Food up there

Hello and welcome to my blog.

My name is Jock Gammon and I live in Sydney, Australia. I have had a keen interest in growing food for my family for a number of years and also have a strong belief in sustainability and knowing where our food comes from. I am fortunate to have a small garden in Sydney with room for vegetable garden beds and two chooks but understand there are many people living in apartments and high rise buildings that do not have access to such space. I want everyone to experience the joy of growing their own food and the satisfation that comes from walking outside to snip a few leaves of lettuce off for a salad or pinching a few leaves of basil to add the authenticity to your favourite tomatoes and bocconcini. For this reason I have been experimenting through my businesses Green Rooms sustainable gardens and Junglefy Green Walls & Gardens into new ways of growing food in urban environments.
I have been growing a range of herbs and leafy greens in our ecoVert modular green wall system with great success. Initially we had a few teething problems in the search for the ideal growing meduim. We tried pure coir (cocunut fibre) but had problems with root rot, we tried regular potting mix but had problems with organic breakdown and subsequent slumping again leading to root rot. We are now using a mix that has the ideal waterholding capacity/air filled porosity consisting of both organic and inorganic components. A slow release fertiliser is being used initially to get the plants established and an organic liquid feed supplements the feeding. Once the slow release fertilsier has finished I will be using an organic fertiliser to feed the plants. This type of system is ideal for people living on balconies with limited space. A friend of mine Indira Naidoo is experimenting with one of our ecoVert green wall systems on her balcony in Sydney. Check out her blog called Saucy Onion. She is undertaking an exciting experiment to grow food on her balcony whilst at the same time writing a book using what she grows as the theme ingredient.
Another area of food production I have been experimenting with is on the roof of my chook house. This is a small experiment to showcase the potential of growing food on the roof. The photos you can see below are of Lebanese cucumbers growing in 65mm of coconut fibre and ash and organic nutrients. The roof has sub-surface irrigation that is fed from a 5000L tank buried under the paving. We have just begun harvesting the first of the cucumbers. I will post some new photos once the weather improves and the sun comes out. We have had almost two weeks of overcast and rainy weather.Also growing on this roof are brocolli and beetroot. I have had great success with beetroot in the past. I put this down to having a constant water supply and sufficient nutrients. The beetroot on the right was grown in the vegetable garden bed.One of the benefits of growing food on the roof is the amount of sunlight that they receive. Other vegetable garden beds in the vicinity of the chook house receive half the light and the growth rate reflects this. The exciting part about this experiment is the thought about how much food could be grown in our cities and suburbs significantly reducing the associated food miles. Next time you are in a plane flying over a city have a look at all the roof space.

Happy growing.