Pop-Up Agriculture

Image: Er.We via flickr

Ever since leaving Savannah, i've been carrying an ideas notebook around with me. This past weekend, I had a late lunch at Whole Foods and, naturally as a designer, began coming up with ways to make the Whole Foods shopping and dining experience more authentic and engaging. For almost the past year, I've been actively struggling through the fact that we have sacrificed superior-quality farm fresh food for convenience. In the midst of it, i've been yearning to find a way to bring a bit of the farm to everyday life. Mind you, i'm not talking about a farmer's market, or a rooftop garden (well, not exactly). "How can we make gardens accessible, but only when we want them?," was my initial problem statement. From there, I started sketching and came up with some ideas for modular infrastructures that would bring agriculture to cities.

I'm not totally sure where i'm going with this idea yet, but something interesting is budding. After spending a few days this past spring designing a mobile gardening application that would allow users to water their plants while on vacation, I've begun to realize just how passionate I am about locally-grown food, and local fruits and vegetables especially. I think that there is a HUGE opportunity to combine the tech-driven capabilities of today's companies with the centuries old techniques of farming to develop a game-changing new market opportunity and I intend to keep plugging along in this space for a good while longer. Meanwhile, here are some fun links that i've stumbled upon recently:

• Brooklyn's First Urban Farm Pop-up (if only it read urban pop-up farm!)
• The Public Farm Installation in New York City
• The Vertical Farm (yes, I already linked to it on my tumblr several months ago, but it's just so inspirational!)
• Freight Farms (tagline: Grow Food in Any Environment, yes i'm in)
• Metabolicity (A city that metabolizes its resources to supply inhabitants with nourishment? No way.)
• in.gredients (Package-free and zero-waste grocery store coming to Austin, TX. I chatted with one of the founders over the winter holidays in 2011 and let me tell 'ya i'm sold on the concept and sold on the fact that he and his team are the right people to try to make it happen)

Yay. More sketchy slash concept-oriented posts coming soon. For now, enjoy the links!

Container Gardens

Have you been following the container gardening movement? Well, I have, and quite honestly i've been in love with the notion of a small indoor garden for years.

A few years ago, I met a family that was germinating seeds in their home office during the early spring months. This gave me an idea: what if I not only germinated the seeds inside but actually grew things like small fruits and vegetables in an indoor space? What if I had a mini greenhouse from which I could pull foods to cook?

Since this epiphany, i've been attempting to learn more about container gardens and how they work, how to plant inside effectively, and how to garden in general. This idea is not so foreign, in fact many folks have done it successfully. Whole stores and services are now dedicated to helping people find the appropriate plants to grow inside and the appropriate methods to cultivate them. A few weeks ago, I even designed an electric-powered container gardening system that would let users water their plants from a mobile application while on vacation. Too hot for growing veggies outdoors or not home enough to water the plants? No problem. "Smart" container gardens to the rescue.

This week, I stumbled across some amazing container gardens at the Biltmore Estate. In particular, my friend and I were oohing and ahhing over all of the large and little vessels that the gardens had used to create terrariums. One of my favorites was a large water jug that had been converted into a tall container garden. Just thought i'd share a little taste of this treat, (see above) in case this post inspires you to create your own indoor home for green goodness.