Urban Greens

Ted Myers (left) and sister-brother duo Laura Greig and Chad Treloar want more local greens in your life – in January, and February, and March, and April... and you get the picture.

With biology, environmental science, and global ag. resource studies at the University of Iowa in their back pocket, this crew has set up a pretty impressive hydroponic system in their house, and have all kinds of exciting expansion plans.

Their first hydroponics efforts were actually in Haiti, building a hydroponic system for an orphanage where the soil was too poor for growing good vegetables. Here in Iowa we have excellent soil of course, but we don’t always have excellent vegetable growing weather, so they’re here to provide us beautiful greens, year-round!

Stop by your Co-op to try out the new Lettuce Medley or Bold & Spicy Salad Mix from Urban Greens, and look for more varieties to come in the future!

Growing through Hydroponics

Hydroponic growing uses burlap as a growing medium, removing the need for soil and eliminating soil-borne diseases and pests, weeds and the use of herbicides and pesticides.

A water tank contains all the nutrients required to grow the baby greens. The channels are linked to the tank with tubing, which carries the water to the plants and the channels drain the excess water. LED lighting and fans are used to create and maintain the proper indoor growing environment.

“No one else is doing it in this area,” Chad says.
“It’s a pretty good niche for Iowa City.”

They spend 100+ hours a week tending to thousands of microgreens growing in the backyard and basement. And they are delicious!

Microgreens are small, nutrient-packed produce that can be used any way you use other greens (on sandwiches and burgers, blended into smoothies, or tossed into salads). The trio plant a variety of veggies including arugula, sunflowers, sweet corn, cilantro, broccoli, and lettuce and harvest them just a few weeks after they germinate. By utilizing their basement as a hydroponic greenhouse, they are able to grow year-round.

Ted says,

We’re trying to innovate and become the New Age urban farmers. The old way of doing things isn’t working out. The population is only getting bigger and bigger, and finding new ways of growing things and educating people, that’s the most important thing.