How to grow an urban farm

Will Allen of Growing Power gave a great talk on urban farming at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts last Monday. He showed the incredible progress that has been made in transforming Milwaukee from a food desert to an urban farming oasis. And a brief insight into the work that goes into creating an urban farm.

How to grow an urban farm

• Find an empty parking lot or abandoned factory
• Find a group of unemployable youths as workers
• Build hoop-houses made from wood and plastic sheeting directly onto the asphalt
• Create a worm farm to produce live worms and worm-compost
• Use food waste, beer waste and coffee waste to make compost
• Create plant beds with a bottom layer of wood-chip, middle layer of compost and a top layer of worm-compost
• Plant the beds with fast-growing greens and vegetables
• Heat the hoop-houses by piling up compost beds around the outside walls
• Water the hoop-houses by collecting rain-water from the roof
• Power the farm using solar panels on the roof
• Control weeds by hand-picking and control pests using helpful bugs
• Harvest the crops and sell at local farmers markets.

Find out more on Will Allen’s vision at Growing Power: urban farming for the people.