Event Details — The Downtown Houston Container Vegetable Garden Project

Installation of a container garden is the first phase of a two part plan to begin vegetable gardening in Downtown Houston, according to Urban Harvest, which includes the following details:

Dear Houstonians,

The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and the Department of Public Works recently approved the first of a two part plan to begin vegetable gardening in Downtown Houston.

The first phase of the plan is the installation of a container garden at 611 Walker, the City of Houston Public Works Building across from City Hall, on June 4th.

The second phase, expected to take place this fall, will involve planting vegetables near City Hall/Tranquility Park. Excited by this idea is Laura Spanjian, the City’s new Sustainability Director, who watched a similar project develop at San Francisco’s City Hall.

The following excerpt is from a City of Houston announcement that was sent recently to City employees with offices at 611 Walker near City Hall:

“The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and the City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering in partnership with Keep Houston Beautiful, Urban Harvest and Asakura Robinson Company LLC are planning to create living gardens along the sidewalk of 611 Walker and your participation in the project is needed.

Each floor will be provided a large pot, soil, and plants. This effort is to demonstrate the City’s commitment to creating sustainable living in Houston. Each floor will select two representatives to manage their floor’s planter.

Urban Harvest will provide the plants to begin the new gardens, and more plants can be added as the project grows. You have the power to beautify your garden to reflect your green personality. This is a great team building effort and will reflect pride in making our downtown workplace shine.”

The vision for this project came originally from renowned local landscape architect Keiji Asakura with the Asakura Robinson Company. He started the movement by contacting the City of Houston with the following memo in part: “So, here is an idea. Planting gardens at the City Hall on Bagby frontage and at 611 Walker building. It is a paved area, open and hot, and not very inviting at all. Plant vegetables and fruit trees in pots. (we need to act on it soon to be able to plant good stuff.). Volunteers and organizations coming together for this event to plant. Can you picture it?

Next the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and the City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering added some additional creativity, inspiration and logistical planning to the process including the idea of having each floor of the office building adopt one or more containers. Then Keep Houston Beautiful stepped up to the plate to help acquire soil and other essential supplies, and Urban Harvest agreed to support the effort by providing plants and educational resources.

Urban Harvest is now actively seeking vegetable, herb and edible flower transplant donations from the public to support this project. We are looking for transplants that are in the 4” to 1 gallon size range, and we are looking for varieties that will handle the late spring through early to mid summer time period. We are once again calling on gardeners and citizens to come out and support this “garden-raising” effort. The citizens of Houston always find a way to pitch in, and we are confidant of a successful result.

We will be collecting plant donations at the Urban Harvest offices (2311 Canal, Suite 200) next week from June 1st-3rd from 9am-5pm. We will then deliver the plants to the project site Friday morning, June 4th.

A few plant varieties to consider include: eggplants, peppers, okra, southern peas, basil, rosemary and oregano.

If applicable, any leftover plants will be donated to other City of Houston community projects and/or area school and community gardens.

For those who are able to donate transplants, please label them with a name and address, so all can be properly thanked as sponsors.

Yours in community gardening,

Mark Bowen

Executive Director

Urban Harvest
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www.urbanharvest.org