In order to help urban dwellers grow food inside their apartment all year long, Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray developed Window Farms — vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials. Using a drip system made from recycled water bottles that held 25 plants, they were able to grow beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula, basil, lettuce and kale...
They've since written How-To manuals, downloadable from their website, with instructions on how to build your own system from scratch, and are working to produce fully prepped kits available for purchase. You can also commission a window farm, and let a core team of experts build it for you. (More info available on the website's Services section.)
The Windowfarmers' Community is a terrific, growing support system for everyone wanting to learn more about this project and/or attempt to build their own Window Farm. You can find out more information about the system here, how to build a reservoir system window farm here, or all about the Materials and Resources you'll need. Check out the "How To Use This Site" featured post to get started.
We think this is totally cool. If anyone gives this a try, do let us know!
Images via Window Farms. Specific photo credits: 2. Lindsey Castillo; 4. Julia Makarova; 5. Gabriel Willow; 6. Sydney Shen; 7. Sydney Shen; 8. Sydney Shen
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Ooh, I want this.
view benfest's profile
Hi,
If you ever develop the full line of window farm kits, we'd love to carry them at our store! In the meantime, I'm going to try making my own - seems like a great project to do with the kids!
Eden
OutdoorPatioShop
view EdenT's profile
That's really smart. I've always hesitated to grow anything edible in window boxes because of urban lead dust/pollution, etc. This solves the problem.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile