Posted on

Grow an indoor herb garden: easily, sustainably and veganically

The Joy of Growing Window Herbs Year-Round

Have you ever thought about growing your own indoor herbs? If you’re kitchen windowsill isn’t already crammed full of pots overflowing with leaves, then it should be!

The beauty of keeping a “windowsill herb garden” is that you can rely on a steady supply of leaves all through the year. When outdoor plants have died back or gone dormant over winter, your window herbs will keep happily ticking along.

The process of starting your own “kitchen herb garden” from seed is simple. The great thing is that many plants not normally found in garden centers are available to you. Scrumptious edibles like dark basil, chamomile, lovage and yarrow (to name a few) are all options. What about the magical, medieval plant mugwort? Or that favourite for making lozenges, horehound?

Old favourites like thyme and rosemary will also fare wonderfully indoors as long as they’re properly looked after. Energetic perennials like chives will continue to grow even when light levels dip in winter. So you can lightly harvest even through the darkest months.

All you need are some pots, a good potting mix and some plant feed. If you’re starting your seeds indoors, where there’s no risk of critters eating the young seedlings, you can sow directly into the pots.

Let several seeds germinate and keep the best after they’ve put on some growth, snipping off the others with a pair of scissors. During late spring, summer and early autumn, your plants will be grateful for a bi-monthly or monthly liquid feed. Use a balanced NPK fertilizer (nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium) and a micronutrient feed like liquid seaweed. Many of the problems with herbs are due to trace element deficiencies.

And that’s it! The infographic included below is a visual guide to the process. Remember not to overcomplicate things and don’t be afraid of killing the odd plant…they don’t mind too much.

Herb-Gardening-Infographic

Indoor herb gardening is growing in popularity by the day. Space-stretched city-dwellers, foodies, and even people with big gardens are filling their kitchen windowsills with potted herbs.

There are so many benefits and almost no drawbacks. It’s cheaper, tastier and also possible to grow unusual and forgotten plants…yarrow or lovage, anyone?

In this little guide, and with the help of my infographic below, I want to cover the main steps involved in growing a scrumptious indoor herb garden.

View the original post with infographic at “UrbanTurnip.org“

Posted on

Urban Farming 2.0: From Plow Beams to Leafy Green Machines

1043253_1_0725-URBANFARM2.0_standard

Shawn Cooney swings open the door of a 320-square-foot industrial shipping container to reveal a futuristic setting: hundreds of edible plants growing in vertical columns, fed by the energy from strings of neon red and blue LED lights. Nutrient-infused water cascades from ceiling spigots down through artificial root systems in the growing towers. The temperature inside feels like a comfortable spring day – about 70 degrees F., with a touch of humidity. There isn’t a speck of dirt anywhere.

Welcome to the new urban farm.

This shipping container is one of four that comprise Corner Stalk Farm run by Mr. Cooney and his wife in the heart of Boston. Once the cargo holds for exhaust-spewing 18-wheelers, these discarded freight vessels have been transformed into units known as Leafy Green Machines outfitted with state-of-the-art growing technology by a company called Freight Farms. Now they help farmers turn out crops of lettuce and herbs at a rapid pace.

Read the FULL Article CSMonitor.comat: “CSMonitor.com”

Posted on

Baltimore Farm-In-a-Box a Potential Catalyst in Urban Revitalization

bal-urban-pastoral-bs0056115130-20170808

This retrofitted ex-shipping container in a parking lot in Broadway East is hardly your grandfather’s farm. And in his skinny jeans, black sneakers and recycled-materials T-shirt, J.J. Reidy will remind no one of the guy with the pitchfork and overalls in Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.”

Reidy, 29, is the founder and CEO of Urban Pastoral Collective, a two-year-old business with a dual mission: to produce and sell fresh, whole foods in an urban setting and to help leverage the value of such foods into a movement that transforms the way Americans live and interact in cities.

Read the rest of this article at: “BaltimoreSun.com“

Posted on

Enter to WIN a FREE 1 Month Subscription to UOG’S Monthly Seed & Garden Club!


Posted on

Join UOG’s Monthly SEED & GARDEN Club!

🍉 Get Seeds & Garden Supplies Delivered Every Month – Fully Customized Around You! We are now preparing our members for Fall planting season! 👏 Visit: www.UrbanOrganicGardener.club

Subscriptions are only $9.99/month + s/h.

