There is a certain kind of silence created by a well-kept compost bin. There is microbial and worm activity there, turning the coffee grounds and carrot peels from last week into something that smells like a forest floor. From the outside, it doesn’t seem like much. The core process of a closed-loop garden is taking place: waste from the kitchen is being returned to the soil as fertilizer, completing a cycle that does not require any purchases, synthetic materials, or nearly anything to be thrown away.Zero-waste gardens are not new. Subsistence farmers managed land for centuries before synthetic fertilizers arrived…
Author: Hannah
When you enter a functioning greenhouse on a gloomy January morning, the contrast is almost overwhelming. The garden is bare and the ground is hard; this is the kind of quiet that descends upon a backyard between November and March when most people have given up on gardening. It is a few degrees warmer inside, where it smells damp soil, there are rows of spinach and kale in varying stages of readiness, and there is the very particular satisfaction of knowing that something is actually happening. I don’t think it’s a big deal. Despite its size, it doesn’t feel small.The…
There’s a certain kind of frustration when you walk into a backyard greenhouse in late July and discover it has basically become an oven. The tomato plants are drooping. The edges of basil turned black. Whenever the temperature rises above 45°C, it becomes less of a garden and more of a warning. On a clear summer morning, a small polycarbonate structure left unventilated can reach temperatures that would harm most crops before lunch. It happens more frequently than most novices expect, and it happens quickly as well. A growing number of home growers are turning to climate control. Additionally, what…
There is something incredibly humble about the building itself. On the edge of an unremarkable backyard are eight feet by six feet polycarbonate panels with aluminum frames. Just the kind of orderly chaos that occurs when someone spends twelve months in a row learning by making mistakes. A thermometer hangs slightly crooked near the door, and a bag of perlite leans against a corner. You don’t seem to be able to alter your perspective in this place. It does, however.The first month was humbling in unexpected ways. When planting the seeds, optimistic timelines, which assume nature operates on a schedule…
Morgan Ruelle, an environmental scientist researching food diversity in Ethiopia in 2011, noticed something that didn’t quite fit his framework. Farmers in Tigray cultivated wheat, barley, and other grains in one field, harvested them simultaneously, and treated them as one crop. Duragna was what they called it. Most of the agroecology community had not cataloged it. It had not been discovered by the majority of agricultural researchers. The farmers who had grown it for generations gave straightforward, pragmatic answers when asked why: if one grain fails, the others will survive. Harvesting is always possible.In the end, Ruelle published research that…
On the roof of a Brooklyn housing complex, something that doesn’t seem to work continues to function. Leafy greens grow in channels fed by water circulating from tanks below, where tilapia swim. Waste is generated by the fish. Bacteria convert that waste into nitrates. Plants absorb nitrates from the water to purify it. Fish get their water back. There is no waste. There is very little added. As a former nutrition counselor from Lagos, Yemi Amu started Oko Farms as a way to feed formerly homeless people who refused to leave their building for groceries.Amu’s journey to aquaponics is not…
A seasoned greenhouse gardener does something that most novices never consider before the seed packets are distributed and the propagator is turned on in late January or early February. They keep the place tidy. Clean the bench surfaces, wash each pot and tray with hot, soapy water, remove dead plant material from corners and drainage channels, and wipe down the glazing until it’s clear enough to read through thoroughly, methodically, and leisurely. It’s not glamorous work. An entire afternoon is required. Growers who do this regularly understand that this preparation is what makes a successful season different from a disappointing…
An outdoor greenhouse that was supposed to produce abundantly in July instead produces thin yields, yellowing plants, and flowers that hopefully bloom before dropping without setting fruit. It causes a certain amount of frustration. There is still no damage to the building. There is still life in the plants. There was something wrong somewhere, and it usually occurred covertly before it became apparent. In the gardener’s opinion, plants don’t cooperate because of the weather, the seed, or a vague feeling. Almost always, there is a much more manageable explanation.Overwatering is the most common cause of greenhouse plant failure for all…
The majority of buyers consider what they want to grow in a small greenhouse before purchasing it. It’s probably tomatoes. Some chillies, some early salad crops, and some seedlings planted before the outdoor season begins. Nearly all of the reasoning is logical, proactive, and plant-centric. Neither the ecosystem created by a sealed, warm, humid structure for everything that feeds on those plants, nor the speed at which it can go from manageable to overwhelming once it gets going, play a significant role in that mental image.A closed mini greenhouse is nearly perfect from the perspective of pests. The temperature remains…
Upon entering one of the more recent vertical farms in Singapore or Bristol, you immediately notice the quiet. There are no tractors outside, no irrigation channels running, and no soil being turned. Just a closed chamber with rows of plants suspended above, roots hanging freely inside, and nozzles no wider than pencil tips delivering a barely audible mist at precisely timed intervals. It looks like the set of a low-budget science fiction film. However, the plants are growing at a rate that would be difficult to maintain outdoors.Plant roots are suspended in a closed, humid chamber and fed with nutrient…