Nice video. I wonder whether TetraPak the company would be interested to know about such an initiative and whether they would support it, or not?

Or, if containers are too expensive, stones can also be used to build raised-bed gardens like explained in this story I once did for AfriGadget:

www.afrigadget.com/2008/07/05/keyhole-gardens/

#limited space
#reuse of (untreated) grey water

Dear Paul,
I do agree that this technology and approach can prove interesting for the discussion in the urban planning working group (WG 6 cities). However I did not get any feedback from this side through the mailing list. Maybe we need more fascinating examples like the one that Prof. van Cottem has send to me recently. It is about a community group called Buklod Tao Inc. in the Philippines who take container farming to a larger community level which is fascinating. They use tetra packs as containers, called tetra pots. Please see the links and what the videos. www.facebook.com/BuklodTao

See inspiring video:



Here is also a blog
containergardening.wordpress.com/

and Robert Holmer mentioned the Facebook Group "Urban Container Gardening Enthusiasts" Group which has more then 1800 members already (among them Jojo Rom mentioned in the article from the newsletter of the world vegetable center that I had sent around): www.facebook.com/groups/homefarmersclub.ucg/


Cheers
Christian

Dear all,

From what I gather, almost everyone finds the concept very fascinating. I personally am overwhelmed by the progress already made in this direction so far, am just a little disappointed because a week ago I started thinking of something exactly like the container garden concept (only for Christian to "shutter" my supposed innovation with this revelation).

Anyway, I think the concept is very good and worth magnifying because it will help especially so many urban cities in Africa, if I understood Christians’ mail well enough he wanted us to incorporate this concept in planning for urban cities, may be am wrong (I stand to be corrected), should we now not be be asking also HOW and WHERE to integrate this in the fact-sheet planning for urban cities?


Regards,

Paul

++++ these is another comment to this topic from the working group email list ++++
Note moderator: Gerhard Pelzer gave permission to upload his comment.

Hi,
for small containers high solutions. Fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers only when green color of new leaves is becoming yellow. Avoids to burn the plants and keeps nitrate in plant low. The more sun, the more fertilizer.
regards,

Gerhard
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

++++ these were two of the comments to this topic from the working group email list++++

Note moderator: Sjoerd Nienhuys gave permission to upload his comment.

Hi,
I think you need to clarify if you can use the urine without dilution. In hot climates you need to dilute the urine with 5 o 10 parts of water otherwise you burn the plants.

For rooftop gardening see also
bouwwereld.nl/nieuws/mega-moestuin-op-dak-new-york/




Sjoerd Nienhuys
Hilversum, The Netherlands
Telephone: +31-35-6232-646
Mobile Netherlands: +31-646-777-544


Op 18 jan 2012, heeft Gerhard Pelzer het volgende geschreven:
Hello Christian,

thank you for introducing us to container gardening. Easy to use fresh urine as fertilizer under such conditions.
The high productivity - 60 kilo a month on 30 sqm, that´s 2 kilo per sqm and month -> 24 kilo per sqm and year is extremely high, similar to data from hydroponics for tomato and lettuce. The pictures show a partial usage of 3rd dimension and might be a reason for that extraordinary figure.
In a discussion in organoponico Alamar (2 dimensions, Havana,Cuba) last month, we fixed 350 metric tons harvest of legumes on 11.5 hectares per year. That is 3 kilo per sqm and year spending an external input of aprox. 1,000 metric tons cow manure for a vermi-compost result of 350 metric tons, serving 4 to 6 crop rotations per year using one kilo vermicompost per sqm and rotation.
14 hours work a week for 60 kilo harvest a month is a "normal" figure: 1 kilo harvest per hour work.
--
Best regards,
Gerhard

Gerhard Pelzer

This is indeed interesting, and was good to transfer this discussion from the e-mails to the Forum. I've done a fair bit of urban container "agriculture" when I lived in our home in Hyderabad, in Southern India, where we had a tiny bit of garden space, as well as a terrace (it is a independent house). We often used grey water (where not chemically contaminated by soaps/detergents) to irrigate, and at one point, grew over a 100 varieties of vegetables and fruit in the very limited space -- including a range of beans, greens, herbs, and so forth. In any case, the concept is not new, and has always been part of urban ecology concepts, where the the the notion of urban "metabolisms" is often used. Typically, most urban agglomerations have increasingly longer inward flow paths (with water, food, materials, energy etc being brought in from farther and farther afield, from the rural continuum or hinterland), and wastes being disposed off in the vicinity of the agglomeration, thus stressing both systems. Using urban spaces systematically and efficiently for growing food and recycling waste (read as greywater, urine, etc) in the process to partially offset the urban "metabolic imbalance" is one of the urban (re)design pathways used.

Looking forward seeing some interesting discussion on the topic!!

Cheers,

Sunder

+++++ This is an email that I sent to working groups 5 and 6 +++++++++

Dear colleagues,
I just came across this article on container gardening. I am wondering what potential it has for urban agriculture and especially in low-income areas with regard to the seemingly high productivity on a small space. It is obvious that resources from sanitation (urine, faeces and greywater) could be productively used in such gardens. What are e.g. the comparative advantages to tower gardens (soil filled bags) which seem to be well accepted in some urban settlements in Africa (e.g. Nairobi).

I did not find much information about it in the factsheet on food security. It may also be an interesting topic for the cities working group on how to better integrate urban agriculture in town planning.

www.avrdc.org/fileadmin/pdfs/newsletter/26-Aug-2011.pdf



Regards,
Christian