Category — Small Space

Madam Angel Liew grew up in a traditional Hakka family that believes in serving lei cha as a sign of love and abundance. Now, she continues her family’s tradition by making lei cha with herbs and vegetables grown in her community garden.

By Rachel Quek
Straits Times
Jan 9, 2020

Excerpt:

Now, Madam Liew makes her mother’s lei cha using vegetables and herbs grown in her community garden. She has been volunteering at the Moulmein-Goldhill community garden for more than 10 years, tending to over 80 types of herbs, vegetables and ornamental flower plants.

When Madam Liew wants to make lei cha, she will plant vegetables such as chye sim, kailan, mustard green and sayur manis three weeks in advance before inviting her family and friends over for a meal.

Photo: Kathleen Duncan, The Chronicle.

Jamie Chan and her husband Blas Herrera have an urban farm in their backyard where they grow their own food, raise chickens and harvest honey from their beehives.

By Kat Duncan
San Francisco Examiner
June 18, 2017

Excerpt:

Later that morning, students streamed eagerly into the homestead to learn about growing their own food, raising chickens, harvesting honey and even got their hands a bit dirty. They potted small plants to take home with them, hugged chickens, and asked questions about homesteading within city spaces.

“The bigger benefits of urban gardening of any kind, in a container or in the ground, is that it can build community and send a message to people about what we value,” Chan said. “We can become ecological stewards in this new generation of concrete and landfills.”

[Read more →]

The GrOwING GREEN mobile greenhouse is ready for delivery to Butler University.

Funded by a Butler University Innovation Fund Grant, the $50,000 greenhouse prototype was created because of a building code issue.

Excerpt:

The powder-coated steel tube frame is wrapped with a 2×2 fiberglass furring system. The skin a is double-wall polycarbonate panel. Windows are operational, connected to heat-sensitive sensors that require zero energy.

The unit does feature heating and air-conditioning. Fans operate on a thermostat. The greenhouse “plugs into an exterior port like an RV would,” Gray details, expressing measured concern about the power cost. “Butler provides the power, and because it’s an educational project, it’s not our primary concern. The requirement of growing year-round trumps efficiency.”

[Read more →]

Kickstarter drive begins

By Replantable
Aug. 22, 2016

From January 2016 until just a few weeks ago, 30 nanofarms have been put through their paces in the homes of our beta testers. Each beta tester has had the chance to harvest between 2-4 crops of produce, and they are very happy with the results.

While the beta testers agree the nanofarm does a great job growing food, they had lots of helpful criticism that led to the added features you see in the production model:

[Read more →]

According to Sharon Slack, head gardener at City Farmer: ‘It’s not about how much money I can save, but how much food I can grow.’ Photograph by: Jason Payne , PRV. Click on image for larger file.

Time to dig and plant as prices of imported produce stay sky high Now’s the time to start that backyard garden

By Kent Spencer
The Province
February 25, 2016

Excerpt:

Sharon Slack, head gardener at City Farmer, has never counted the savings during 50 years’ endeavours at her Dunbar garden.

“It’s not about how much money I can save, but how much food I can grow,” she said.

“You can never know about cost savings because every year is different — the weather, the bugs and the amount of time you can devote to it,” she said.

[Read more →]

Urban Agriculture with Job Ebenezer – part 1

Wading Pool Gardens

The president (Dr. Job Ebenezer) of the organization, Technology for the Poor, explains his vision for the spread of urban agriculture.

In 1993, Dr. Job Ebenezer, former Director of Environmental Stewardship and Hunger Education at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) established a container garden on the roof of the parking garage of the ELCA offices in Chicago. The hope was that the roof top garden would serve as a role model for creative use of urban space throughout the country. Dr. Ebenezer proved the feasibility of growing vegetables in plastic wading pools, used tires and feed sacks.

[Read more →]

One man’s parking garage is the same man’s garden — where he’s proving it’s possible to grow a significant portion of his own food at home, even in a San Francisco apartment building!

By Jon Brooks
Tonic.com
August 4, 2010

Excerpt:

It started three years ago with a single tomato plant. Today, he and his wife Ellen estimate that they grow 25-30 percent of their total food intake. Current crops include tomatoes, peas, blackberries, raspberries, basil, carrots, mushrooms and several types of lettuce, almost all cultivated in nine half-barrels of soil, tucked away in a corner of their San Francisco apartment’s parking garage. He is also growing sprouts in a couple of jars on his kitchen table.

[Read more →]