Blog November 22, 2010
Window Farms: An experiment in urban agriculture
By Stuart McPherson, Stewardship Co-ordinator, Evergreen Brick Works
Window Farm. Photo Credit: Michelle Scrivener.What if you could walk over to your favorite sunny window and enjoy lush and tender vegetables at any time of the year? Imagine a system designed for doing just that, researched and developed by people like you and me, with the goal of growing food, year round, in their own homes.
This is the third part in a series of blogs on growing spaces at Evergreen Brick Works; how we work with the landscape and infrastructure, and how we add to it. In past blogs we’ve addressed issues surrounding the need for flexible spaces and materials and tried our hand at implementing new ideas in vertical growing spaces. In this blog we’ll combine both ideas as we explore using recycled materials to build a Window Farm.
In June of this year, some of the Evergreen staff got interested in building a Window Farm at Evergreen Brick Works. Aimee Carson, Rebekka Hutton and I recruited our Youth Employment Participants and got to work modifying water bottles to build our farm.
The first Window Farm project was launched by New York-based artists Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray in 2009. The action was in answer to a question asked by Michael Pollan in his article "Why Bother?" published in The New York Times Magazine in April 2008. Can urbanites fight climate change by growing their own food?
Evergreen YEP Interns prep bottles for the farm. Photo: Joanne Adair.Riley and Bray took horizontal hydroponics, made them vertical and then did something traditionally not done by entrepreneurs; they put their plans online to be built, scrutinized, re-engineered and rebuilt by anyone and trusted that people would be interested enough to invest. An online international community of 13,000 developed and continues to problem solve the design, and collaboratively they exercised an idea Don Tapscott recently addressed in the T.H.E. speakers’ series; that we all know a bit, and together we know a lot.
During our project, Rebekka and I paid a few trips to a hydroponics store in the West end of Toronto to acquire our supplies. Paul Norton of Grow it All, was curious about our project and was interested in helping us in any way he could. When Rebekka returned to pick up the last of the materials, Paul unveiled his very own Window Farm design. Built without pumps and mostly from materials he had around the house, Paul had used his knowledge of hydroponics to simplify and refine the system to its most basic form. Once again our plans were changed.
Paul’s design worked, it was elegant and realized our goals of building a growing system that could be replicated in any sunny window for less than $50! Take a look below to see how it works and check back at the blog soon for instructions on how to build your own.
How it works
- Water augmented with nutrients is poured into the top container and is gravity fed to reach all the plants in line.
- The plants grow in a mixture of spun rock and clay pellets and have been raised either from seed or from cuttings in a small bed of spun rock.
- At the bottom of the container line lays a vessel ready to collect any additional nutrients that might pass through the entire system. These can be recycled back into the system.
L: Window Farm Diagram R: Aimee Carson sets up the frame for the Window Farm.Photo Credit: Stuart McPherson.
Comments
I have been following the Window Farms project since shortly after it was start over a year ago. I find it fascinating and I think hydroponics can be a great hobby and perhaps even a great business.
The Window Farms project looks like it could be taken on by just about anyone but I really think college and university students who live in dorms should try this type of project. Growing some of their own food like cherry tomatoes or herbs would help them have a more nutritious diet. It would also give them the positive feeling of actually growing something in an environment that usually isn’t supportive of this type of activity.
On a commercial level Window Farms could be built in greenhouses next to high-rise buildings. Too many people have to make multiple trips to grocery stores to get vegetables that could be grown right in their own building of in a neighbourhood greenhouse. Greenhouses are a great place to hangout on grey days of which we unfortunately have too many during the winter.
Finally, there are lots of people in the city who like to do things at night. With the right kind of hydroponic system there could be an opportunity to work on building Window Farms or other hydroponic projects anytime of the day of night. There are always people in the city looking for something to do over night. It can be a great time to volunteer.
Hi Seymore,
Glad to hear you enjoyed this blog. Have you tried building one yet? Any success?
Let me know,
Stuart
Hi Stuart:
Thanks for responding. I haven’t built a Window Farm yet but I would really, really like to. I’ve been concerned about getting all the necessary parts as well as my own ability to carry out the procedure without someone else around to consult with. So if you are planning a workshop that is of reasonable cost, count me in. I would be very excited to try and build my own Window Farm. I think I have the perfect window in my home to place the Window Farm. It may take a little convincing to get my wife on board and actually let me put the Window Farm where I have in mind. Nevertheless, I think it is worth a try!
Hi Seymore,
I think a workshop is a great idea, we’ll probably have to make sure there aren’t any kinks in our plans first. I’m working on making our very simple (really!) plans online in the next couple days.
You might want to sign up for an account on windowfarms.org. The people there (13,000 of them) are all pretty knowledgeable and would be great at helping you get started. Keep your eyes to the blog for our plans as well!