Vertical Farming in L.A.
By Cindy Naas
Earlier this summer, UGC writer Vanessa Richins wrote about some lovely wall gardens designed by artist Patric Blanc.
His beautiful creations are living works of art.
A non-profit group, Urban Farming, has taken the vertical growing idea and run with it.
A series of four walls in L.A. have been turned into urban farms in a collaborative effort between Urban Gardening and Cal Poly students. 180 growing panels were planted up with organic veggies and herbs and installed in the four designated areas.
The produce was donated to area food banks. One wall was tended by residents of a low-income apartment complex and the food was distributed to the tenants. They grew tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, lettuce, tomatillos, and lavender and other herbs.
Here is a video of the vertical garden in the apartment building.
The folks at Urban Farming are taking all of the skills that you, our readers, have developed by growing your own in limited spaces and using those skills to improve their communities. They have not only come up with a way to feed the hungry, they have created closer bonds within the community, and given students an opportunity to learn more about urban agriculture at the same time.
I think this is an absolutely splendid project, and I hope that we’ll see such projects spreading to other parts of the country in the next couple of years. Urban gardeners just like you are making a big difference!
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
What an awesome idea! I hope more projects like this will be started for low-income families. In the inner city, people eat way more fast food than in the suburbs. Probably because fast food fare is cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables. Hopefully projects like this will provide needy families with a sustainable way to eat affordable fresh produce.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:21 am
success.