ABSTRACT
At the intersection of the public realm, the “eat local” movement, and the lack of local fresh food in many urban neighborhoods, lies urban agriculture: food grown on the street for the local community. A variety of paving types can differentiate areas from roadway paving, indicate where food is being grown and help with street calming. Depending on climate and growing method, plants could be rain-fed, hand-watered using a nearby spigot, or watered via an irrigation system. Streets allow both horizontal and vertical spaces to be used for plants. Horizontally, plants are in the ground or in raised beds in areas that might ordinarily be devoted to landscaping, such as planting strips, medians, and bulb outs, or in reclaimed paved areas like parking lanes. Vertically, plants can be grown in areas not usually used for vegetation, such as attached to walls and fences, hung from supports, and trained on arbors along or over a sidewalk.
