Urban Gardening | Inhabitat

Philips Design’s ‘Food Probe’ Promotes Healthy Eating With 3 Concepts

Home Farming

Pesticides. Genetic-modification. Mistreated animals. It could just about kill anyone’s appetite to hear about all the horrible news about food production. Fortunately, the emerging food revolution focuses on both health and re-establishing the connection between people and the food they eat (making it harder to abuse our food sources). Designers are both leading and answering this shift in interest. Philips Design has begun an investigation called ‘Food Probe’ that looks at current social trends and how this may affect the way that people will eat in the future — and how this will manifest in design. Their investigation includes three parts: a self-contained farm for the kitchen, a nutrition farm and a high-tech cooking device.

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MetaboliCity Aims to Grow Sustainable Food Systems

by Trey Farmer, 10/02/09

Combining methods for urban farming with design thinking, MetaboliCity is a design-research project by Loop.pH that explores how designers can help create models for sustainable urban food creation. Set on catalyzing positive changes in the built environment, the name is derived from a vision of a city that metabolizes its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need and more.

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Envi: Composting Trash Can Provides Urban Greenery

by Olivia Chen, 09/22/09

By now you have probably heard that composting helps make a garden green because it is an effective way to deliver nutrients to plants and reduce food waste. Previously we featured the Jarst planter, which makes composting food waste in your home easy with a side compartment that can distribute the compost directly to the plant soil. Here, we see this idea transform into something to fit the city scale. With Envi, industrial designer Julien Bergignant, proposes a concept for a city trash can outfitted to collect and then process public food waste, all while adding some green texture to the city landscape.

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Urban Activism: Green Plant Sleeves for City Walls

by Olivia Chen, 08/29/09

Few would challenge the introduction of a bit of greenery into a city environment. Toronto residents, Eric Cheung and Sean Martindale, are making this basic urban space ideal into a reality with their poster pocket planters. The duo carve their way through existing posters to create little pockets, then fill them with potting soil and plants to create an impromptu green wall system. The result is a bit of greenery that effortlessly blends into the existing urban landscape. Best of all, Eric and Sean want to empower eco- and locally-minded folk by keeping the process open source– and are making their cutting patterns available online.

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Showcase Your Front Lawn Veggie Garden in Edible Estates

Head’s up green thumbs and urban gardeners across the states! Do you have an extraordinary edible garden project that you’re dying to share with the world? Well now’s your chance because Fritz Haeg and crew are currently accepting submissions to include in the expanded 2010 edition of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn. They’re looking for examples of “full frontal gardening” from a handful of locations across the US that transform lifeless …

Roll-Out Vegetable Mat Makes Gardening a Snap!

Looking to grow your own vegetable garden but afraid you don’t have a green thumb? Chris Chapman’s Roll-Out Veg Mat could be just the solution you’re searching for. The corrugated cardboard mat is sowed with four types of vegetable seeds and organic fertilizer all ready to be rolled out – all you need to do is add water and soil. Chapman plans to create different mats for different seasons, keeping in …

GUERILLA GARDENING: Flowers Beautify Abandoned Flyer Box

Hoping to bring some color and cheer to the streets of Toronto, Canada, street artist, Posterchild, decided to become a guerrilla gardener by potting six perky marigolds in an abandoned flyer box. The newly-transformed planter box is illustrative of the point that forgotten pieces of urban furniture may be used to beautify the streets of the Canadian city with very little effort.

Cracked Concrete Garden Springs up to Claim ASLA Award

Think you need an open plot of land with plenty of soil in order to cultivate a garden? Think again. CMG Landscape Architecture’s Cracked Concrete Garden proves that many plants have a way of surviving even with minimal resources. The project took a site that was previously paved with concrete and transformed the land into a true piece of urban wild. Garden rows were created with jackhammers, and then vegetated by herbs and flowers. A Jacaranda tree on the far side of the garden and two species of vines climb the surrounding fences to complete the green space.

Inhabitat Weekly Link Roundup: Greenery!

It’s spring and it seems that everyone has caught the gardening bug. We certainly have — check out our own guide to urban gardening here. We support the creation of green space everywhere, big or small. We also can’t help but be enamored with the cute garden knick-knacks for intimate garden settings. This week we’ve picked some links that remind us that it is time to get our …

FOOD MAP DESIGNS: Gardening for the Space-Challenged

We’ve all heard that growing food for ourselves is good for the planet as well as the soul, but between finding the space and then remediating the soil, growing an edible garden can go from being a simple idea to a gargantuan task. Fortunately for space-challenged gardeners, Food Map Design’s growing container offers an incredibly easy and sleek solution for those with little room to grow.

RIVER PLANT AQUARIUM by Mathieu Lehanneur

Mathieu Lehanneur is known for his modernist designs that have a ecological purpose. We previously wrote about living air filter that uses plants to naturally purify the air in a neat little capsule. And now, this French designer has another amazing installation that brings the benefits of nature indoors into a self contained living local river ecosystem. This aquarium is not only an interesting home décor piece, but also a fish hatchery and vegetable garden.

Foldable Greenhouse by Daniel Schipper

Dutch designer Daniel Schipper created the foldable greenhouse for city gardens and rooftop terrariums. Made from recycled plastics, the greenhouse roof folds up flat for easy storage and transience. The base is also made from recycled plastic composite and its lack of framework or support materials makes it a minimalist no-fuss appliance. Just unfold, snap, and water.

Green Graffiti Flower Bomb Balloons by studioTX

The concept of a seed bomb – a mobile medium for seeds – is not new. They were used in 1973 by the Green Guerillas in New York. Artist Kathryn Miller is famous for using them in a 1992 work. More recently, earthen seed bombs have shown up on the art scene in all sorts of forms, including handguns. The bombs themselves are usually little sculptures of clay, compost and seeds. But this work of the Dutch Studio TX takes the concept to a whole ‘nother level – with biodegradable seed balloons!

EDIBLE ESTATES Goes to Print!

Fritz Haeg has been turning American lawns into life-giving, sustainable gardens from coast to coast with his project Edible Estates. We’ve been following these lawn-eating transformations for quite some time, so we are beyond excited to see the book Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn go to print. This read is filled with commentary and projects from some of todays most innovative thinkers including Haeg, Diana Balmori, Rosalind Creasy, and Michael Pollan.