Tuesday, June 14, 2016

FARMER IN THE DELLING...


Hi ho the derry- o - that's what folks are doing in Chicago!

Take a look, a long look.  It's a huge garden -- 75,000 square feet.
You can compare it to a football field -- 57,600 square feet -- length: 360 feet -- width: 160 feet.

The guy who runs it, Viraj Pun, head of the urban agriculture group, GOTHAM GREENS, says it  is probably the largest rooftop garden in the world. 

Located in the south side of Chicago, atop a soap factory, it flourishes with the help of its hydroponic system. (Method of growing plants in nutrient enriched water, not soil.)

Okay, we know that the world is running out of food. We also are running out of farmlands, and land that can become gardens, but there are millions of roofs where fresh vegetables -- leafy greens and herbs -- can be grown to supply grocery stores and restaurants.

Gee, could my husband and I have a small garden on our roof? It's 2,200 square feet. Lugging dirt up five flights of stairs might be exhausting but we can start carrying up bags of soil right now! How would we get water up there? Run a hose from the kitchen sink into the hallway, and up the steps to the roof?

Should we? Could we?

I  don't know about you, but I find myself paying very close attention to anything we can do, even if it's just a small thing, that might help solve the problems of the world. There are 320 million people in our country -- if  even a third of them ...

Wow, 107 million vegetable gardens would make a difference... Hey, what about your roof? 
 
  

1 comment:

Cara said...

Em, I just love the way your mind works. I don't know if these little things we do or write about or share can save humanity or not, but here are two things I always like to consider when it comes to ideas like this:

- Imagine what might happen if everyone did this.

- Maybe if I do this, someone else will be inspired to do it, and maybe they'll inspire someone else, and so on.

- If I'm not part of the solution, then I'm part of the problem.

Whether or not you grow that rooftop garden, good on you for being open to and for sharing possibilities for change.