Young Indonesians Making a Green Difference

October 3, 2011 by admin · View Comments 

Young Indonesians are breathing new life into their polluted concrete capital city with little more than buckets of soil and seeds.

A group of mostly young professionals, known as Gardening Indonesia, has joined the global urban farming movement, converting vacant patches of land between Jakarta’s skyscrapers into lush green vegetable gardens.

On a one-hectare (2.5-acre) lot between luxury homes in a north Jakarta suburb, Kusumawijaya and his fellow gardeners grow tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and chillies where an eyesore dumping ground once stood.

The group’s goals are to encourage a healthy population and a green city while saving money on grocery bills.

Source: AFP

Beth

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Greens on Wheels: Rolling Greenhouse Will Feed + Educate

[ By Delana in Food & Health & Home & Garden & Transit & Auto. ]

Thanks to space and time constraints, most of us buy all of our food from supermarkets rather than growing it at home. But two New York entrepreneurs want to teach urban dwellers how rewarding and positive it feels to grow fresh produce and eat it right from the garden. Nick Runkle and Justin Cutter have founded Compass Green, a mobile greenhouse and education center that will bring fresh food and educational experiences to schoolchildren all around New York.

(all images via: Inhabitat)

As part of the Compass Green initiative, the two men are transforming an 18-foot diesel box truck into a greenhouse on wheels. The greenhouse will feature Plexiglass walls to let in sunshine for the plants that grow in the truck’s cargo area.

The fully-functioning greenhouse will travel around to schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan, delivering fresh produce to kids who otherwise might not have access to it. The team will also deliver an educational message about the considerable health benefits to be gained from making fresh, whole foods a regular part of one’s diet. Eventually, they will take their truck all around the country.

But beyond simply teaching children about the benefits of fresh spinach and carrots, the duo aim to spread their message of sustainability. Their roving greenhouse will host educational workshops teaching practical skills that visitors can easily incorporate into their own daily lives. Lessons will be tailored to the age level, region and socioeconomic conditions of every stop on the team’s educational journey.

Runkle and Cutter are working on converting their old diesel truck into a vegetable oil-fueled, solar power-equipped green machine. They are currently accepting contributions to the project via their Kickstarter page.


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Growing Up: 3 DIY Vertical Gardening Solutions

Vertical gardening isn’t just for urban planners mapping out environmentally-friendly cities. These three products let you have a vertical garden at home.
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Put Down Roots: 4 Unexpected Ways to Grow an Urban Garden

March 16, 2011 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Delana in Home & Garden, Nature & Ecosystems, Tricks & Hacks. ]

Gardening is a skill and a hobby; it is a lifestyle and a talent. It is something that can either be bred into one’s soul or cultivated like a delicate flower, but once the love of growing things takes root it is impossible to dislodge. As addicting and love-inspiring as gardening is, it also defies all efforts to contain or restrain it. Those with the love of green things will find a way no matter what the circumstances. If we don’t have a  flower bed we grow herbs and flowers in tiny containers on the kitchen windowsill. In the absence of a yard we grow tomatoes and peppers in buckets on the balcony. But these compromises are small in comparison to what some gardeners are willing to do in order to carve out their own little green spaces.

Crack Gardens

(images via: CMG)

The urban environment is typically filled with far more grey than green; vast expanses of concrete take over the spaces where trees, shrubs, flowers and grass may otherwise have grown. CMG Landscape Architecture is putting forth a valiant effort to carve out a little piece of nature in the city with their Crack Garden project. The project was inspired by the tough, wily plants that somehow find purchase in the tiny cracks in city sidewalks.

(images via: CMG)

Instead of waiting for cracks to form in the concrete naturally, the Crack Garden utilizes jackhammers to intervene in the city’s landscape. The sharp breakage of the cement may seem violent, but it is necessary to open up space for new roots to gain a foothold. The neat, orderly lines created by the repeated blows of the jackhammer are perfectly offset by the random plants coaxed into life within them.

(image via: CMG)

The project won a 2009 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) award for its ingenuity. Gardening in purposeful cracks in the urban crust not only brings a welcome splash of life to the largely-lifeless areas we inhabit; it is also much more cost-effective than other urban greenification methods.