💧🌱💧 NOW AVAILABLE: Options for RAISED BEDS -&- CONTAINER GARDENS -&- TOWER GARDENS – & – HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS💧🌿💧

We’re making it easy for everyone to grow organic food all-year-round! 👍

Ready to sign-up or just learn more? Visit: www.UrbanOrganicGardener.club

Posted on

Disney Uses a Variety of Techniques to Grow Food Served In Their Restuarants

“Living with the Land (originally Listen to the Land) is a log flume tour ride located within The Land pavilion which is part of Epcot theme park in Walt Disney World Resort at Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It is a slow-moving boat ride, which is part dark ride and part greenhouse tour. The focus of the ride is on agriculture, especially new technology to make agriculture more efficient and environmentally friendly.” –Behind The Seeds

SAR_1090wdwjan2017

String Greenhouse (formerly the Production Greenhouse) – This greenhouse focuses on innovative high-density techniques, such as Nutrient film technique. It also shows off “vertical growing techniques”, in which plants are grown on specialized trellises which cause the herbaceous plants to approximate the shape and structure of trees.

One of the most famous examples of these trees is The Land’s “tomato tree”, which produced over 32,000 tomatoes in a 16-month period. It was recognized by Guinness World Records as both the largest and most productive tomato plant in the world. Other crops include eggplant, peppers, winged bean, lettuce and snake gourd. Furthermore, cucumbers and pumpkins are grown in the shape of Mickey Mouse through the use of special molds. Much of the produce grown in the String Greenhouse is used in The Garden Grill and Sunshine Seasons, both restaurants in The Land pavilion. In total, over 30 tons of produce are harvested from The Land each year.

SAR_1109wdwjan2017

 

SAR_1093wdwjan2017

Creative Greenhouse – The final greenhouse in the attraction shows some unusual ideas about the future of agriculture. Most of the plants in Creative House are grown via Aeroponics, in which a fine mist of water and nutrients is sprayed directly onto the roots of the plants. The roots dangle freely in the air, and are not hindered by any growing medium. Some of the plants’ roots in Creative House are enclosed within rotating columns and A-frame structures, while others are completely exposed to the open air, at least temporarily, so the entire plant may be viewed by the Guests on the boat ride. Creative House also features a small exhibit of NASA hydroponic growing units, which were developed for use on extended-length space journeys. Crops on display include tomato, squash, lettuce, basil, rosemary, cabbage, super-dwarf wheat, swiss chard, marigold and snapdragon.

SAR_1102wdwjan2017
Biotechnology Lab – Attached to the Creative Greenhouse, the Biotechnology Lab is a sterile research environment. Several USDA scientists are on-site at The Land, performing research on crop improvement. The Land also produces a product called “Mickey’s Mini Gardens” in the Biotechnology Lab, which are available for purchase in several locations in Epcot.” –Excerpt from Wiki

SAR_1117wdwjan2017

Posted on

37 Edibles You Can Grow Indoors In The Winter

indoor-vegetable-garden-940x582
Live in a colder climate? Worry that because of freezing temperatures outdoors that you may not be able to garden like your friends in warmer locations? That’s not the case! There are actually many options that you can choose from when it comes to gardening fruits, vegetables and herbs indoors. “If you want to find out which goodies you can grow in pots, read: Indoor Vegetable Gardening: 37 Edibles You Can Grow Indoors In The Winter.”


“As you can see, there are many vegetables that can be grown indoors during winter, or in all seasons if you don’t have a garden at all. Now, you only have to decide which veggies you want to grow.”

Read the FULL Article at: “LoyalGardener.com“

Posted on

Orange County Convention Center Launches Urban Garden

os-orange-co-convention-garden-20161110
Orange County is aiming for going more GREEN with a new local food sourcing program called the “Center-to-Table Gardens in the West Concourse”. The program which began in May, gives convention goers a chance to see where their food comes from, on-site.

 

“The farm, operated by Urban Smart Farms, includes 81 towers for growing lettuce, microgreens, herbs and the occasional tomato or pepper plant, all on full view along the concourse from the main parking lot. An opening reception for the gardens is set for this afternoon. There are about seven types of lettuce grown on-site and a variety of greens including chards, choi, mustard, celery and kale.”

