Urban Agriculture, Hydroponics and Alternative Growing

People come to Greensgrow for many reasons, but urban agriculture has always been our claim to fame. We still have a lot to learn, but coaxing healthy vegetables out of what was once a toxic slab of concrete never ceases to amaze staff and visitors alike. Each season we grow over 20 different types of vegetables, totalling over 2000 pounds of fresh produce for the market and CSA.

Our large raised beds continue to be the powerhouses of our growing system, but the hydroponics, containers, green roofs, and our new off-site farms all contribute to a wholistic community of food production in Kensington. We even have greens going year-round in the high tunnels!

We continue to try new and crazier experiments to boost the quality and quantity of our produce. Stop by anytime to see what's growing, and keep an eye out for our educational series and consulting work across the city as Philadelphia learns the value of local food.

A long long time ago...when Greensgrow was a mere pup as it were....we began life as a hydroponics lettuce farm growing thirteen different varieties of lettuce and mustard greens for the restaurant trade.

When lettuce meant something and wasn't the ubiquitous riot of color and no taste that is now commercially available.  The question - how to grow safe tasty food in the city where much of land that would be available to us had what we euphemistically call "issues"  (i.e., was brownfield post industrial

Tom and Mary worked out of a greenhouse in Jacksonville New Jersey designing a system that employed hydroponics.

So we built that system on what was an old galvanized steel plant site.

Soilless growing. We've been at it ever since - developing new ways to grow food on old land.

In sand and perlite, in gutters and bags and on rooftops and out of the sides of buildings.  And for the last two years there's even been a few fish thrown in! 

Vertical growing may be new "news" to some people but it's been our stock and trade for over a decade.