Brick Gardens turns empty lots, buildings into urban farms
On two small lots in Cincinnati’s Madisonville neighborhood, a small farm has taken root.
By Michelle Alfini
Spectrum News
June 22, 2021
Excerpt:
Growing enough produce to employ a handful of locals and feed even more, Dominique Peebles said it’s been a productive start for one of his newest gardens. All it takes is a small greenhouse, a few dozen outdoor plots across the street and little creativity.
When he founded Brick Gardens back in 2017, Peebles had a vision to turn vacant buildings across Cincinnati into indoor farms, using aquaponics.
“It creates like its own habitat which is a bunch of good stuff that the plants need,” he said showing off the aquaponic tank at the Lighthouse Green Learning Lab. “Under here we’ve got goldfish, so we feed the goldfish, they eat, do their business, the water shoots up through here and goes out to the plants.”
Peebles said the system recycles its water, provides its own natural fertilizer and the plants keep the water oxygenated for the fish. All he has to do is feed the fish.
“That can produce stuff all year round,” he said.
He considers it an ideal way to grow food without much space or effort. Peebles said his aquaponic lettuce and basil grows faster and more efficiently than anything he’s planted in the garden, meaning he can get it out to the local farm stand much faster. There’s only one problem, a lack of diversity.
