The Vertical Gardening Future

High density housing is a great use of building and energy resources, and, with 80% of Americans living in cities (and the world as a whole rapidly moving towards a majority urban population), it's becoming the norm, putting space at a premium and making every square foot count. Planting in soil and even hydroponics have a large footprint and a large volume of planting medium, but aeroponics easily expands vertically with a very slim footprint. A California environmental technologies company called Synergy has developed an aeroponics demo composed of a sleek vertical grid of plants through which water and nutrients trickle, fed by a PV-powered pump six times a day. Given the value of the air-scrubbing qualities of plants in urban areas, in addition to their food and aesthetic value, we may be looking at the future of urban gardening in a small-spaces-are-beautiful world. [Written by: Eva Jacobus]