Dumpster Gardens

(images via: Ohio State University)

If there is one sight nearly as ubiquitous in the urban jungle as concrete, it is the large trash receptacle colloquially known as a “dumpster” in the US and a “skip” in the UK. They sit outside of apartment complexes, office buildings, shopping malls and schools, simply waiting to collect our refuse. But they have a great deal of potential to add living beauty to city landscapes around the world.

(images via: Oliver Bishop-Young)

Several landscape architects, artists and creative souls have taken it upon themselves to transform dumpsters into little islands of placid plant life. Ken Smith installed three dumpster gardens at Ohio State University, each with a different type of plant life. Oliver Bishop-Young’s inspirational Skip Conversions project featured a skip garden and a skip lawn, both finding homes in bright yellow garbage containers.

(images via: King’s Cross)

In fact, the English seem to have a soft spot for skip gardening. An entire set of skip gardens were planted by community volunteers at King’s Cross, London in 2009. The gardens, being highly portable, can be moved around whenever needed or wanted and their bounty of fresh vegetables shared.

The Truck Farm

(image via: Eating Well)

Even more mobile than a garbage receptacle is the Truck Farm, an inspired creation of Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney – the same guys who brought you the fascinating documentary King Corn. The Truck Farm is a simple but unusual concept: a farm in the bed of a pickup truck. The crops included arugula, tomatoes, lettuce and hot peppers – all grown in the bed of a 1986 Dodge Ram pickup. Being the duo’s only vehicle, the truck farm was driven every all around Brooklyn during the growing season.

At the end of the season, the team was able to feed 20 people with the food grown in this tiny, mobile space. The purpose of this project (and, arguably, every single one of the projects featured here) was to prove that an effective garden can be made anywhere at all. This mobile space that even the most experienced urban gardener might overlook can easily be made into a productive garden to feed those who would not ordinarily have access to fresh, wholesome foods.

Crater Garden

(image via: Faslanyc)

In the midst of World Wars I and II, it was not at all uncommon to find Victory Gardens in yards all around the world. The gardens served several purposes: they strengthened communities, took people’s minds off of the war, and lightened the burden on the already-stretched food supply. But the garden above is an exceptional specimen: it was created inside a crater that formed following a bombing in London.

(image via: Pruned)

The highly unusual garden location goes to show that gardens can indeed take root anywhere – even in the destruction created by the ugliness of war. Whether growing flowers to add a bit of beauty to each day or vegetables to feed the hungry, an unconventional garden in the middle of the city can truly transform lives.


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Good Things in Small Boxes: Urban Garden, Tiny Footprint

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Urban Ruins: Abandoned Building Houses Architecture Academy

March 2, 2011 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems, Science & Research. ]

An abandoned five-story apartment building in Taipei, Taiwan is the unlikely setting for an unusual learning experience. It is the home of Ruin Academy, an interdisciplinary research center that studies the “Third Generation City,” or the ruins of the industrial city. By incorporating a number of disciplines and a mixture of research topics, the Academy explores and celebrates our modern man-made ruins.

While the research topics covered by the Academy are fascinating on their own, the building in which the research takes place is just as unique. All of the windows and interior walls have been removed to allow bamboo, trees, fruits and vegetables to grow freely. Six-inch cylinders of the exterior walls and ceilings have been cut from the buildings to let the rain inside.

Dormitories were constructed from mahogany for professors and students to sleep in. They call it a voluntary refugee camp, which the building does resemble until you reach the fifth floor. There sits a public sauna which Academy dwellers call the “best in the Pacific.”

The Ruin Academy students take their cues from the urban jungle, focusing on re-organizing the industrial city and rearranging the way that humans interact with their environment. Workshops offered by the Academy include Urban Acupuncture, Anarchist Gardener, Ultra-Ruin, River Urbanism and Compost. According to the group, the Third Generation City is a mixture of nature and man-made construction.

In essence, it seems that the group is actively looking for that process which is normally very slow and unchecked by human interaction: the ruination of a human dwelling place. They do not participate in the downfall of the city; rather, they look for places where urban ruins have already gained a slight foothold and they seek to help it along. Far from being agents of destruction, they are scholars and architects who are looking forward to the next stage of the urban existence.

(all images via: Nikita Wu)

Taipei, according to the “constructor-gardeners” of Ruin Academy, is the perfect place for this project. The city is increasingly dominated by official industrialism, so constructing an artificially natural indoor garden in the heart of the city is the perfect way to begin pushing this urban environment toward the organic.


