Bravo Chicago! Way to go! It warms my heart to see this visionary project. These look like the same aeroponics towers that created the spectacular rooftop garden atop the Bell, Book & Candle Restaurant in Manhattan. We will see many more of these highly productive vertical gardens in the future.
Many thanks to Seedstock.com for making my day. It's a great "get" by a very cool website.
On September 16, 2011, Rosemarie S. Andolino, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) (left) and Elie W. Maalouf, President and CEO, HMSHost cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the O’Hare Urban Garden, a unique, environmentally-friendly aeroponic garden located in the mezzanine level of Terminal 3, G Concourse. The new 928-square-foot aeroponic garden is a joint effort between the CDA and HMSHost, a world leader in travel dining and shopping. The vegetables harvested from the garden will be used at HMSHost’s O’Hare restaurants and include sweet basil, cilantro, Bibb lettuce and habanero peppers.
If I were going to create a vertical garden, this is the way I would do it. These planters are not sub-irrigated but they should be.
Picture these sub-irrigated window boxes on the steps of this easy to build frame. The productivity of a vertical garden like this would be awesome. It could be the mother of all salad bar gardens.
Without a wall to lean on, it would need to be built as an A-frame. Then there could be sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) on both sides of the A.
Sun orientation and crop selection would be important factors, but this is an idea just waiting to happen.
If you have not yet discovered Patrick Blanc and his work, this video is a good introduction. As an interior plantscaping professional, I am in awe of his plantscaping creativity. The man with green hair is truly a botanical genius and pathfinder. He has led the way into a completely new age of green walls, vertical gardens and urban greenscaping. Prior posts.
Click on the link above and you can zoom around this high-res photo of the Gold award winning B&Q garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. The garden is such a great melding of horticultural tradition and modernity. Oh, how I wish that I could have attended this fantastic show.
All of the plants produce edibles. The tower uses hydroponics. The structure to the left of the tower is the "insect hotel". Watch a video of school children constructing the individual "rooms" for the insects. If you sit at the glass dining table in front of the tower, you will see fish (tilapia) swimming below. Would you like fresh fish and salad for dinner?
The Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) sponsored Chelsea Flower Show opened yesterday. Of course, there are those who think otherwise but in my view, it is the mother of all flower shows. I look forward to attending next year on new knees.
The show is open all this week and sold out this year at the earliest date in its history. The Queen visited last evening and my favorite actress Dame Helen MIrren (aka Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison) attended the opening. A highlight was having a carnivorous, Nepenthes “Helen” named for her. That is quite amusing, but so is Dame Nepenthes Helen.
The star of the show for me is the B&Q futuristic high-rise vertical garden tower. Everything is growing hydroponically and all plants are edible. B&Q is the orange-aproned UK version of Home Depot. It seems to have “personality” that Home Depot used to have but lost along the way, as it grew too big too fast.
There is a ton of information on the web about the Chelsea Flower show and the B&Q tower garden. One of my favorites of the many YouTube videos is the one following that features students building the “insect hotels” that are a part of the B&Q garden. The young leading lady is definitely comfortable on camera.
It is most refreshing to see innovation like this. What a great commercial application of Patrick Blanc's incredible green wall art. It was nice to hear homage paid to him. The founding partners of Plants on Walls in San Francisco have created an innovative business. I look forward to visiting them one day.
In my view, the fabric pocket method is the best of the entire array of vertical growing methods I have seen. It is very plant friendly and has an "organic" sensibility. It emulates natural environments that I have seen when trekking though tropical rainforests.
The world of gardening seems to have discovered a new spatial dimension. If so, does the world really need another plastic vertical garden that does not address water and light?
What has Patrick Blanc the Magellen of vertical gardens spawned?
The video was shot this past December. The FARM:shop is now open and apparently thriving.
It appears that there may be lighting issues regarding the nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics wall system and the indoor plant vertical garden in the stairwell. Time will tell as it always does when growing plants inside buildings. Light is the limiting factor. The best thing to do is to measure the light with a light meter before planting.
Also note that there are no solid media (artificial soil) based sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). In my view that is a significant omission in what I view as a very progressive urban food production project.
EarthBox has jumped on the vertical gardening bandwagon with its new MiniGarden.
Note that this is not sub-irrigated ("self-watering"). They say that it is "self-draining". Golly, gee whiz, how unique.
In my opinion EarthBox has diluted its brand by offering a non-sub-irrigated planter like this. It lists for $60 and I wonder if some people will think it is sub-irrigated. The market will soon tell us.
Your solution to successful vertical gardening is here! Characterized by its simplicity, the MiniGarden is an innovative system of modules that allows the growing of aromatic herbs, strawberries, greens, and ornamental flowers in a vertical structure. This unit can be installed indoors for green walls or kitchen use, or outside on patios, porches, decks, rooftops, outdoor kitchens, and around fencing or windows. The MiniGarden is free-standing and self-draining. It can be connected vertically, horizontally, back-to-back, or any number of ways with its unique and functional design. Holes in the assembly clips allow the unit to be attached to a wall with washers and screws (not included).
It has been most surprising that the ABC TV coverage of the aeroponic tower gardens atop the Bell Book & Candle restaurant in lower Manhattan did not get much coverage by the blogosphere.
CNN, however, thought it important enough to cover the story with a video that The Huffington Post picked up and now I have also.
Though the price at $500 per tower is high as a consumer product, the technology appears to have awesome potential for urban personal food production. Do not let price cloud your opinion. It will come down as manufacturing volume increases and competition arrives.
Incidentally, I previously referred to them as hydroponic gardens in error. The manufacturer calls them aeroponic. I have corrected prior posts. Perhaps it would be easier to simply call them "personal food producing machines".
