Inside Urban Green International

An Extension Program Gardening Guide That Ignores Modernity

Following is one of many examples demonstrating the failure of the USDA/Land Grant University Extension Program to provide consumers with up to date information about growing local food. See prior post.

A gardening article in a Canton, Illinois paper written by an Extension educator links to this Watch Your Garden Grow guide. The authors are Extension educators, one from Cook County including Chicago.

It is significant to note that the tutorial contains no usable information about sub-irrigation or any other modern method of growing local food. The ludicrous assumption appears to be that the word garden is synonymous with dirt or drain holes.

Following below is what the guide has to say about container gardening. Note the reference to "the earthbox". EarthBox, of course, is a trade name not a generic name.

Sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) like the EarthBox are self-contained. There is no water wasted due to drainage. Note what the tutorial has to say about drainage.

"All containers, whether plastic or clay must have drainage."

"Containers with no drainage will cause your vegetables to develop root rot."

I see statements like this in Extension guides all the time. It is factually incorrect. Anyone who knows about SIPs can easily prove it.

Those who grow in SIPs know that they produce very healthy plants free of root rot. If anything, they prevent root due to the combination water and oxygen reservoir.

What is particularly deplorable is that one of the authors is deeply involved in the use of SIPs at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It is one of the finest examples of hardscaped urban gardening in the country. There are more than 70 EarthBox type SIPs on the granite steps of the museum as well as the upper deck of the Smart Home exhibit.

Why isn't valuable information like this included in this gardening guide and many other Extension guides? This major question continues to go unanswered by the Extension program. The public deserves better.

via urbanext.illinois.edu

Containers

If you don't have space in your backyard or only have access to a sunny balcony or patio, you can still grow vegetables in containers. A container for vegetables can be as simple as a bushel basket lined with plastic, a hanging basket or a self contained growing unit like the earthbox.

All containers, whether plastic or clay must have drainage. Soil in containers will dry out quickly, so frequent watering is necessary. Containers with no drainage will cause your vegetables to develop root rot. Use a sterilized, soil less mix for your container garden. Soilless mixes are light and contain some organic matter. Fertilize with a slow-release vegetable garden fertilizer that is applied in the spring and will provide nutrients for your veggies throughout the growing season. Read more...

Chicago » A Spectacular Urban Garden Growing on Granite Steps

Much like looking at a Patrick Blanc green wall in utter amazement, it is  hard to believe that this beautiful edible garden grows on the granite steps of a museum in Chicago, but it does. See a glimpse of the steps in the upper right. Read on.

Unbelievably, this urban garden is growing on the hard granite steps of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The obviously healthy plants are thriving in self-contained portable micro gardens called EarthBoxes. The people of Chicago can thank the UN organization called The Growing Connection (TGC) for donating them. If not for TGC they would not be there.

An added benefit is that local University of Illinois extension program Master Gardeners have adopted the EarthBoxes. They have become believers and that helps significantly in spreading the word to other Chicagoans. Incidentally, the photo above is from the Cook County Master Gardeners Flickr account. There are many more photo sets showing the wonders of their work. 

The museum is also the site of the 21st century Smart Home that includes an upper deck portable micro garden featuring EarthBoxes.

Super productive portable micro gardens like this could be producing fresh vegetables all over New York and other cities but they are not at this time due primarily to a lack of public information. We can thank a very small, but highly vocal, dirt gardening population led largely by neo-hippie counter culturists for that. Many of them hold the ideological belief that dirt is the one and only way to grow food in the city.

They not only ignore modernity, they ignore the fact that contaminated soil is widespread in many neighborhoods, particularly those of lower income minorities. Failure of city horticultural, foodie and botanical institutions to warn people of this potential health hazard, particularly for children, borders on the criminal. It is the dirty secret of so-called “urban agriculture”.

This too shall pass. Mainstream New Yorkers may not know much about horticulture but they are not stupid. Before too long the word will spread that there are modern, safe methods of personal food production that are not dependent on scarce and expensive tillable city land. New Yorkers will learn that portable micro gardens will grow food safely on concrete, blacktop and even granite if located in the sun.

City dwellers across the country will eventually discover what so many have already learned. One does not need a green thumb or self-identify as a gardener, agrarian or farmer to grow and eat fresh vegetables in the city. Everyone can be a true “locovore” and gain his or her own personal food security. Is there any better “food justice”?

Lao Tzu - "Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime"

Chicago » Museum of Science and Industry Smart Home Reopens on Earth Day

Smart Home, smart portable micro gardens, smarter kids, smart city.

via www.msichicago.org

Chicago's "Greenest Home" will reopen on Earth Day—April 22, 2011—with new gadgets and inventive ways to live green!

See the home that has shown more than 200,000 guests some ways, big and small, to make eco-friendly living a part of their lives. The Smart Home, a fully-functioning, eco-friendly home on the Museum’s grounds, is a must-see exhibit for anyone who wants their home, and life, to be smarter, more efficient and more in tune with the environment than it is today.

