Inside Urban Green

Update on Nikki Counts Sub-irrigated Rain Gutter Garden

The update on the sub-irrigated rain gutter garden is at about the 2-minute mark. Nikki Counts tells us that temperatures have gone as high as 106 degrees. Think about maintaining a garden like this without sub-irrigation. It is a testimony to her sub-irrigated rain gutter system that the plants are doing so well. 

If you are new to sub-irrigation, know that the key to success with sub-irrigation is the water & oxygen reservoir system under the plants. The unique aspect of the rain gutter system is the fact that the reservoir is external to the planters rather then internal and provides auto-irrigation to all of the planters.

This is a very creative idea from Larry Hall in Minnesota. It is a major contribution to the field of sub-irrigated planter systems and has stimulated other gardeners to create variations of the system. You can see the evidence of this on the rain gutter garden Facebook group.

via Nikki Counts www.youtube.com
Prior post about her garden

A 30-Day Old Rain Gutter Garden On a Deck Produces Amazing Results

The vast majority of rain gutter gardens (and other sub-irrigated gardens for that matter) are not in the city where they are most needed. They are in the suburbs and the country. This sub-irrigated rain gutter garden is on a deck attached to a house with a large yard. It looks to be in the country. In any case, the garden is of above average health and does not require a green thumb. Anyone can do it.

This garden could be on a balcony, rooftop or in a row house yard in any city in America. Why aren't sub-irrigated gardens of all types more widely seen in the city? If you have read this blog for a while, you probably know that I believe the cause is our shamefully retarded urban horticulture education. What is your opinion? 

via www.youtube.com 

Facebook Group » Sub-irrigated Rain Gutter Gardens

Larry Hall, inventor of the sub-irrigated rain gutter garden, started a Facebook group. What a great idea!

The group is attracting a wide range of gardeners who obviously enjoy fresh produce as well as thinking out of the box. None of us has a monopoly on creative ideas. The synergy of open-minded people working together elevates the level of new thinking to heights that are difficult for one mind to create alone.

Larry has done us all a public service by making his rain gutter garden idea open source and just as important providing a communication channel for it to evolve into new personal food growing methods yet to be imagined.

I learn something new every time I scan through the photos and read the comments.

via www.facebook.com

An Edible Garden of Eden in the California Desert

If this looks to you like a mirage (or a Photoshopped photo) you're not alone. I could hardly believe my eyes when I opened the following video of a sub-irrigated rain gutter garden. Well, it's not a mirage and this "edible Garden of Eden" is located somewhere in the California desert. It looks a bit like a lunar landscape.

If you're wondering about the structure, it makes the garden safe from desert animals. Wait until you see what's inside. I'm sure the local animals salivate when they see the green feast beyond their reach.

It baffles me that all of the rain gutter SIP gardens I've looked at are in the country or suburbs. I've seen none in the city where lush, productive gardens like this are precious assets. It seems that gardeners outside our cities are better able to think on their own and garden outside the box so to speak.

The only urban rain gutter garden I know of in NYC is the one we built on the PS 133 Urban Green Campus. If anyone has information about an urban sub-irrigated rain gutter garden please share it with us.

via www.youtube.com

This video does a good job of showing the piping and connections. As you will see, it is really quite simple.

via www.youtube.com

A Sub-irrigated Rain Gutter Garden Worth Crowing About

This video shows a sub-irrigated rain gutter garden set up by a gardner named Nikki Counts back in May of this year. The planters are recycled kitty litter buckets mounted on vinyl rain gutters following the creative idea of Larry Hall in Minnesota.

Now have a look at her garden in June. What a fabulous vegetable garden this is.

Note that Nikki has not installed float valves and tubing for auto-irrigation yet. She simply adds water to the rain gutters each morning with a hose.

via www.youtube.com

 

Cloth Wicks in Rain Gutter SIP Gardens

At PS 133 we used cloth wicks to convert existing planters to sub-irrigation on the rain gutter system. The material is polyester. It can be batting or felt. This material is sustainable. It will not rot.

Some people use cotton (ex. old t-shirts) to make sub-irrigation wicks. I would not recommend it. Cotton will decompose fairly quickly and render the SIP useless.

The wick is a critical component of a sub-irrigated planter (SIP). Why risk it not working to save a few cents?

Rain Gutter Gardens Update

This is the latest update of the sub-irrigated rain gutter garden on a boat dock in Nashville. It belongs to Larry Hall's brother Steve. This could be anyone's deck, patio, rooftop or back yard garden.

It is also an ideal method for making school gardens on paved surfaces. Following are work-in-progress photos of the rain gutter garden we are building at PS 133 here in Brooklyn. The garden project is coordinated by Frieda Lim of Slippery Slope Farm in Gowanus.

This application of the rain gutter system is to support the installation of existing planters with traditional drain holes.  There is a polyester fabric wick installed through the drain hole of each planter. It wicks water from the rain gutter reservoir below. Float valves will be installed to automate the irrigation of the planters. There will also likely be a rainwater harvesting system attached to one of the building's rain gutters.

Note that this two-track rain gutter system accomodates very large planters. There are also window boxes installed between them. The ultimate planting design is yet to be finalized. This photo will at least give you an idea of the basic planting configuration.

Stay tuned. There is much more to this garden and there will soon be many more photos to see as I upload them to Flickr.

via www.youtube.com

Sherri's Rain Gutter Garden

Sherri did a nice job of posting her first video showing the set up of her Larry Hall rain gutter garden. Hopefully she will post more videos so that we can see the progress of her starter plants over the summer. We of course expect big things.

via www.youtube.com

A Rain Gutter Garden is Coming to Brooklyn This Week

This is an update of an obviously productive sub-irrigated rain gutter garden installed on a boat dock.

Later this week there will be a small rain gutter garden at PS 133 here in Brooklyn. It will be part of a school garden that will include 69 tote box sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) and the beta test of 3 vertical gardens modeled after African sack gardens, but made from trash containers.

No paved surfaces will be broken to create this garden. It will grow on concrete and replace some existing top-watered raised beds that did not work very well.

Highly productive gardens like this could be in the yards of hundreds and hundreds of schools and row houses all across New York City and beyond. There is no need for digging into often-contaminated city soils.

All it takes to create gardens like this is the knowledge of how to do it and a modest amount of funding. In the case of schools, it could be crowd sourced funding

via www.youtube.com

Water Roots in the Rain Gutter SIP Garden

This is a view inside the rain gutter of a sub-irrigated rain gutter system. It shows the bottom of the planter with the mesh pot wick and roots growing from it. 

These roots are "water roots" and are perfectly at home in water. The key to their health is that there is an abundant supply of oxygen. Because of this, there is no root rot or anaerobic condition. 

It is also true that if these roots die from drying out, it will be no problem for the plant to grow new roots. What is not apparent is the healthy, robust root system up inside the planter. 

Root growth like this is also alarming to many people who believe that plant roots do not like light. This is false. It is horticultural mythology. 

What most people who call these sub-irrigation systems "self-watering" do not understand is that this is a simplified form of hydroponics. Unlike most hydroponic systems however, there is no need for an electric powered oxygen pump.

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