Urban food production is an area which has been too frequently overlooked by development planners, considering global urbanization and the surprisingly large amount of food already produced in cities. Beyond the sites traditionally used by urban gardeners, there is considerable potential to involve millions of urban families, who may not at first thought seem to have a location to garden. This untapped potential is found where there is plenty of sunshine but either no soil or the soil does not lend itself to cultivation. ECHO and others have developed several "above-ground" techniques suited for such sites.

Where might sites for these above-ground gardens be found? For starters, in many cities there are countless hectares of sturdy, flat cement rooftops and many more hectares of tin roofs on insubstantial shanties. There are also steep hillsides, extremely poor soils, yards of rock or cement, spaces around tree roots, and places where land tenure is so unstable that only portable gardens are attractive.

Such areas were a natural challenge for us, since one of ECHO's purposes is to help people grow food under difficult conditions. There are few "soils" worse for gardening than a cement slab, a pile of rocks, a corrugated roof or a mass of tree roots. However, large areas of such unused but potentially prime growing space are often located in cities, near large markets and numbers of underemployed people. The potential value of creating growing areas in such locations is obvious.

Since 1982, ECHO has been working on methods for gardening in such situations, which are not nearly as difficult a challenge for gardening as one might think. In fact, cement slabs have become one of our favorite gardening spots in Florida, where sandy soils and nematodes make in-ground gardening a challenge. Urban gardening has a reputation of not being very successful. This chapter takes a second look at growing food in the city.

OVERVIEW OF ABOVE-GROUND GARDENING

• Some Criteria for Above-Ground Gardens
• A Look at Four Above-Ground Garden Methods
• Other Benefits of Above-Ground Gardening Techniques
• Limiting Factors in Above-Ground Gardening
• Where Are These Above-Ground Methods Being Used Today?
• "What About Hydroponics?" and Non-Recirculating Hydroponics

TECHNICAL DETAILS OF ABOVE-GROUND GARDENS

• The Shallow Bed Garden
• The Shallow Pool Garden
• Wick Gardens
• Tire Gardens

URBAN AGRICULTURE RESOURCES

• The Urban Agriculture Network
• Book Review: Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities
• Book Review: Cities Feeding People: An Examination of Urban Agriculture in East Africa

2 comments

Author: Jesse - 08/02/2010

I'm trying to access the different subheadings and chapters but it seems like I can't get the info. It always says the server is timing out. Please help me get this information, since this book is a real great resource for what I am doing in the LA area.

Author: Bob Hargrave - 12/10/2010

Our apologies for the time it took to fix this. ECHO

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