PS 39’s Incredible, Edible Garden!

Spring came early to PS 39. On Saturday, March 19th, our sub-irrigated micro-garden was set up by school staff, parents and community volunteers.

It would not be proper to say that “ground was broken;” instead, our garden is an urban wonder of micro-farming, using a closed-loop system of utilizing shipping pallets and water bottles. It’s cost-effective and conservation-minded, chock full of nutrients for the plants, and inspirational and fun for all.

Seeking to be an example of urban farming for other schools as well as our neighbors, this edible garden will show what is possible with very little space and supplies. Even in Brooklyn, we can sing, “Keep Manhattan – just give me that countryside!”

Here, PS 39 parent Trish Mulligan and soon-to-be PS 39 parent Frieda Lim discuss the project and its limitless potential, as well what we hope to see in the coming months.

Coming together for construction instructions

Frieda and Trish

digging in

TRISH:
Frieda started this thing the year before last. And I’ve been a gardener forever, so we both just hooked up about the gardening. But she started this sub-irrigation type of gardening.

FRIEDA:
It’s perfect for an urban setting. It’s basically a water reservoir at the bottom of the container. It’s a self-contained system. My farm is on my rooftop. It’s a 75-container micro-farm. It started out just for my family, and just for eating. I love food and I wanted fresh food for my family.

These containers conserve water dramatically, which is key for every reason. The plants are happier because there is such a huge factor in the planting as well.

TRISH:
It is a soil-less mix, which means it is mostly inert and very light. We add the organic nutrients and in the future will be adding a bit of compost. Most garden soils are pretty dense and the roots have to work their way through unless it's well aerated. The water seeps up to the soil from below and the roots reach down to the water. So instead of getting top water, we have a better and more steady water supply. It’s more even. And it also gives it air.

FRIEDA:
The reservoir at the bottom never contains 100% water, so it’s water and air at the bottom. It’s getting air from the top and from the bottom, so your plants are way happier. This is a system with healthy solutions immediately.You can plant anything that your heart desires. Any fruit and vegetable that you want to grow, you can grow.

We will be able to start eating come May. I actually harvest all the way to December. The funny thing is, I just went up to my roof, and through this bitter winter, a container of spinach has survived! This is after the wind tore off the plastic protection, and it’s been covered with snow.

TRISH:
The thing is, we also wanted to start a garden here, but since funding is really tight, we wanted to do it in a way that it wasn’t going to cost the school anything. Frieda, being very resourceful as she is, found these pallets where we can reuse the wood. Since we’re planting in plastic tubs, the wood is not touching the earth. It’s just to have a nice decorative outside for presentation. So…

FRIEDA:
We found shipping pallets in the neighborhood for people to donate. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, please, take our shipping pallets!’  They’re heavy and businesses get rid of them. So we painstakingly took them apart and removed all the nails. It’s a time-consuming situation, but definitely worthwhile. The project would have been way over a thousand dollars for lumber. That was well worth our community pulling together to achieve that.

It’s about our PS 39 community adapting these ways of gardening and taking them home. Anybody with a slice of appropriate sunlight can grow anything. Even in a window box, you can grow wonderful lettuces and radishes and different herbs, in the smallest space.

TRISH:
We’re definitely incorporating it into the science curriculum. Frieda and I will both be doing the next enrichment cycle of science. We’re probably in for the long haul here because we just started with our kids in the school. So we have a good seven years going on here. The kids here are also going to be learning science and biology because they’re learning how plants take up water. They’re learning about evaporation, and efficiency at different levels.

FRIEDA:
And what a fresh vegetable really taste like. Even adults may never have experienced that. 

TRISH:
You put a seed in the ground and you watch this thing grow and evolve. It never stops being magic, ever.

FRIEDA:
All of these other countries are doing this out of necessity, but we need to make it a necessity for our children, as basic knowledge, basic education. It’s essential for them to know.

There is a shared sensibility. There is a high aesthetic to compliment our landmark status. We didn’t want to put just – clunk – a big garden that didn’t enhance the beauty of the school, enhance the experience of the kids.

TRISH:
We’re incorporating all of these ideas with an aesthetic of beauty. Beauty is also part of what we need in our lives.

We’ll be growing useful things. We love lots of flowers and we will definitely have a lot of flowers, but we want to also grow useful plants, like herbs, to start making salves and teas. It’s an infinite seed, like any garden. You plant a seed and it grows and grows.

FRIEDA:
It will show everyone that it can be both, both ornamental and edible. And we will be using the edibles as ornamentals. There are flowers that you can eat.

TRISH:
We want to do things that make sense.  We eventually want to change the school lunch program in the school. This could be the first little step. Eventually, sometime this year, we want to have some food coming out of that garden. We won’t be able to feed all the kids right away, but at least the consciousness will change.

FRIEDA:
You’ll have the young greens in like 20 days and spinach in about 30 days.

TRISH:
And for people at home who want to do this, if your sunlight changes, you can take the whole thing and move it to a more advantageous spot, and it’s still growing. In a little 2” x 4” space, it’s amazing how much food you can grow. The kids can learn how they can use this in their daily life.

FRIEDA:
 If our elementary school kids can build this garden and maintain it, then so can we. It has to be easy enough to do. If they can do it, we can do it.

by Ronald Sklar, reporter at large