Inside Urban Green

Portable Micro Gardens (SIPs) From Recyclables

Here is a portable micro garden (aka sub-irrigated planter - SIP) made from recycled plastics installed in a mortar box.

The same method works in any watertight container including a traditional raised bed lined with sheet plastic. It is a universal method. 

This is one sure way to avoid the hazard of often-contaminated city soil. The bonus is increased productivity in the range of 50% more vegetables per square foot vs. in-ground growing while saving up to 90% of the water.

The recycled plastic containers create water and oxygen reservoirs. The front row is an inverted nursery flat, the second is a row of strawberry containers and the third (blue containers) held mushrooms. Note that there are aeration holes drilled (or use a hot poker) in the tops of the reservoirs.

The fill tube (upper left) is a water bottle with the bottom cut off. Note that there is no need for connection pipes between the reservoirs. The bottom of the planter acts as the connection "pipe". Water will flow and fill each reservoir.

The soil in the spaces between the recycled containers forms a wicking system. The photo shows the planter only partially filled for demonstration purposes. It is now ready for filling to the top with soil mix and planting of either seeds or starter plants.

Alberta, Canada » Earthbox Kids Project

These kids in Alberta will learn a lot more about growing plants and producing food with their EarthBoxes than if they grow in traditional in-ground gardening.

Thanks to a lack of leadership and education here in NYC we have well-intentioned school principals and parents who think they need to dig up school yards to have a kids garden. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Read the following article and you will see that Alberta gets it. They started over 12 EarthBox type portable school micro gardens (aka sub-irrigated planters -SIPs) last year and are adding 30 more gardens this year.

These portable and productive gardens can be used outdoors and indoors the year-round regardless of weather. They will produce more food per square foot than in-ground gardens, save water and teach plant science up-close and personal.

What is your school doing this year? Jack-hammer, roto-tiller or a smart and portable kids garden?

via gfsa.wordpress.com

In 2009 Alberta Agriculture with Growing Forward funds started the EarthBox® Kids project. An EarthBox® is a scientifically engineered gardening kit which comes with a specialized aeration screen and watering system allowing for excellent yields with less water, less fertilizer and less work. This system works perfect for the school setting for both outdoor and indoor growing.

Science Daily » Health Benefits of Eating Tomatoes Emerge

GrowBox customer submitted photo

More kids in America could be eating fresh tomatoes off the vine if we had better education and leadership about modern methods of growing food in the city.

These tomatoes grew in a Garden Patch GrowBox sub-irrigated planter last summer. I'm sure they will again this coming growing season. He is fortunate to be the child of progressive parents.

website: Garden Patch GrowBox
via www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2011) — Eating more tomatoes and tomato products can make people healthier and decrease the risk of conditions such as cancer, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, according to a review article the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (published by SAGE).

Vegetable Garden Guide » Step One Should Be To Test For Soil Contamination

This is one of many examples of vegetable gardening guides on the Internet that fail to address modern day urban gardening issues, such as soil contamination, water conservation and higher productivity on scarce urban land.

Simply look to the left and you will see how out of date the information is in this guide published by the U of Illinois Extension Program. 

The first and most important step in any vegetable gardening guide should be to have the soil tested for toxic metals contamination. It is a matter of personal safety.

There is no mention of soil contamination in this guide, only a recommendation to have a soil test for its nutritional characteristics. This type of testing does not address the very real threat of toxic metals poisoning.

The guide also fails to include anything about sub-irrigation, portable micro gardens or any other modern method of growing food in the city. All it offers is the same old tired dirt gardening advice that was modern only in a prior century.

Stay tuned for future posts of similar nature about horticultural and foodie organizations that are derelict in their duty to inform the public about the realities of growing food in the city.

See prior post A Dirty Secret of Urban Gardening

via web.extension .illinois.edu

Ten Steps to a Successful Garden

Growing Baby Vegetables in EarthBoxes

Photo by tobo on Flickr

Following below is a trendy idea from the EarthBox newsletter.

Without question you will grow more vegetable babies per square foot in sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) like the EarthBox than you will in the ground.

Additional bonuses are that you will save water and know that your veggies are not contaminated with lead or any other toxic substance. We are going to give this idea a go at CuGreen at The Commons this season.

via: EarthBox newsletter

A Chicago Rooftop Grower Is Now a Driveway Grower

It is good to see that Russ Cheatham, one of the original Green Roof Growers in Chicago is still doing such a good job of growing fresh vegetables in EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). The only difference is that he is now growing on concrete.

It matters not when you are growing in SIPs. All you need is enough sun and water. You never need to worry about the hard work of turning over the soil and whether it is contaminated with lead or arsenic. SIPs are hygienic and can be organic from day one.

The quality of the plants in these photos tells you instantly that Russ knows what he is doing.

via forum.earthbox.com

CNN Eatocracy Blog: Fresh Vegetables On A Hotel Roof High Above Manhattan

This is an interesting comparison to the tower aeroponics garden atop the Bell Book and Candle restaurant in lower Manhattan. It is a vegetable garden on the roof of the Gramercy Park Hotel not far away from the restaurant.

