Up and Down Gardening - 07783560223

Up and down gardening is the revolutionary way to grow your own vegetables in almost any confined space.

We have great ambitions for this project. Initially our goal was to help people save money by growing their own produce close to hand. As we came to look at life in general we noticed that allotments were becoming unavailable, there was a land shortage, more people were moving to the cities for work, the weather was devastating crops, and people were eating expensive supermarket produce that was grown quickly with fertilisers and chemicals, and then shipped in from all over the world. However, overall people wanted to have a garden and grow their own produce. But how could they do it from an urban lifestyle governed by the large food corporations?
So we came up with the Garden pod. The idea came from a mini allotment made from an old transportation pallet stacker. This was basically four pieces of wood that hinged on the corners and helped stack wooden pallets. The question was posed about how you could grow food without having a garden. The answer was to fill a shallow container with soil and put it on a concrete floor, but then that raised the question about how to grow potatoes, onions and carrots that needed depth. The answer was "Up & Down gardening" which offered both a shallow level and a depp level of soil for growing both.
Everyone loves to garden but who can afford the time and expense of an allotment if you live in a flat in the city? Usually a person might grow herbs in a window box or even have a single pot on the balcony, or several pots if you had a patio in a townhouse.
This was the concept and the challenge. How to grow both deep root vegetables like carrots and onions at the same time as flowers, herbs and lettuce, and then keep your small space tidy and manageable. The Garden pod idea was born. By having a dual level area with a compartmentalized frame and a base, all you needed to add was soil, seeds and water.
We started to think about what it would look like, and what we would want as a consumer if it became available. We employed a designer Prod Design in London to come up with the design based on the following criteria:
It would have to have several compartnets and two levels.
It would need to fit and snap together easily.
it would have to accomodate future accessories.
it would be easily transportable.
It came in a box with free seeds, trowel, gloves and a coupon for free soil.
We picked an extrusion type of product that fits together easly, is made from recycled materials and comes ina box with a handle that anyone can lift. Once home you take it out of the box, snap it together in your own customd esign depending on what you intend to grow, fill it with soil, sow the seeds and water. Within days you'll start to see progress of growth and within weeks will have your first harvest.
The great thing is that if you move you just empty the soil and take it apart, then set it up in your new place.
Future accessories of the pod will include a cover with solar panel and grow lights, a compost that uses all your food waste, not just the organic (and we're talking about meat and gravy), a watering system that automatically irrigates your pod when you're out of town, a sensor that tells you when your produce needs watering, and an app that lets you know when your soil is dry, plus an encyclopedia of knowledge about plants, vegetables, herbs and flowers, and how to grow them.
Another idea is to have some sort of virtual community and forum where people can swap ideas, recipes, get information on gardening subjects and even exchange produce with neighbours in order to have a multitude of fresh organic produce to eat.
Our philosophy is simple: With 7 billion people on the planet food production around the world will need attention. This is a way to do it yourself and work with others to feed yourself and each other. The poorer countries need help, as do poorer populations in our own country. By growing our own we are being independent, sustaining our planet and providing for ourselves, just like our ancestors have done for centuries.

We welcome all ideas and questions.