To read the entire article, visit: “OrlandoSentinal.com“

Posted on

Target is Launching In-Store Vertical Farms for Fresh & Ultra Local Produce

target-vertical-indoor-farm-mit-open-ag-1580x530

“Consumers are increasingly demanding access to locally grown produce – even at big box stores. Target heard that call, and they’re answering by offering the freshest and most local produce a customer could possibly want—by installing vertical gardens to grow vegetables and herbs right inside stores. The effort will begin with a series of trials in Spring 2017 and, if successful, Target locations across the country could be growing crispy, leafy greens before you know it.”

To see the rest of this story, visit: “Inhabitant.com“

Posted on

Get Your “Cool-Season” Vegetable Garden Off To a Great Start – Join the NEW UOG, Monthly Seed & Garden Club TODAY!

uog-gif
Last Chance! Must join before November 4th if you’d like to receive a shipment this Month. Shipments go out November 5th. Get seeds & garden supplies delivered to you at just the right time of the year.

🌱Fully customized based on your grow zone – garden specs – sunlight – and more. Get your fall and winter garden off to a great start with a hand-selected, customized selection of seeds for your area and garden type.

🌿Join now: https://urbanorganicgardener.cratejoy.com/

🌱This is the easiest way to grow an organic garden all-year-round with totally raw un-treated GMO-FREE seeds. We will guide you and your family on your way to living a healthier and more self-sufficient lifestyle. Join UOG today and let’s grow something together.

Posted on

Urban Farming at Work in Tokyo

“In a country with very little arable land (only 12% compared with 20% in the US), in one of the most populated cities in the world, one company chose to give up 43,000 square feet of valuable workspace to grow food. In the Tokyo headquarters of human resources company Pasona Group they grow 200 species of fruits and vegetables and even rice that are harvested and served to employees.

The indoor urban farm doesn’t just provide food, but by mixing work space and farm space, the company tries to provide a healthier quality of life for employees. Here green isn’t just a window dressing: immediately upon entering the building you walk over a 1,000-square-foot rice paddy, continue through an okra field and you enter the vine-covered “tomato guest room” or the “vegetable factory” filled with hundreds of hydroponic heads of lettuce. On the second floor, fruit trees form partition walls between meeting spaces, bean sprouts are grown under benches and herbs grow on shelving along the walls.

Even the outside of the building is covered in plants helping keep the building cool in summer and warmer in winter. According to the farm’s designers Kono Designs, it is the largest and most direct farm-to-table of its kind ever realized inside an office building in Japan.

View the original article here: “https://faircompanies.com“

Posted on

Backyard Aeroponics: Self-Sustaining Farm In Wisconsin

“They knew they had to maximize greenhouse space so they decided to grow vertical and to grow differently. They experimented with hydroponics and finally settled on aeroponics. “So aeroponics is similar to hydroponics using water rather than soil, but it’s mist,” explains Benjamin. “It’s a mist that comes on inside the growing chamber, and it comes on every 3 minutes for 10 seconds, it’s a really high oxygen water that’s hitting that root. The method was actually developed and is being used by NASA because it uses so much less water and the speed of growth is much faster.”

Posted on

Vertical Farming: Growing Greens In The Air

20160912001388_0“Forget sunshine and soil to grow leafy greens and fresh vegetables for health-conscious consumers. A US venture firm is leading a new wave of future agriculture by adopting the latest technology to produce something fresher, safer and more environmentally conscious at the heart of urban spaces.”

Instead of growing food, traditionally with the use of pesticides and water, AeroFarms is producing greenhouse grown, quality, FRESH food all year round with the use of indoor vertical farming.

This company currently produces an incredible amount of edible greens, which are grown stacked vertically in rows that reach all the way to the ceiling of a temperature controlled environment. Nutrients and lighting are also closely monitored. They use “95 percent less water, about 50 percent less fertilizers and zero pesticides.”

To read the entire article, visit: “KoreaHerald.com“

Posted on

Vertical Farm Grows 65,000 Pounds Of Lettuce In Shipping Containers

local-roots

In Los Angeles, three farms are changing the face of urban farming. They don’t grow food outside, but rather inside of three small shipping containers.

“The startup uses vertical hydroponic farming, a method where plants grow year-round with LEDs rather than natural sunlight.  Instead of soil, the seeds lie on trays with nutrient-rich water, stacked from the floor to the ceilings inside the shipping containers. The containers live inside Local Roots’ warehouse in California.”

The farms are comprised of 3, 320-square foot shipping containers which are able to produce as much food as four acres of traditional farmland.

To read more about these shipping container farms, visit: “BusinessInsider.com”