Symposium at Brookside Highlights Agricultural Innovations

A vertical farm might seem like something out of a science fiction story, but it was just another innovative agricultural concept presented at the Feb. 24 Green Matters Symposium at

The all-day symposium, third in a series focused on food, attracted speakers such as Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to address the 137 attendees on the theme of Urban Farming Pioneers and how to sustainably feed the world's population.

Leslie McDermott, a spokesperson for Brookside Gardens who helped coordinate the event, called the symposium a “tremendous success.”

Brookside has offered these symposiums for nine years, but McDermott said that this was the first time it also offered the symposium as a live webinar. Another first: a post-symposium happy hour.

Ed Murtagh, a prominent member of GreenWheaton who frequently blogs on Wheaton Patch, said that municipal agriculture is something that people in Wheaton could start applying right away. What about vertical farms, where plants grow without soil? “That’s a little more in the future,” he said.

So what exactly does municipal agriculture entail? Murtagh said the symposium encouraged a smarter approach to landscaping, planting vegetables to create edible ornamental gardens and turning traditional maintenance spaces like road medians over to the community for gardening.

Patricia Lynch, who attended the symposium, has worked as the coordinator for the Montgomery County Community Gardens Program since mid-January. Residents can apply for individual plots in the 10 community gardens spread throughout the county.

“Pretty much all our community gardens are popular,” Lynch said. The program’s website shows that six of the gardens are already full for the 2012 season.

What fuels this popularity? Lynch attributes it to at least three factors: (1) people's interest in growing their own food, (2) the economic downtown, and (3) an increased consciousness of the health and environmental problems associated with industrial food production.

Many sustainable agriculture advocates consider schools as an ideal location for a vegetable garden--healthy greens for schoolchildren and an outdoor learning experience that shapes future eating habits--but the grey area of who’s responsible for the garden can be a challenge not easily overcome. If the teacher or parent who started the garden later leaves the school, what happens?

“They had a terrible problem with abandoned gardens,” Lynch said.

That’s why the Community Gardens Program is taking a new approach: container gardens. 

Deborah Dramby, a graduate student at the University of Maryland who attended the symposium, said she was impressed with and encouraged by the ideas presented.

On a local level, in municipal communities like Wheaton where traditional farming is a thing of the past, Dramby thinks the new way forward rests in a middle ground between the traditional farm and something like the vertical farm--making use of unused spaces. “It’s making the most of rooftops and small spaces,” Dramby said.

The closest garden to Wheaton, Parklawn Community Garden, is located at 12718 Veirs Mill Road and offers 40 plots of 400 square feet each, according to the program’s website.

For those interested in community gardening, Lynch emphasized a gradual build-up to involvement, so as not to be overwhelmed with the time and energy required.

“A lot of people start out so enthusiastic, but they haven’t yet learned how much commitment it is,” Lynch said. “Starting slowly and building over time is what keeps people plugging away at it.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the symposium was held at Brookside Nature Center instead of Brookside Gardens. In addition, the symposiums have been held for nine years, not 19 years as was originally stated. We regret the error.

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