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3D Farming: 26 Vertical Farms and Green Skyscrapers

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Urban Ruins: Abandoned Building Houses Architecture Academy

March 2, 2011 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems, Science & Research. ]

An abandoned five-story apartment building in Taipei, Taiwan is the unlikely setting for an unusual learning experience. It is the home of Ruin Academy, an interdisciplinary research center that studies the “Third Generation City,” or the ruins of the industrial city. By incorporating a number of disciplines and a mixture of research topics, the Academy explores and celebrates our modern man-made ruins.

While the research topics covered by the Academy are fascinating on their own, the building in which the research takes place is just as unique. All of the windows and interior walls have been removed to allow bamboo, trees, fruits and vegetables to grow freely. Six-inch cylinders of the exterior walls and ceilings have been cut from the buildings to let the rain inside.

Dormitories were constructed from mahogany for professors and students to sleep in. They call it a voluntary refugee camp, which the building does resemble until you reach the fifth floor. There sits a public sauna which Academy dwellers call the “best in the Pacific.”

The Ruin Academy students take their cues from the urban jungle, focusing on re-organizing the industrial city and rearranging the way that humans interact with their environment. Workshops offered by the Academy include Urban Acupuncture, Anarchist Gardener, Ultra-Ruin, River Urbanism and Compost. According to the group, the Third Generation City is a mixture of nature and man-made construction.

In essence, it seems that the group is actively looking for that process which is normally very slow and unchecked by human interaction: the ruination of a human dwelling place. They do not participate in the downfall of the city; rather, they look for places where urban ruins have already gained a slight foothold and they seek to help it along. Far from being agents of destruction, they are scholars and architects who are looking forward to the next stage of the urban existence.

(all images via: Nikita Wu)

Taipei, according to the “constructor-gardeners” of Ruin Academy, is the perfect place for this project. The city is increasingly dominated by official industrialism, so constructing an artificially natural indoor garden in the heart of the city is the perfect way to begin pushing this urban environment toward the organic.


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3D Farming: 26 Vertical Farms and Green Skyscrapers

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Leaf Beyond Belief: 11 Tree-mendous Examples Of Topiary Art

November 30, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments 

[ By Steve in Art & Design, Geography & Travel, Home & Garden. ]


What is it about the human condition that compels us to bend nature to conform to our wishes? Even the humble garden is not immune, as these 11 tree-mendous topiaries tell so well. They may look “bush league” but you’d better be-leaf creating them takes mad botanical skills rooted in a love for landscape art.

Town Of Topiary, Railton, Tasmania, Australia

(images via: Wikimedia, Heather Birch, Leo Farelly, Nikkii Daniels and Tassie Tourists)

Some folks will travel to the ends of the earth to find good topiary and Railton, Tasmania, suits that qualification to a T. Herds of verdant elephants strut majestically across green meadows towards a waterhole they’ll never reach, while scattered about the town topiary depicting ostriches, a tarantula and even a squad of soldiers stake out their own patch of ground.

(image via: Heather Birch)

Railton’s evergreen menagerie includes creatures symbolic of Tasmania, an island state located south of eastern Australia. It may be safe to say that the topiary sculpture of the Tasmanian Tiger above may be the only one in existence.

Topiary Park, Columbus, Ohio, USA

(images via: The Topiary Park and Larry Hamill Photography)

Art apes art at the Topiary Park (formerly the Old Deaf School Park) located in downtown Columbus, Ohio, where resident topiarist James T. Mason has patiently created a homage to French pointillist painter George Seurat’s famous nineteenth century painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte.” Seurat created his crowning masterpiece by meticulously applying paint in minuscule dots, or points, over a period of two years. Unlike the painting, Mason’s topiary tour de force continues to evolve, changing both with the seasons and in response to the occasional trimming.

(images via: The Photo Garden Bee and Larry Hamill Photography)

Topiarist Mason began the installation in 1989 by setting up bronze frames that were to be the backbones of 54 afternoon strollers, 8 boats, 3 dogs, 1 cat and of course: the mysterious Capuchin monkey. To quote Mason, “The Topiary Park is a landscape of a painting of a landscape. If an artist can paint a picture of a landscape – art mimicking nature – then why not a sculptor creating a landscape of a work of art – nature mimicking art?” Why not indeed… which is Mason’s, er, point.

