Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Self-Sustainable Planter + Composter For Indoor Gardening
The planter features a companion app, which treats gardening as a game, showing the stages of plant growth as “levels” for your real-life veggies. If you were a teen in the late 2000s, you might remember the popular Facebook game, Farmville? Imagine that concept but in real life
02-12-2020 09:13 | Yanko Design
To reduce their environmental impact, my parents have started composting their food waste. Great idea, but there are two small problems with their set-up: one, my parents aren’t gardeners, so the resulting manure is usually scattered on empty soil beds (which the weeds appreciate), and two, the composter lives in the backyard, which means they keep a plastic container on the back porch for their discarded orange peels and wilted salad (not the prettiest sight). Overall, the composter is not living up to its full potential, because it doesn’t suit my parents’ lifestyle.
Segue to the Sustainable Family Farm, a miniature composter and planter that is best suited for indoor life. When I saw this design, my first thought was Ah-hah, the perfect Christmas gift for my parents … in theory, since it hasn’t entered the market yet. A mini-composter isn’t a novel idea; in fact, you can make your own with a plastic jug, soil, and some worms. However, the Sustainable Family Farm sets itself apart in two ways: first, by integrating seamlessly into the household regardless of the members’ gardening/composting experience, second, by making gardening into a fun experience for the family.
The product accomplishes this first point by utilizing all the food waste in the household without requiring a lot of additional effort. All you have to do is dump your compostable scraps into the plant incubator and monitor your veggies’ growth. The amount of maintenance that goes into the gardening depends on the seeds you choose — and there plenty of low maintenance options, like basil or cilantro. The Sustainable Family Farm accomplishes its second goal, making gardening a fun activity with the power of smartphones. The planter features a companion app, which treats gardening as a game, showing the stages of plant growth as “levels” for your real-life veggies. If you were a teen in the late 2000s, you might remember the popular Facebook game, Farmville? Imagine that concept but in real life. Or, you know … regular farming. (Jeez, I’ve exposed myself as a phone-addicted city-dweller.)
The Sustainable Family Farm, I think, is one of the most accessible urban planter concepts I’ve seen. Its low maintenance process makes it as easy as possible for anyone to grow herbs or small vegetables. You just need to buy the seeds and worms to get started – the circle of life takes care of the rest.
This concept won the European Product Design Award in “Home Interior Products/Household Appliances” and “Design for Society/Design for Sustainability.” An earlier version of this design was also featured on Yanko Design.
Designer: Chaozhi Lin
Click here for more information.
Photo Courtesy of Yanko Design
Indoor Composters For A More Sustainable Life
If you’re new to the compost game, getting a bin is the perfect first step. Here are some of our favorite indoor composters available today
Curb Your Carbon Footprint Conveniently
Composting is an easy way to reduce the amount of waste produced by your household, sending organic matter like food scraps back into the soil. While many people compost outside in compost piles, it is possible to compost even if your home doesn’t have a garden or outdoor area. Indoor composters are compact and low-odor containers for food scraps. Having one in the house is important for people that have weekly compost pickups or drop offs. Indoor composters also make life easier for people with outdoor compost piles, decreasing the frequency with which they have to step outside to dump food scraps. If you’re new to the compost game, getting a bin is the perfect first step. Here are some of our favorite indoor composters available today.
This five-gallon compost bin can live on a countertop and comes with liquid Bokashi, which can ferment and break down your food waste into soil and compost tea. Compost tea is a liquid that fertilizes plants and can be dispensed from the nozzle at the bottom of this SCD bin. Bokashi composting is especially great for the indoors, because it minimizes odor. With a tight lid and carrying handle, you can easily transport this bin to your outdoor compost pile or compost drop-off site.
This is an awesome choice for plant-lovers and gardeners, as it can turn your compost into soil amendment in just three hours. It is also space-efficient and can reduce the volume of your food waste by 90 percent. It is a tightly-sealed and odor-free container, using heat and carbon filtration to break down food, including bones, pits and shells. The machine will let you know when the filter needs to be replaced.
This 2.4 gallon polyethylene compost bin is a convenient size for any kitchen. It comes with a year’s worth of carbon filters, which help combat odor. You can safely put this in the dishwasher after it is emptied.
If you aren’t producing large amounts of food waste, something smaller and more aesthetic-forward could be the ticket. This 1-gallon compost bin is a small pail that will look stylish in an urban kitchen and get the job done. You can remove the plastic container from the pail to dump your compost and throw in the dishwasher. Its lid is ventilated for moisture and temperature control, but the activated charcoal filters help prevent odor from escaping and stinking up your kitchen.
By PopSci Commerc Team | Popular Science | May 4, 2020
Starbucks Offers “Grounds For Your Garden” From Local United Kingdom Stores
Starbucks Offers “Grounds For Your Garden” From Local Stores
Posted on 24 May 2018 by Ben Wood
Starbucks has joined forces with The Allotments & Gardens Council UK to offer green-fingered gardeners the chance to pick up coffee grounds from their local store to use on their plants, as the grounds can help boost plant growth.
The “Grounds For Your Garden” scheme sees Starbucks stores across the UK donating bags of used coffee to customers, encouraging gardeners to use coffee waste as a natural fertilizer and help boost crop growth, in collaboration with The Allotments & Gardens Council UK, which is helping promote the idea to its members.
According to the Allotments & Gardens Council UK, coffee grounds provide a great long-term way to enrich the soil and eliminate the need for other fertilizers, and they can also speed up the composting process – making them the perfect natural material to use in private gardens, allotments, and outdoor spaces.
The “Grounds For Your Garden” scheme is seen as an ideal way to reuse waste, as even the packaging is reused; baristas scoop used coffee grounds into the empty bags originally used to deliver espresso beans to stores. All customers need to do to get involved in the scheme is to pick up a free bag of used coffee grounds, which will be located by the check out in their local Starbucks store, or they can ask their barista.
Jeff Bond, a board member for The Allotments and Gardens and Council UK, commented: “Our members are always looking for new ways to boost their crop growth and this scheme really benefits gardeners in local communities who may not have access to this natural fertilizer. Used coffee grounds are high in nitrogen so they are fantastic for plant growth and we can use them for growing a range of plants on the allotments from, tomatoes to marrows and even pumpkins!”
Clare Walker, communications director for Starbucks UK, said: “Thank you to the Allotments and Gardens Council UK for shining a spotlight on this programme, which we have offered in our stores for 20 years. We’re committed to reducing waste from our stores, and it’s a great opportunity to support local gardeners and allotment keepers too!”