Urban Gardens» Greening | Urban Gardens | Unlimited Thinking For Limited Spaces

Pedal Power Brewing in Brooklyn

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:53:44 +0000

In an effort to reduce his carbon footprint while selling a great cup of joe, one city vendor is pedaling to peddle his wares. Kickstand, a Brooklyn, New York-based mobile coffee purveyor, uses bikes, not just for transportation, but also to…

Floating Urban Farms on Recycled Tourist Boats

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:49:19 +0000

Ahoy, bok choy! You got it: boat+botanic=boatanic, a floating greenhouse. Take an existing tourist boat, remove the tourists, add seeds and water regularly, make sure the boat gets plenty of sunshine, then harvest the produce. The resulting bounty will be distributed by…

Garden Sculpture Makes Environmental Statement

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:00:14 +0000

Off the coast of Rhode Island, on a hill overlooking Block Island harbor, Brown University student Emily Alvarez has created an anti-butt campaign. Not a commentary on nudity, but rather one about preserving an island’s natural surroundings: Cigarette Butts Are Litter.

Alvarez gathered…

Vertical Farming on Rise for Urban Food Supply

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:00:24 +0000

Valcent Product’s VertiCrop system of hanging gardens

By 2050 more than 80% of the world’s population is expected to be living in urban areas. How will we feed them? Vertical farming offers a highly effective, sustainable, and cost-efficient solution. On a typical 7,000 sq…

Shedding Light on Garden Composting

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:13:02 +0000

Designed by Nicholas Groves-Raines of Groves-Raines Architects as an extension to the garden at Inverleith Terrace, Edinburgh, this sensually curving composting shed includes both a composting area and garden store.

The structure is constructed entirely from industrial concrete reinforcing bar using a technique…

EcoBox Rewards Recyclers with Plants

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Designed to be installed on every street corner like any bottle recycling depository, the Ecobox would reward responsible citizens by offering them a plant in exchange for depositing all kinds of recyclable objects, from glass bottles to aluminium cans.

“Presently the…

Urban Birds Offered New Nests in London

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:00:39 +0000

London has built something eco-friendly for the birds–the urban birds of the Bankside neighborhood, famous for the Tate Modern museum. The architectural firm, 51% studios, has designed for the London Festival of Architecture, incorporating the theme of exchange–of knowledge, habitat, materials– three Nestworks, bird nesting…

Mobile Urban Gardens in Upcycled Parcels

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:00:05 +0000

Welcome the itinerant gardener, not the one who travels from plot to plot, but the one whose community gardens travel from spot to spot. We’ve written about mobile gardens before, but these self-contained gardens go beyond being simply plant-growing mobile allotments, they…

Old Bulbs in the Garden: Pot from Recycled Lightbulb

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:43:14 +0000

Repurpose your old old incandescent light bulbs into planters with the Potus Pot. Designed by Natalia Hojman and Angeles Estrada Vigil, the Potus Pot transforms a burnt-out light bulb into a bud-growing vase by removing the filaments and making a new home for…

See You Later Alley-Gater?

Robin Plaskoff Horton — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:51:38 +0000

Baltimore’s going greener behind closed gates. By gating some of the city’s approximately 600 miles of private and public alleys, many are being transformed into verdant kid-friendly urban gardens and social meeting spaces.

Residents hope that by gating and greening the alleys they…