Smart Corn At The Smart Home

This is a view from the entrance to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It is the site of the Smart Home, now in its third season. Think the corn is growing in the ground? Guess again.

It is probably difficult for most dirt gardeners to believe that this corn is growing in a sub-irrigated planter (SIP) called an EarthBox that is only 29" long, 13.5" wide and 11" high.

Incidentally, you can see more smart EarthBox SIPs on the roof-top deck of the Smart Home in the distance. They have the potential to help make all homes a lot smarter.

It has been a pleasant surprise to an ever growing community of dirt gardeners to discover that SIP's can out-produce in-ground gardening. It’s true and you can easily prove it to yourself, no green thumb required.

Baskets Of Fresh Food For Kids In The City

These Chicago school kids and a mom are going to enjoy a bounty of fresh greens from a city farm of an unusual kind.

Have a look at the photos below and see where it came from. EarthBoxes are growing fresh food on the cold granite steps of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry entrance. Does this look like a farm? Well it is.

If our education system was working we would have many more sub-irrigated planter (SIP) farms and gardens like this in cities across the country.

In my view, the fact that we don't have them is a national disgrace. Part of the reason is here.

More photos follow.

Lack of Modern Urban Food Production Information: Extension Program Policy or Ignorance?

Why is this such an under publicized story?

This is definitely my favorite photo of the urban greenscaping movement. What a great shot. The backdrop of this wonderful outdoor urban theater includes the Smart Home and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Are there any more important words for the future of America than smart, home, science and industry? Let's add two more critically important words that are also a part of this picture, education and youth.

The onstage performers are Cook County Illinois Master Gardeners. The audience sitting on entrance steps to the museum is composed of students. The steps are home to the "EarthBox Smart Garden”. 

What a complete story in only one photo. There's just one problem and it's a big one. We are not replicating this story across the country or even in Chicago. Someone should answer why this is. There are really just two possible answers, ignorance or unpublicized policy on the part of the Extension Program. Of course, neither of these is acceptable. 

It is significant to know at the outset that the UN donated the EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). Why are we in need of UN aid to do the right thing?

What is even more disturbing is that the local extension program is essentially mute on the subject of these modern methods. Unbelievably they appear to be stuck in a bygone drain hole age. 

Following are links to recent Chicago Extension Program web sites on the subject of edible container gardening. A local extension program educator wrote each of them (one of them is heavily involved in the Smart Home EarthBox garden).

Each of them somehow manages to ignore the reality of the very successful Smart Home SIP garden. Read for yourself.

Tips For Great Looking Container Gardens  - University of Illinois Extension - There Is no mention of “self-watering” planters, sub-irrigation (SIPs) or EarthBoxes, only the usual and tired drainage admoniton.

Watch Your Garden Grow – University of Illinois Extension – There is an easy-to-overlook mention of the earthbox (lower case) that links nowhere. It's close to the "must have drainage" dumbness. Without explanatory information it might just as well not be there. Few readers would even notice. See if you can find it. I found it only by using a search feature. 

We all need to speak up about out-of-date horticultural information paid for by taxpayers. This is particularly true in light of the current campaign to fight obesity, improve nutrition, produce more local food and a perceived need for expensive in-ground school gardens. As is often said, “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." This one appears to be stuck in the dirt. 

The Smart Home Will Get a Smart Master Gardener Garage

According to a Ron Wolford Tweet, Brian Corsetti, aka Garage Mahal of the DIY Network is going to remodel the Smart Home garage into a Master Gardener work space. Very cool! They deserve it. When I get new knees, I'll be there!

From a drive-in movie theater complete with flat-screen TVs to a Vegas-style casino that descends from the ceiling, DIY Network's Garage Mahal takes tricking out your garage to a new level. With a little ingenuity, expert host Brian Corsetti transforms everyday garages into unusual, jaw-dropping spaces.

via www.diynetwork.com

Help Put a Dent in Diabetes: Start Here!

Thanks to Extension Program Educator Ron Wolford and a group of Chicago Master Gardeners, these kids from the Bret Harte school have just experienced the joy of harvesting their own fresh vegetables. 

The vegetables were grown in EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) on the steps of the Museum of Science and Industry, site of the Smart Home.

Why aren't we doing this all over the country to help fight our national problem of obesity and diabetes? The problem isn't money. It is an educational problem pure and simple.

Source:Cook County Master Gardeners at Museum of Science

Modern Age Urban Gardening: These Kids, Parents And Teachers Get It!

Thanks to Extension Program Educator Ron Wolford and a group of Chicago Master Gardeners, kids from the Bret Harte School learned that there is more to urban food production than pulling a hoe or stepping on a spade.

And The EarthBoxes Are Settled Down For A Long Winter's Nap

TweetPhotos courtesy of Ron Wolford, U of IL Cooperative Extension

The EarthBoxes in winter storage at the Museum of Science and Industry Smart Home in Chicago may be asleep but these brains are wide awake and alert planning the 2010 garden. Go Smart Home green team!