Novice gardeners + hot rooftop accessible only by many flights of stairs = perfect opportunity to use self irrigating pots.
Two master gardeners, Anne Hars and Maggie Lobl asked me to show them how to put together some SIPs (read more about what a SIP is here) for the Los Angeles Community Action Network, which works with homeless and low-income residents on skid row. Hars, Lobl, myself and a bunch of folks from LACAN put together a few SIPs and planted vegetables on the LACAN rooftop. The plants are thriving in a space where previous attempts at container gardening met with mixed success.
Gardening, like all the ways we humans interact with our surroundings is all about context. If you’ve got soil, as I’m lucky to have, work with that first. But if you have only a sunny rooftop or balcony and/or limited gardening experience SIPs are a great tool. They almost guarantee success, which is encouraging for people who have never gardened before.
Read Jeff Spurrier’s article about the LACAN SIP garden in the LA Times, “Skid Row Community Garden: bounty by the bucket.”
That’s awesome that they are using SIPs.
Have you checked out Global Buckets?
(http://www.globalbuckets.org/p/grow-bags.html)
Hello, I live near Downtown and would like to voluntary some of my time to the Skid Row Community Garden project. I work in social services and a photographer on the side. I also do gardening at home. You can reach me at [email protected] or [email protected].
Thanks, Keith