All the Dirt on Gardening

Rooftop garden Children's Hospital St. Louis MO Urban Harvest in St. Louis MO is building a demonstration garden for city dwellers who want to grow some of their own food. And, it's a food roof farm.  The idea is to connect citizens of the city with organic food at their fingertips. Rally Saint Louis is funding the initial project along with crowdsourcing. The first project will be on the 10,000 square-foot roof of a two story building at 14th and Convention Plaza a block from the City Museum. There will also be event and education spaces on the roof. Another community gardening group in St. Louis grows their food on the deck of an underused parking garage. What do you think? Could this work in your town? Urban Harvest says the benefits are -  GREEN ROOFS HAVE AN ISOLATING EFFECT, HELPING REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY NEEDED TO HEAT A BUILDING IN WINTER AND COOL IT IN SUMMER. THEY ALSO RETAIN RAINWATER, THUS HELPING REDUCE PROBLEMS WITH RUNOFF, WHILE ENHANCIN...

A vacation destination for families and plant lovers. For anyone who enjoys public gardens, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the ultimate experiences available close to home. It is considered one of the top three botanical gardens in the world. Botanic gardens focus on teaching about the pleasure of plants, nature, landscape and horticulture as an art form. Henry Shaw built the original Shaw’s Garden in 1859 after years of studying European architecture and landscape design. Shaw immigrated to St. Louis in 1819 to further his business interests. Retired and wealthy by the age of 40, he turned his energies toward building public gardens on his 760-acre estate he called Tower Grove. Today’s visitors to Shaw’s Garden, now called MOBOT, can see the original botanical library and museum and walk through the Linnaean House. Before Shaw died he arranged for the gardens to go into a public trust and his mausoleum to be built on the grounds. The garden rooms visitors walk through each h...