COVID fuels urban barns and rooftop farming in San Diego
“A lot of millennials and young people are making raised bed gardens in their front yards,” Wesley observed. “They’re the farmers of tomorrow.”
By Diane Bell
San Diego Union-Tribune
Jun 17, 2020
Excerpt:
Urban farmers who aren’t into barnyard critters can tend their “crops” in their living rooms, on a balcony or up on the roof. Joe “Farmer Joe” Wesley and Dr. Paul Stricker, M.D. have created a virtual 350-square-foot farm on top of a house in University Heights.
They grow a variety of herbs; leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, collards and Swiss chard, and non-root vegetables, including tomatoes, aeroponically in vertical towers. A 4.5-foot Tower Garden, an upright hollow cylinder with cutouts for seedlings, can grow 20 plants, or more, in a three-foot space. Taller towers that rise nearly six feet can be expanded to accommodate more than 50 seedlings.
The plants grow without soil and mature 50 percent faster while using 98 percent less water than those cultivated by traditional methods, Wesley explained.
Their business, So Cal Urban Farms, is in the heart of a residential neighborhood. In fact, they supply herbs and vegetables, many hard-to-find varieties, to local restaurants. They also sell seedlings and Tower Gardens to the public.