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, Ayutthaya, Thailand

(images via: Search.com, Virtual Tourist and Garden Visit)

The exotic and expansive Summer Palace at Bang Pa was built for King Rama V, Thailand’s 19th century modernizing king famed for his fictional depiction in the play and film The King and I. The palace features extensive, well-maintained topiary gardens that flourish in part due to the region’s lush, tropical climate.

(image via: Travel Webshots)

A heard of elephants is not unexpected for a Thai topiary garden but a gathering of rabbits? Modern fashions notwithstanding, Thailand had a leg up on punk rock style long before The Clash ever rocked the casbah… at least, if the above “green hare” is any indication.

Wimbledon’s Topiary Cameraman

(images via: Bud Collins Tennis)

Atop the Broadcast Centre at London’s All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – commonly known as Wimbledon – is a rooftop garden not many know about. The focal point of the garden is a topiary statue of a cameraman, neatly trimmed as if an actual techie froze stiff while doing some winter filming and was taken over by ravenous English yew.

(image via: PaidContent:UK)

The topiary statue is eerily accurate right down to the cameraman’s standard issue flat cap, also known (according to Wikipedia) “as a sixpence, scally cap, Ivy Cap, Irish Cap, salmon hat, UNION Cap, Dai cap, Jeff cap, Windsor cap, touring cap, driving cap, or Newspaper Cap.” Those Brits really love their hats… and their topiary gardens.

Ladew Topiary Gardens, Monkton, MD, USA

(images via: Wicanders Cork Oak Blog, New Lantern and HorseHints)

Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, Maryland, is one of America’s most famous topiary parks. The landscaping’s high quality is no accident: the gardens were first designed in the 1930s by award-winning topiary artist Harvey S. Ladew (1887-1976). Visitors often state the highlight of a visit to Ladew Topiary Gardens is viewing the acclaimed Fox Hunting tableau. Ladew was an admire of English country culture and the scene features every major participant in a traditional fox hunt from riders to hounds to the fox himself. Tally ho!!

(image via: Ladew Topiary Gardens)

The Garden Club of America declared Ladew Topiary Gardens to be “the most outstanding topiary garden in America,” and the living sculptures in the 22-acre park live up to their rave reviews. The park contains a few topiary topics one might not expect to find in rural Maryland… such as a fully rigged out Chinese junk.

Beatles Topiary, Liverpool, UK

(images via: The Sun and Art On The Network)

“The Fab Four have been transformed into Fab Foliage!” Leave it to those wordsmiths from across the pond to perfectly describe the city of Liverpool’s topiary tribute to their hometown heroes, The Beatles. The shrubbery grown in Tuscany, Italy was coaxed into anthropomorphic metal cages by artist Franco Covili on behalf of Art On The Network. Eighteen months later, the specially selected Privet hedge had filled out the figures and the ensemble was put on display just outside Liverpool’s South Parkway train station.

(image via: Art On The Network)

Staff at the station (Billy Shears, anyone?) have been carefully trained in the art of topiary maintenance, ensuring the privet bush doesn’t overgrow its confines and those trademark Beatles bouffants retain their mid-sixties vibe. All you need is shrub… shrub is all you need.

Flower Puppy by Jeff Koons, Bilbao, Spain

(images via: Bethany J Mitchell, TravelPod/Btran and Purple Cloud)

Want to traumatize your cat? Bring it to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Bilbao, Spain, where you’ll find a 43 ft (13.1 m) tall West Highland White Terrier guarding the entrance. Luckily it’s not real (but Mr. Frisky doesn’t know that), at least not flesh & blood. Jeff Koons’ monumental topiary “Puppy” does have a circulatory system of sorts: an internal irrigation system used to keep its flowery fur as fresh as daisies.

(image via: Wikipedia)

If you think you’ve seen this gigantic, flowery puppy somewhere before, you are correct sir! Koons’ colossal canine embarked on a world tour (well, Germany, Australia and New York) before settling in at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Since it did, the rain in Spain falls mainly on the pooch.

Shanghai International Mosaiculture

(images via: Jevedebe and People’s Daily Online)

Shanghai, China, hosted the 2006 International Mosaiculture exhibition and competition which featured a staggering variety of ingenious topiary sculptures. Animals were rendered in exciting ways: ducks flapping their way through a wetland and dolphins leaping into the air supported by water fountains, just to name a couple. Topiary was also used to enhance architecture and depict static objects like bamboo folding screens, historical painted masks and much more.

