Gardening of the Future

Plantagon
Plantagon

Many will agree with me that gardening is the one of the most relaxing hobbies. There's almost nothing better than working with the soil to make your garden look like a wonderland or to grow your own organic veggies. We can't deny, however, that with passing time, gardening trends and concepts are changing. Nowadays you don't need a huge space to fulfill all your gardening dreams. In this article I want to show you a couple of super-modern concepts that we will be seeing in more and more gardens in the future.

Plantagon

Plantagon International AB is a Swedish company founded in 2008, the main aims and activities of which revolve around "developing technologies for greenhouse cultivation in large urban areas," often called vertical agriculture/farming. Simply put, Plantagon wants to make innovative, high-quality urban farming possible with as little negative effect on the environment as possible. That should be done through "integrated solutions for energy, excess heat, waste, CO2 and water." Sweden is the country where the roots of Plantagon lie, and the very first urban greenhouse is thus based in Linköping.

In my opinion, the Plantagon greenhouse truly is a brilliant idea. It's the perfect combination of environmental consciousness and modern design. The efforts of this forward-thinking company have not gone unnoticed and in 2009, its greenhouse was mentioned in the Globe Forum Sustainable Innovators top 100 list. Plantagon has furthermore won the international innovator's "Innovation Idol" competition and become widely recognized as a modern solution for urban farming. What do you think?

Agri-Cube

Agri Cube
Agri Cube

As I said in the beginning of this article, you don't need huge space to grow your own veggies. The agri-cube, developed by Japanese company Daiwa House, is one of the reasons why. Thanks to this amazing invention, anyone can grow vegetables at home, as fast as ever and in any weather. Trust me, this $70,000 parking-space-sized cube could change your life. It has absolutely everything that "plants need to grow, from lighting that can be adjusted for each type of plant to water recycling."

If the conditions are good, one cube can give you as much as 10,000 vegetables per year. A vegetable, considering electricity costs, would cost you less than 50 cents. The overall price of the Agri-Cube is, however, quite high and there are certainly many who simply cannot afford it. This invention is most likely particularly attractive to restaurants, as many want to use their own vegetables and due to their limited space, the Agri-Cube might seem like a gift from heaven.