URBAN FARMING

Garden cities, family house gardens

The Garden City concept.

• Created by Ebenezer Howard in 1898.

The Garden City concept.

• Created by Ebenezer Howard in 1898.

Baghdad, round city

• The original plan of Baghdad. An idealistic city, the inner palm trees can be clearly seen, those probably would have been also fruit producers (date palms).

The role of contemporary garden cities• Garden city does not mean currently autonomous settlements. • They are practically districts of a city, sometimes members of an

agglomeration zone.• Being only a district, a present day garden city usually do not have all

necessary elements of a functioning settlement.• There is neither industrial zone nor even city centre.• These districts usually consist of dwellings, mostly dwellings in case of

so called „sleeping settlements” the rate of dwellings can be almost 100%.

• Moreover , the unit of these districts is the family house with garden.• Thus, mostly detached, or semi-detached houses occur. Sometimes

there can be seen terrace houses.• Due to the low percentage of buiding-in and the necessary huge area,

these garden cities are the most suitable for urban farming.

A garden city in present days

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Family house gardens• The unit of a garden city is the family house with its garden.• These gardens are originally for recreation, although the presence of

minor farming is ordinary (i.e. ornamental trees with edible fruits, like cherry trees, walnuts, hazelnuts etc.)

• In case of new citizens, who originated from villages, the usage of the garden for food product is quite frequent.

• In case of traditional village gardens, or yards, the vegetables, the herbs and most of the fruits were produced in gardens, which were/are closely connected with the dwelling houses and the ordinary size of these yards were usually the same size of present day family house gardens.

• Thus, even traditional vegetable herb and fruit production is possible in family house gardens.

A family house garden

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Family house gardens• Ordinary family house gardens are used to consisting trees,

shrubs/hedges, perennial beds, lawn/grass and sometimes annuals.• Moreover there occur swimming pools, garden lakes, plants in pots,

green roofs, trellis-works.• All of these typical garden elements has its equivalent from the point

of view of food production.• Only two kind of food production can not be made effectively in case

of family house gardens: crop production and traditional stock-farming.

• In case of greater gardens (around the 1 hectare size, typical in some hungarian villages) even crop production and stock farming (together) can be viable.

• In case of ordinary family house gardens, where the ground size of the garden is comparable with the size of the garden, this two is almost impossible, but everything else (including aquaponic and mushroom farming) is viable.

Family house gardens• Ordinary family house gardens are used to consisting trees,

shrubs/hedges, perennial beds, lawn/grass and sometimes annuals.• Moreover there occur swimming pools, garden lakes, plants in pots,

green roofs, trellis-works.• All of these typical garden elements has its equivalent from the point

of view of food production.• Only two kind of food production can not be made effectively in case

of family house gardens: crop production and traditional stock-farming.

• In case of greater gardens (around the 1 hectare size, typical in some hungarian villages) even crop production and stock farming (together) can be viable.

• In case of ordinary family house gardens, where the ground size of the garden is comparable with the size of the garden, this two is almost impossible, but everything else (including aquaponic and mushroom farming) is viable.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Garden tree

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Fruit production in garden (cherry tree).

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Ornamental shrubs

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Fruit production in garden (hazelnut).

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Hedge

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Fruit production in garden (redcurrant).

Family house gardens• There are many kind of ornamental trees, which have edible fruits

(i. e. ornamental apples, cherries, european and american hazelnuts, turkish hazelnut).

• There are a lot of fruit trees, wich have remarkably ornamental value, and can be cultivated in family trees garden (i. e. walnuts, pecan, hazelnuts, chestnut, almond, plum, cherries, apricot, tart cherry).

• These usually do not need any chemicals, especially if they are lonely surrounded by other kind of trees (greater diversity, greater resistance against pests, fungus and plant diseases).

• Furthermore, there are a lot of fruit producing shrubs (i.e. redcurrant, cranberries, cornel-berry, quince, medlar , cloudberry etc.), which can be optimally used instead of other ornamental shrubs and hedges.