The following video is almost 10 minutes long but it gives the viewer a good idea of what it would be like to walk amongst the topiary gardens at the 2006 International Mosaiculture exhibition:

Mosaiculture Shanghai 2006 Edit Clip, via Facilemovs

(image via: Good-Times Webshots)

People were also represented by topiary at the 2006 International Mosaiculture exhibition in Shanghai’s Century Park, such as the group of children shown above playing traditional Chinese games like marbles and hoop rolling. The 2006 Mosaiculture competition allowed participants to really push the topiary envelope in new ways, such as using contrastingly colored plants to add depth and texture to their creations.

Topiary Art Designs, Suffolk, UK

(images via: Daily Mail UK)

Not everyone who’d like to have topiary in their yard knows how to “grow their own”, so to speak, and their isn’t a topiary specialist on every block… unless you live in Bury St Edmunds, UK. Even if you don’t, Steve Manning does on-site topiary consultations though with clientele lie Prince Charles you can be sure the fee is, er, rather princely.

(image via: Daily Mail UK)

Manning and his wife Jackie run runs Topiary Art Designs you’ll need both time and money should you opt for their services: up to £6,000 per completed piece, and you’ll wait as long as 3 years for delivery once you place your order. The results are spectacular, however, and well worth it for those whose yards can accommodate the Manning’s life-size, finely detailed creations.

Sea Serpent Topiary, Disney World and Disneyland

(images via: Waymarking/Rayman and Scott A Dommin)

One of the most famous topiary sculptures is that of the sea serpent at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. It can be found near the entrance to Tomorrowland where the moat surrounding Cinderella’s Castle reflects and mirrors its structure to best advantage.The serpent is formed from 5 separate topiary sculptures that take the form of the mythical creature’s undulating coils.

(image via: Peter E Lee)

Tokyo Disneyland also features a topiary sea serpent – perhaps it’s a standard feature of Disney theme parks. Tokyo’s version is a bit different, however, opting for a dash of zen tranquility and the charmingly manicured wakes each segment of the serpent creates as it glides majestically through a sea of green beneath a sky of blue.

Guerrilla Topiary

(image via: myLot)

Mooning bush… not just for Democrats anymore! The image above has become an Internet constant over the past 4 or so years since it was first posted, often cropping up in, well, posts such as this one. Facts and info on the image are hard to come by – is there a real mooning bush somewhere in suburbia annoying the heck out of too-serious neighbor, or is it just a clever photoshop displaying some Walter Mitty’s shear fantasy? One thing’s certain: the (gr)ass really is greener on the other side of the fence.


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From Reservoir Ruins to Stunning Urban Park in Sydney


First, it was a failed urban reservoir, closed after just twenty years due to its weak flow of less-than-sparkling water.  Then, the crumbling remains of whitewashed brick, barrel-vaulted ceilings a…

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Literal Lawn Chairs: Grass Sofas Brighten up British Summer

July 30, 2010 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Delana in Art & Design, Home & Garden, Nature & Ecosystems. ]

Summer means more time spent outdoors in the sun, but the National Trust of Great Britain found that British families are spending an average of 43 hours per week inside and on the sofa. That’s a grand (or not-so-grand) total of 13 weeks per year. To get people out of the house and into nature, the National Trust has unveiled ten huge grass sofas in locations all across the UK. There are no TVs, no laptops – just unique spaces for quality outdoor family time.

The massive furniture was grown in about a month using all natural materials: straw bases covered with blankets of green, growing grass. These peculiar outdoor living rooms all consist of a sofa and a coffee table, letting British families get out of their homes but still spend time together in a familiar setting.

The growing living rooms were placed in a handful of picturesque natural locations, with some even making appearances in town centers. The National Trust endeavor uses humor rather than stern authority to coax families out into the beautiful British landscape this summer.

(all images via: Inhabitat)

Relaxing on a sofa in the sun, in some of the UK’s most beautiful outdoor spots, might be the best way we can think of to spend the summer. With a mug of tea and a plate of biscuits, a family outing to one of these living rooms would make for a splendid afternoon.


