Rooftop Farm

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True North for the Rooftop Farms

What is it?

It's a working rooftop farm ... demonstrating how urban agriculture can be done sustainably (triple bottom-line) on Detroit's rooftops.


Possible Living 3D Goals

Economic

The rooftop farm provides

  • affordable produce for local restaurant(s)
  • income for an urban farmer that makes this career a possibility.
  • income for Green Garage for rooftop space.
Triple Bottom Line

Environmental

  • Creates a "hyper" local food supply
    • Walk the food to the restaurant
    • Year-round source of local food
  • Source for natural...organic food
  • Sustainable water practices
  • Part of good food movement in Detroit ..
    • Food Justice?

Community

  • Demonstrates next generation of "farm-to-plate" relationship. Special recipes.
  • Conduct demonstration tours..showing sustainable urban agriculture
  • Allow sitting area for Green Garage ... Businesses in Residence...and ways they can participate
  • Next generation partnering with MCBW...symbiotic interdependence...compost cycle...spent grain?
  • Next generation works on the farm...students


Possible Scope

  • Front area of historic
  • Front 5' - 7' of annex
  • Calculate sf

Resources


Schedule


Open Issues

  • Capital Costs...who pays for them?


GG Rooftop Crops--Initial design ideas and questions July 2012

Soap bubble greenhouse

  • Design and engineering are well-documented, seem reliable
  • Need to hear grower's perspective
  • Shades the interior in summer
  • Insulates interior in winter
  • Still need a heat source? (Depends on what is grown)
  • Doesn't sound complicated or expensive
  • Need to know what is to be grown/produced first, in order to determine size, heating/cooling needs
  • How tall is it and how might that impact both historic appearance and crop production needs?
  • How much weight does the soap reservoir entail?
  • How much space does the reservoir require, and can that be used for anything else? (Plantings hanging above it, for instance)
  • How is a soap bubble greenhouse ventilated?
Water Collection

Water

  • Need to harvest more rainwater from roof
  • Could catch in livestock troughs arranged along parapet wall
  • Set growing "benches" on top of the troughs to retain production space and make it convenient for watering
  • How to address watering in the winter?
  • Can we keep the water clean enough for food crop production?

Growing media

  • This is really a large container garden, not a farm
  • Soil-less mixes are better for this situation because they are not as heavy and offer a better root environment in containers
  • Soil-less mixes are very light (as little as 35 lbs. per cubic foot or even less after fully wetting and draining of free water)
  • Should include at least 30% compost for microbial activity, disease resistance, and nutrient content
  • Can mix your own or purchase pre-mixed, I have done both

Food Crops

  • No matter how intensive you grow, it's still a very small production area
  • Choose crops that are very high value for the amount of production space and time they require
  • Edible flowers, specialty greens and herbs could be grown in this small of a space
  • Could be sold to MCBW (Dan likes this idea)

Ornamental Crops

  • Cut flowers may be possible, further research needed
  • Ground covers are small plants with high yields and high values, and we have some "free" starter stock in alley
  • We also have a "free" source of native plant seeds and divisions
  • Transplants could be grown from these and sold
  • I have been unable to find anyone in the city, for that matter in metro Detroit, focused on producing urban native plants, ground covers, or cut flowers
  • We (the Green Garage) are quickly gaining the knowledge and experience to fill this need
  • Ornamental crops are some of the most profitable, but have been largely ignored by the urban ag movement
  • This could be because ornamental crops do not address food justice issues (nor would edible flowers and herbs, probably)
  • Ornamental crops can sometimes be grown on land that is not suitable for food crops
  • Could these sorts of crops be grown at El Moore?
  • Could growing natives for cut flowers help educate people about Michigan native plants?

Economic

  • You have to pick one customer and go for it
  • Make one idea profitable
  • Use what is learned to start or expand other profitable ventures
  • Profit goals and crops should determine how growing operations are designed
  • SPIN farming may provide some insights but is structured around growing and selling a diversity of vegetable crops in the ground, without greenhouses

Social

  • Growing up on a roof offers control, sanitation and security advantages
  • Growing up on a roof also physically separates the operation from the building and street-level communities
  • Tours offer one way of re-connecting the growing operation with the community
  • Involve building occupants in the growing operations? Are they even interested? Do they have time?
  • Attract others to the GG because we are growing things here
  • It may be difficult to incorporate or address food justice issues

Environmental

  • Environmental goals are in our DNA, these may be the easiest for us to incorporate

Resources

  • Artful Beekeeping Metro Times, Sept 2008. Developing apiaries and beekeeping on vacant lots in Detroit.

Rooftop Farm Google Docs