• Basically, only an other set of plants (instead of current purely ornamental types) is necessary to turn our garden a small fruit producing plantation.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Annual flower bed.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Vegetable garden.

Annual plants• A vegetable bed can have also remarkable ornamental value (flowers,

fruits, leaves). • Despite, ordinary annual flower beds have only ornamental value

(these are not customary in private gardens).• From the point of view of lifecycle traditonal crops (barley, wheat,

rice, corn, sorghum) are annual plants.• As it was previously mentioned the cultivation of them in garden

cities is not effective.• Nevertheless, such crops among ideal circumstances (which can be

much easily provided in a private garden) can produce half kilogramm crop per square meter. This means that on 100 square metres can be produced 50 kilogramms of crop. In case of greater gardens a family can produce their own annual crop supply.

• In case of garden lakes the surrounding coastal plants can be simply rice , which has momentous ornamental value in many seasons.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Small rice fields.

Perennial plants• Quite customary in case of family house gardens (more common than

annual flower beds).• Similarly to annuals, the ornamental value is the only attribute that

matters in case of contemporary gardens.• It is quite strange that originally the perennials were no ornamental

plants, but herb plant beds in the Medieval Age.• There are a lot of perennials, which can be used as food, or herb and

have great ornamental value (i.e. lavender, salvia, rosemary etc.).• Food, herb, tea, plants for spice production can be all produced in

perennial beds or under deep shades of trees (i. e. bear’s garlic).• Their cultivation in case of ordinary agriculture requires relatively

small area, thus they can be very effectively produced in small gardens (garden cities).

• The best example is saffron (Crocus sativus). It requires a lot of human work, but only a garden size area.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Lavander

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Salvia

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Rosemary

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Saffron I.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Saffron garden (Udaipur Fort, India).

Trellis works• There are a lot of rambling plants, which require retaining structures.• A lot of ornamental is used in current landscape design (i. e. ivy

species, fox grape species, chinese wisteria etc.)• There are some of them, which are extremely important in traditional

agriculture, just like grape.• Different grape species and other kind of fruit producing rambling

plants (including annuals like bean and arborescents like actinidia species) are very suitable for food production in garden cities.

• Grape itself is not only the raw material of vine (it is also a food itself, source of syrup, grape sugar, dried currant).

• Even pear can be cultivated similary to rambling plants.• In family house gardens the usage of rambling plants on appropriate

retaining structure can be very useful as a green wall for the building itself, which reduce its energy demand both in summer (shading) and in winter (wind protection, heat isolation air layer creation).

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Spaliers.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Chinese wisteria.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Actinidia chinesis.

• Agriculture is based on crop production till the Agrucultural Revolution (for 10000 years).

• The main crops

Grape plantation

A possible way of uniting retaining structure with planting containers

• Rambling plants can be planted into these structures in the tree nurseries, and when they reach full covering, the structure can be transported to the appropriate building.

Application on buildings

• Openings are essential on green walls (for doors, windows etc.). This can be solved by using a modular retaining wall with a relatively dense rasterized structure. The unnecessary elements can be easily removed, and the rambling plants can be pruned. Luckily, all lianas bear pruning very well (in the temperate zone under continental climate).

Flexibility

• On this way even a whole detached house can be covered by such a retaining structure on an appropriate way and can be covered by the desired plant (grape or actinidia/kiwi).

Conclusions• The garden cities are the most suitable for traditional food

production among urban circumstances.• Only a new set of plants (fruit trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals) are

necessary to produce great amount of food by keeping the ornamental values of the garden.

• The walls (retaining walls, fences and the walls of the house itself) can be also used up for food production by using the appropriate plant cultivation methods (spaliers, retaining structures for rambling plantswith edible fruits).

• The usage of green roof is not so momentous due to the usage of flat roofs is quite rare in case of garden cities.

• In some certain cases crop production can be also a viable way.• Mushroom /fungus farming and aquaponics are also appropriate

methods in case of garden cities, although these do not require the garden itself.

Thank you for your attention!