anderson School of Management on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 from 6 to 9 pm .

If I were still living in Southern California, I would be there in a heartbeat. There are people on the panel who are in the forefront of modern method urban food production. I would love to hear and meet them.

Here is the lineup:
 
Colin and Karen Archipley, founders of Archi’s Acres and the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program. They are located in San Diego North County and include hydroponics in their production and training.  Among other locations, they sell produce at the Hillcrest Farmers Market in my old San Diego neighborhood. That brings back good memories.

David Rosenstein: Founder of EVO Farm, an urban farming organization in Los Angeles. EVO Farm operates the only commercial aquaponics farm in L.A. David is Chair of the Aquaponics Association – Western Region. He also serves on the Los Angeles Food Policy Council.

Pierre Sleiman: Founder and CEO of Go Green Agriculture, located in Encinitas, San Diego. Go Green Agriculture is a Southern California leader in hydroponics and the integration of information systems technology with greenhouse automation.

Jesse DuBois and Dan Allen: Founders of Farmscape Gardens, a Los Feliz, Los Angeles based   gardening business that provides organic garden installation and maintenance throughout Southern California. They provide a variety of modern looking raised beds and planters. It does not appear, however, that they are sub-irrigated.   

tickets via seedstockandersonevent.eventbrite.co

School Gardening » Send a Cow to NYC...Please!

Bag Gardens in a UK school from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

Quote, "Hum, I'll give it a chance!"  Cheers to the educators in this U.K. school.

Making a Bag Garden in Uganda from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

Send a Cow could do much good work here in New York City where we have a very small group of highly vocal but uncreative "three sisters farmers" who seem to know just one note on a scale of many notes. They play ad nauseum only in the key of "d for dirt." Apparently that is all they know...or want to know.

We would be much better off as a society if children were taught school gardening to honor all cultures and learn to play all the notes in the scale, in all keys.

These African style Bag Gardens are a great project for school kids to get stuck into. See how they did just that in a school in Bath, UK. Bag gardens are part of the African Gardens project run by charity Send a Cow. See SendaCow.org for more info and to buy a kit.

The high-quality version of these videos can be found on our Cabbages & Cowpats DVD. Order a copy here. (PDF Order Form)

A Peoples Garden in Wisconsin » Sack Planters Part 2

Following are screen shots from the Wisconsin PBS video about sack planters on the parking lot of a Salvation Army pantry. I have added further explanation and comments about this highly productive and inexpensive way to grow vegetables in the city.

A layer of gravel is poured into the bottom of the sack to create a base. I would add a layer of pourous nursery fabric or plastic screening to prevent soil from seeping into the gravel base. This retains air space between the pieces of gravel.

Position a can (with the top and bottom removed) in the middle of the sack on top of the gravel base. This will act as a mold or form for a gravel column that will go from the bottom to the top of the sack. Add soil until level with the top of the can mold.

An alternate method is to create a center core for the gravel column by using a piece of window screen material rolled into a round column shape to form the core. The screen retainer would rise from the gravel base to the top of the planter in one piece.

What is not quite clear in the video is that she lifts the can out of the soil at the bottom of the sack. The gravel stays on the bottom of the planter. Now reposition the can on top of the first soil/gravel layer, fill with soil around it, add gravel and repeat this procedure until reaching the top of the sack.

The planter is complete. Here you can see the gravel column that facilitates flow of water from top to bottom throughout the sack planter. Equally important are the pore spaces between the pieces of gravel that provide all important oxygen to the root system.

I have other ideas on using this basic system to make vertical planters like these even more productive and durable. Stay tuned.

Sub-irrigation (SIPs) = Simple Hydroponics

In a prior post about the TEDxManhattan How to Cultivate a Logo video, I called the TEDx logo planter a hydroponic lettuce grower. How come? As revealed in the video it is clearly a sub-irrigated planter aka SIP (prior posts).

Actually, it’s both. The logo planter is a SIP as well as a simple form of hydroponics without an air pump. If the public is confused by all of the terminology used for various forms of food growing systems it is no surprise.

We have an overabundance of names for a variety of systems for growing plants. Pared down to the basics however, just about all of them are variants of hydroponic growing even though we use different names for them. It is a language and education issue rather than the “engineering” of the methods.

Sub-irrigation (aka SIPs) is an accurate term for systems that use solid (i.e. soil) media contained over the top of a water and oxygen reservoir system. Up to now, I have refrained from calling it hydroponics in the consumer market for a couple of reasons.

1. Hydroponics implies complexity and the need for plug-in power for oxygenation. SIPs are simple to make and do not require power. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand how they work

2. In the past, hydroponics has been heavily associated with marijuana growing. I have shopped in many hydroponics retail stores over many years and observed the traffic and the conversation. It is mostly a male clientele and they’re not talking about growing lettuce. This will change over time and these stores will become more family and children friendly.

With the emerging popularity of aquaponics (prior posts), hydroponics is gaining a more family-friendly image. Millions of people will be raising fish and vegetables in home aquaponics systems in the future. Much like the evolution of personal computers and mobile phones, these systems will become more affordable, less complex and user-friendlier. Currently they are not a mass-market product, but I predict they will be.

Back to hydroponics SIPs. These photos reveal what is going on in the hidden zone of a typical sub-irrigated planter. It happens to be a window box SIP that grew lettuce on my fire escape. Obviously, this is a healthy and robust root system. The upper zone in the soil media contains a soil-media root system but look at the mass of white roots that were growing in the water/oxygen chambers. They are “water roots” that have a different cellular structure than "soil roots".

Plants roots are incredibly aggressive in finding water. It is a matter of survival!

Clear SIPs help immeasurably in understanding this. While capillary action is elevating water from the reservoir, the roots are making a beeline down to find it. This is why these systems work so well even when the physical height limitation of capillary action is exceeded.

Only time will tell how affordable aquaponics systems will become. At this time however, various forms of sub-irrigated planter hydroponics represent the best choice for millions of city dwellers around the world.

Photo reveals the inverted (recycled) nursery flat that forms the water & oxygen reservoir. Bottom of fill pipe (recycled water bottle) lower right. The window box is a typical planter found in big box stores. It is too small as demonstrated by the root mass. Wider and half again or twice as deep would be much better.

 

Aquaponics Now Has an International Organization

Perhaps you have seen articles about aquaponics in the media. Just a little bit of web research shows that aquaponics is definitely a hot topic in urban food communities across the country and around the world. 



Aquaponics (prior posts) is a food growing method that combines aquaculture (the raising of fish) in a symbiotic relationship with hydroponic plant growing. The fish waste provides nutrients to the plants.

The movement is now organized under the banner of the recently formed Aquaponics Association. They have a very active website and an Annual Conference. The second annual conference will be in Denver, Colorado, September 22-23, 2012. Last years conference was held in Orlando, Fl in September. They also conduct workshops and tours throughout the year.

The association already has over 4,000 members (they call themselves "aquapons") and is adding them at the rate of about 15 per day. These are impressive numbers and a testimony to the importance of aquaponics as both a small business and personal food production method.

As you may know, two of the most publicized aquaponics businesses are Growing Power and Sweet Water Organics in Milwaukee. Growing Power also has a facility in Chicago called Iron Street Farm.

Stay tuned. The veggies are growing and the fish are swimming close by.