A Garden in the City: Home Grow Micro Farms

The grow boxes from Home Grow Micro Farms offer a space-saving alternative to traditional gardening. Photo: Home Grow Micro Farms

In a city of cement, die-hard gardeners usually have to content themselves with a window box of gardenias or a series of never-ending potted plants. The prospect of growing anything even remotely more ambitious is extinguished by factors that characterize an urban environment, such as lack of living space.

Luckily, in the City of Angels, wannabe gardeners can now grow some of the tastiest fruits and vegetables year round, thanks to Lucas Brower and Jesse Kamm’s company, Home Grow Micro Farms. The pre-planted garden boxes that Brower and Kamm deliver to clients’ homes are already prepared with top-notch organic seeds and fertilizers.

For those worried about space, each garden box takes up only 3 square feet, offering a simple alternative to traditional city gardening. After the micro farm has reached the end of its production cycle, Brower and Kamm will personally exchange the old garden box for a new one with fresh seeds.

Surprisingly, these garden boxes require little to no physical labor, as the structure of the boxes ensures that the seeds receive a sufficient amount of water each day without any need for manual watering.

Home Grow Micro Farms’ menu makes these mini-gardens a tempting and stress-free treat. Even in the winter months of January and February, customers have the option of growing their own broccoli, beets, carrots, pumpkins and herbs. In the spring and summer months, gardeners can pick tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, melons and watermelons.

Brower and Kamm recommend that clients check their garden boxes for approximately two minutes each day. While not all boxes are equally productive, they estimate that the vegetables should be ready for a first harvest within 30 days of delivery.

Read more:
The Future of Urban Gardening
The Lifecycle of Your Dinner
The Next Wave in Composting