Windowfarms – Grow your own food with out a garden

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http://www.ethicalcommunity.com/ethical-living/Eco-design/Windowfarms-Grow-your-own-food-with-out-a-gardenOne of the many drawbacks for someone moving from a rural area into an urban metropolis is the lack of space for a garden. Not having a garden can really stump your ability to grow your own vegtables, something that many people are now doing.Cue Windowfarms, is a project started by artists Britta Riley and Bray in 2009 in New York, which aims to maximise the space available inside homes, namely window sills, for growing your very own vegetables. Windowfarms are “vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materialsâ€.According to the Windowfarms website you can grow up to 25 fresh vegetable plants including lettuce, herbs, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, peppers, and many more in a normal 4'x 6' window in your home. That could mean a salad a week per window!With a Windowfarm you can grow any number of vegetables hydroponically throughout the year, even in the colder months where it would sometimes be impossible to

enjoy home-grown vegetables. Hydroponics (From the Greek words hydro, water and ponos, labor) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water, without using soil. Nutrients the plants need are dissolved into water and the plants' roots are submersed in the solution at regular intervals. Plants grown hydroponically are rooted in a special growing medium that allows the right amount of air, water, and nutrients to pass by the roots. In the Windowfarm system, the special growing medium is inflated clay pellets, which are completely inert.The project is an open-source collaborative effort that's been developing through communal R & D.I.Y (research and do-it-yourself). Because of the community behind Windowfarms, new and improved ways of maximising space and efficiency are being dreamed up every day.Window farms are an ingenious way to enable even those of us who live in central city flats to become self sufficient and grow our own vegetables and salads, could this be the answer to food insecurity and high food mile foods? Join the forum discussion and share your opinion and experience of growing your own food at www.ethicalcommunity.com