WINDOWFARMS: Growing food year-round in inner city buildings

This vertical, hydroponic urban garden is a collaboration between artist Britta Riley, and Clarksville, Indiana-based Grateful Greens Produce. Conceived and developed by Riley and her Brookyn, New York-based team, Windowfarms is a vertical, hydroponic growing system that allows for year-round growing in almost any window. Nutrient-spiked water is pumped from a reservoir at the base of the system and trickles down from bottle to bottle, bathing the roots along the way.

The lettuces and herbs grown in this Windowfarms are served in Proof on Main restaurant next door.

Windowfarms is also an online community of over 22,000 Windowfarmers across the globe. Britta Riley launched Windowfarms in 2010 as an open source community where participants can share information about developing hydroponic, edible gardens for urban windows.

“Growing some portion of one's own food is a simple pleasure that can make a big difference in one's relationship with nature,” says Riley. “As we choose nutrients to feed plants we hope to eat in turn, we gain experience with a nearly-lost fundamental human art, get a microcosmic view of the food system, develop a stake in the conversation, and come up with new ideas for how to take care of ourselves and our planet.”