Metropolitan Gardening

T here's nothing like planting a spring vegetable window box - here's four easy steps. 1) This is the secret : Choose seedlings for immediate reinforcement. Planting from seeds is awesome - but it takes a few weeks - buying new plants from a nursery or local garden center gets them a good solid start and feels great right from the get go. They have had a head start in a green house in optimum conditions. Urban window sills are full of dangers to young seeds finding a solid germination. So for an instant garden try this to make your hard work easy. 2)  Measure the space in your window box - then pick a planting container to fit it. Getting a planter box that is too big for your window will create frustration and a return trip.Make sure your containers have holes in the bottom . If you are above the first floor make sure no one can get water on them from below - if so make sure you have a drainage plate under your planter and be careful when you water not to "pee on you

T he Bowery Mission has began a Rooftop Farming Project to augment their kitchen's vegetable source. This garden was just planted this last few weeks and uses a light weight soil with mulch in plastic beds with gravel. The goals of the roof top farm are to provide mission residents an opportunity to develop care for the plants and an understanding  of the responsibility that it takes to grow food. Self sufficiency and and sustainability are the vision. In the coming weeks we hope to get more information on the materials and development of the garden. Our visit included a tour of the Bowery Mission facilities and a history of the venerable and respected institution. The staff was kind and had opened it's doors to participate in the street fair for the Festival of Ideas for the New City .

Dr. Chaoui. being interviewed on CSI-liveby "youandmedia", website of the Center for Social Innovation. (photo supplied by UFO ) U rban Farms Organic, Inc. is essentially research and development conducted by Hala Chaoui, PhD who is the Principal and an Agricultural Engineer. The work has focused on an alternative to composting that could solve enormous problems in the disposal of food waste as well as create a fantastic resource for gardening. There's a good UFO blog link for the gist of the material but I wanted to get more clarity about what the product was that was being developed. Also because the Center for Social Innovation interview was streamed live I couldn't find the video link to download it. The story is a bit hard to grasp but worth the read. Technically speaking concepts are moderately complex. On a related note Dr. Chaoui's doctoral thesis was on removing earthworms from vermicast aided by an electric field. She is an innovator in vermicast

T he Royal Creature is a collection of eccentric and adorably detailed art objects and renders from artists Delaney Jane Larson and Matthew Tellier. The work is absolutely original and appears to be inspired from the faces of playing cards. Ms. Larson was a delight to speak with and offered us tea when we visited during a recent open studio tour of their loft in Bronx. We left with a marvelously illustrated greeting card and took these wonderful snapshots we would like to share of the little curio planters they design . These planters shown come with a seperate drainage dish created for them.

T he Festival of Ideas for the New City   is an urban triumph. The mayor of Seattle gave us some tips on composting and David Byrne (who was a delightful surprise for the evening) said that he has a small herb garden. The presentation opening the panel of mayors was of a number of pictures Byrne had shot while bicycling - in his signature manner Mr. Byrne described urban greening, the future of cities and the importance of parking spaces for bikes. The great hall was packed for the event and the crowd was enthralled while each of the four city leaders elaborated on their plans for successful community. “ The overwhelming focus of the evening was this - act transparently, use resources wisely, be available and open, wander your city in search of marginal neighborhoods -  plant gardens and build unique town squares and architecturally innovative structures to displace blight. These initiatives have a positive and measurable results - crime is reduced and most notably murder rates are