I salute the creativity of the chefs in finding watertight vessels to repurpose into planters. It is also commendable that they are harvesting rainwater in repurposed barrels and are composting. Creative recycling definitely gets my attention. It is challenging and fun to make silk purses out of sows ears.

Unfortunately, here is where it goes wrong (minute 2:42). Thanks to our out of date education system, the method most publicized is micro-irrigation, or drip irrigation. You can see a stream of water directed on the plants. Does it remind you of a human activity? It is an apt metaphor. 

This emitter system works better than a watering can but a sub-irrigation system would be vastly superior. With all the time and effort put into this project it is unfortunate that there is not an auto-irrigation system feeding water into the reservoirs of sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs).

The results would be greater productivity (in the range of +50%) while conserving 80-90% of the precious water they are harvesting. I will contact the hotel and offer my services. With minimal cost and labor, we could easily convert these planters to sub-irrigation before the next growing season.

Frieda Lim and I are working on doing the same thing with another rooftop garden here in Brooklyn. The planters are recycled beer kegs now top watered and to be converted to SIPs. We are using flexible corrugated drain pipe for the reservoirs. Stay tuned!

via eatocracy.cnn.com

"Kevin, wake up! We have a radish."

As the Gramercy Park Hotel's rooftop vegetables were first coming into flower, its three principal gardeners made no bones about delivering midnight progress reports on their crop. A lot can go wrong for novices on standard terrain - let alone those attempting to cultivate lovage, patty pan squash and chiogga beets many stories above the streets of Manhattan - so the trio make a point of sharing their triumphs as well as the losses.

NYTimes.com: Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries

Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times

The NY Times reports that kids are still not eating vegetables. Teaching children at a very early age about the use of modern technology-based, personal vegetable production systems might help. It is worth trying.

I had a candy addiction as a young child. Fresh picked vegetables were just like candy. I ate them because they were sweet and tasted good, not because they were nutritious and good for me.

Handing shovels to digital age, mobile phone using kids and telling them to dig dirt is pure folly. In my view, that idea is as dumb as dirt.

via www.nytimes.com

The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans.

On the East Side of Manhattan, crates of heirloom vegetables with names like Lady Godiva squash were auctioned for $1,000 each at Sotheby’s, where the wealthy are more accustomed to bidding on Warhols and Picassos than turnips and tomatoes.

Professional Panel Discusses Urban Agriculture At NYU

People packed into this room at NYU because they were eager to hear the opinions of a select panel of urban agriculture professionals this past Tuesday evening. You can read more about who they were and what they said in the following Red Rooster Group report. The session was moderated by Daniel Bowman Simon, People's Garden NYC, produced by the Sustainability Practice Network (SPN) and co-hosted by the NYU Stern - Social Enterprise Association (SEA).

In the Q&A session, there was an opportunity to poll the audience by show of hands. I asked who of them were familiar with sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs), micro gardens and simplified hydroponics. The response was less than 10% of the audience to all three questions.

It was most revealing to once again experience how little the subject of modern methods of personal food production are known in our society. The USDA fog machine (and others) have done a most effective job of keeping the focus on traditional dirt farming methods that are clearly less appropriate for personal use in city neighborhoods.

Simple-to-use personal food growing systems are safe, highly productive, produce no run-off and conserve water. 

These systems avoid growing in often-contaminated city soil and produce in the range of 50% more produce per square foot while saving 80-90% of the water used in overhead irrigation.

People can grow on concrete, on balconies and rooftops. Space in the sun for a micro garden system is all they need. Unlike dirt gardens, micro gardens or micro farms can be certified organic from day one. 

There is no need for time-strapped people to have to travel to a dirt garden to grow some fresh food. These gardens are fine for people who have the time and motivation to garden in a group but they should not be the sole option.

There is no reason for people holding two jobs to water plants two times a day during the heat of the summer. Dirt gardening as the norm makes little sense in the city. If we really want to reduce obesity and hunger, we need to live in the modern world and use some very simple but highly productive technology. The only thing holding us back is lack of education. 

via redroostergroup.com

Will urban gardens save America? This lofty topic was taken on tonight by a panel of experts representing different aspects of the urban agriculture movement that provided an interesting overview of the issue.

Teaching kids to eat dandelion leaves, ensuring capital for commercially-scalable urban agricultural projects, and the impracticality of rooftop gardens were theme that punctuated the diverse conversation in an exploration of how we grow our food

 

Larger Size Salad Bar SIP

Lowe's also had this larger mortar box that would also make a very functional SIP. A tote box would be cheaper, but I like the black plastic and the shape. 

If you don't like the plastic, make a simple wood box frame and it will become a raised bed SIP. Use any recycled lumber of your choice. It won't be in contact with moist soil.

Several of these would make a cool raised bed garden on concrete or blacktop.

So many SIPs to make, so little time.

36"x24"x8" - 23 gallon capacity - 3.2 cu. ft. capacity - $12.48

These are the dimensions of the smaller one (Fire Escape Salad Bar).

26"x20"x6" - 9 gallon capacity - 1.3 cu. ft. capacity - $5.24