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Literal Tree Houses: Amazing Homes Built with Whole Trees

There’s something primitive about the sophisticated homes designed by Whole Trees Architecture: they use whole, young-growth trees in amazing, beautiful ways.
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12 Savvy Small-Space Urban Gardening Designs & Ideas

June 14, 2010 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Home & Garden. ]

Think you gotta have a farm or even a large yard to grow enough fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs to feed your family all summer? You’d be surprised how much food you can get out of the smallest of spaces – even when you live in an urban high-rise. From innovative vertical gardening systems to hanging pots and easy-access planters, these 12 small-space gardening solutions make homegrown produce possible no matter how tiny your outdoor space may be.

Small but Expandable Step Garden

(images via: urban garden)

How do you squeeze every possible square inch of usable growing space out of a tiny balcony or deck? When space is an issue but you want to grow much more than just a pot full of essentials, stacked raised beds can do a lot with a small footprint. These raised beds by The Urban Garden stack in various configurations and help you ensure that all of your plants have equal access to the sunlight.

Pop Bottle Drip System

(images via: you grow girl)

Unless you’re really conscientious, it’s way too easy to accidentally kill plants growing in small pots under the brutal heat of the summer sun, especially in urban environments where reflected heat can dry out soil fast. A slow-delivering drip irrigation system is the way to go – and you don’t have to spend a dime. An easy tutorial from You Grow Girl explains how to use recycled pop bottles.

Square Foot Gardening

(image via: serene journal)

How much food can you grow in a square foot? More than you think. Square foot gardening consists of 4

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Good Things in Small Boxes: Urban Garden, Tiny Footprint

March 17, 2010 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Delana in Home & Garden. ]

With Spring right around the corner, we can’t help but think of all of the delicious vegetables and herbs that are just waiting to spring up in our backyard gardens. For the millions of people who don’t have access to the type of land it takes to grow a bountiful vegetable crop all summer, the Urban Garden gives you a chance to sprout organic produce in a small space.

City dwellers who don’t have the luxury of vast expanses of green space in which to grow veggies typically resign themselves to buying organic produce in the grocery store or growing only the essentials in pots on balconies. A company called The Urban Garden wants to help everyone realize the dream of growing fresh, organic food at home, even if space is tight. Their products are designed to grow the maximum amount of plants in a minimal amount of space.

All of the Urban Garden products consist of compact raised beds. The layered designs help urban gardeners squeeze a large amount of usable ground out of a remarkably small footprint. The boxes even feature “seed holes,” or small openings where single-stem plants can grow horizontally out of the front of the box setup. Weeds aren’t a problem, and the boxes are happy being placed just about anywhere with a southern exposure to the sun.

Available in four different configurations – from the single-level raised bed to the six-level, 54-plant original setup – the Urban Garden is flexible enough to meet the needs of just about every gardener. Even if you think you have a black thumb, the people behind the Urban Garden want you to know that there are plenty of vegetables that require very little skill to grow. For a first-time gardener, choosing easy-to-grow veggies like broccoli, tomatoes and peppers can help you get off to a great start.

While the Urban Garden is an ideal solution for people living in crowded city areas, it’s useful even if you do have yard space to spare. By raising the garden a bit, you eliminate a lot of problems that come with traditional gardening – problems like poor soil quality, overwhelming weeds, and pests (the cedar used in the Urban Garden naturally repels insects) become easily managed with container gardens. And for those of us who prefer organic produce, growing it at home can save an astonishing sum of money over the course of one growing season.

(image via: Popular Mechanics)

There are plenty of resources out there for DIY-ers who prefer the satisfaction of building something rather than the convenience of purchasing it pre-made. If you’re ready to get your hands dirty constructing your own raised vegetable garden, these instructions from Popular Mechanics will get you started. This Squidoo lens about raised bed gardening is very detailed and has step-by-step photos and illustrations to help you through each part of the planning and building process.

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href="http://webecoist.com/2009/02/05/garden-at-home-to-save-money/" rel="nofollow" title="5 Things Urban Gardenoobs Can Grow at Home" style="color: gray;"s>5 Things Urban Gardenoobs Can Grow at Home

Easy to Grow Herbs and Vegetables to Save Money on Groceries that can be grown in your apartment, porch, kitchen or dorm. Easy urban gardening tips. 5 Comments - Click Here to Read More

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