garden

Super Container Gardens

- Adam Clare

Treehugger has a neat post up on some, I guess, extreme container gardening. Check out the video from the link below, in the meantime here’s a snippit from the article:

Emma has already shown us some beautiful edible container gardens, courtesy of our readers; we’ve seen a gorgeous urban orchard complete with a repurposed dumpster/ping pong table, not to mention an under-used train station turned into a community gardening hub. But the Prinzessinengarten in the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg might just be one of the most creative examples of using reclaimed and salvaged materials to build an urban oasis.

Check it out at Treehugger.

Roll-Out Garden

- Adam Clare

Starting a vegetable garden can be intimidating for some due to the tons of questions that one inevitable has to address. When should plants be planted? What if it’s a seed? How do I know when to pick them? These questions and more have been answered by a neat roll-out garden designed by Chris Chapman.

english designer chris chapman wanted to make planting vegetables and herbs at home less work with his roll-out vegetable mats. the design aims to make home food production as simple as possible and easy to maintain for busy individuals and families. the design features a mat pre-treated with fertilizer on its underside and a series of seed pouches which slowly biodegrade over time. this arrangements allows the plants to develop before coming in contact with nutrients, increasing the chances of germination. the mat is made from corrugated cardboard and come sin a variety of options each suited for different planting seasons. small signs designate which plant is where, making harvesting a breeze.

From Deisgnboom.

Thanks Shea!

A Permaculture Garden Pool

- Adam Clare

Permaculture is the idea of contained sustainable agriculture that requires no external inputs – all energy and required input is generated by the permaculture system. Some enterprising people have turned their backyard swimming pool into a permaculture setup that is based around aquaculture.

Watch the video for some neat views and an explanation of the system. You can also find out more from the garden pool website.

The garden pool combines:

solar power – harnessing and storing the sun’s energy
water conservation – using less water and recycling waste water
poultry farming – raising chickens
aquaculture – raising tilapia fish
hydroponic gardening – growing fruits, veggies, & herbs without soil
organic horticulture – using natural methods to control garden pests
aquaponics – the symbiotic cultivation of produce and fish in a recirculating hydroponic environment.
biofiltration – natural water filtration method using biochemistry and duckweed.

Greenest City in Toronto

- Adam Clare

Greenest City is a charity that grows organic food and helps educate the leaders of tomorrow in Parkdale, a community within Toronto. I’ve been to their HOPE garden and I have to say that it is very impressive and everything they’re growing looks delicious.

A Toronto blog took a close look at the organization:

Yonge Street’s videographer Rose Bianchini went to Parkdale to see what Greenest City is up to in that neigbourhood. Working in urban argriculture, “Greenest City is an award-winning charitable organization that grows local organic food, youth leaders and healthy, sustainable communities with a focus on Toronto’s Parkdale-High Park neighbourhood.”

Click here to go to the video.

Alternatives to a Lawn

- Adam Clare

Lawns require a lot of maintenance and a lot of energy (think water, pumping that water, fertilizer, transporting that fertilizer, and so on) and if you have the space to grow a lawn you have space to do a lot of better things with plants. If you don’t have a garden, or even if you do, here are some really cool alternatives for growing a lawn.

Reducing the size of your lawn can benefit the environment while saving you time, energy and expense. And the result need not be a loss in aesthetic appeal.

Groundcover

These are plants which spread across the ground but do not grow tall, so no cutting is required. Areas planted in groundcover need little to no maintenance. Groundcovers are usually chosen for texture, density and how well they spread and choke out the weeds. They enhance the soil by acting as a mulch, and some groundcovers are nitrogen-fixing.
…

Clover

Clover is often planted by gardeners as a soil conditioner. It grows quickly and easily, chokes out weeds and is easily ‘turned in’ to the beds when planting time draws near. The deep root system reduces soil compaction. Clover is also a nitrogen-fixing plant, which enriches the soil with natural fertilizer.

More information and more examples can be found here.

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