GrowHaus is an indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in north Denver, CO. They live their motto of “Healthy food is a right, not a privilege.”
Discover how a kitchen garden works in a cold, challenging climate. This 29 year old garden was put back into growing vegetables for the kitchen in 2015.
We want to share GrowHaus with you. During recent travels, we toured this amazing micro-farm in the northeast section of Denver, CO. Starting with an old flower greenhouse in an isolated immigrant neighborhood, this is now a model of innovative urban farming.
GrowHaus is a non-profit indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in north Denver, CO. The neighborhood of Elyria-Swansea is a historically working class immigrant community. It is surrounded by industrial manufacturing and transportation industries. As a result the neighborhood is listed as the most polluted ZIP code in Colorado.
The Elyria-Swansea neighborhood has been a first home for recent immigrants since the 1880s. It has always had one of the lowest household incomes in the city with low education and employment levels.
The area has endured a lack of access to healthy and affordable food with high rates of diet-related illnesses. This is due to their isolation within the industrial manufacturing and heavy industry areas.
Their motto is “Healthy food is a right, not a privilege.”
GrowHaus developed out of an old flower greenhouse. It incorporates several methods of growing food for local residents and restaurants in Denver.
We saw this is still a very busy industrial area with a large roofing and asphalt company and 4 lines of railroad tracks across the street.
The large hand-painted “Mercado” sign above a roll-up garage door indicated something unusual. The sign shows that vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and more are available inside. Spanish and English are the predominant languages spoken here now, but historically this area has been a settling place for many different nationalities.
The map shows just how crowded things are. A major rail line with multiple tracks is less than 50 feet from the front door. A large roofing and asphalt company are across the street to the east.
The modest sized homes are clear, with the line of older single wide mobile homes just to the right in the photo.
Just outside of the photo to the bottom is I-70, with its update and expansion just beginning. Much of the neighborhood to the south of the GrowHaus will be lost to the expansion and re-alignment.
When completed, I-70 will come within a couple hundred feet of the greenhouse. Two new light rail lines will be built in the next 10 years, cutting through the neighborhood.
Click to expand the close-up photo of the greenhouse and see just how tightly packed in the GrowHaus is.
The amount of food, education and community improvement that happens in this space is nothing short of amazing!
Our tour guide was an employee who is also a local resident. His insights and comments were very beneficial, having grown up in the neighborhood.
The food grown in the greenhouse is a world better than the boxed and fast foods he grew up eating!
There is both a hydroponics and aquaponics operation in the greenhouse. By partnering with local residents to grow food, provide jobs and education, everyone lives better.
Residents gain a valuable skill while earning money growing food they share with their families.
The hydroponics operation is 5,000 square feet and grows leafy greens. The customers are residents and local markets and restaurants throughout Denver. They grow about 1,200 heads of leafy greens per week using 90% less water than conventional farming.
The aquaponics side is 3,200 square feet, growing more leafy greens.
A commercial mushroom farm produces fresh specialty mushrooms year round for local use, restaurants and markets.
There is also a seedling starting nursery that’s just getting started. The nursery provides seedlings and young plant starts to area gardeners.
GrowHaus is a vibrant and essential part of both the local and extended community in Denver.
Our tour guide explains the growing, marketing and distribution of the butter lettuce from the hydroponics farm. Local residents who qualify buy food at cost with a sliding scale for other customers.
A closer look at the butter lettuce and packaging. It is marketed as “living” lettuce because the roots are still attached. It stays fresher longer than conventionally grown lettuce that is cut from its roots when harvested.
This brings a premium price from restaurants and markets in Denver, increasing the earnings of the hydroponics farm.
The Elyria-Swansea neighborhood is classified as a “food desert”. This is defined as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.”
GrowHaus works to overcome this through three food distribution programs. They are food boxes, the GrowHaus market and Cosechando Salud, a free food pantry and cooking class.
Food boxes are like a traditional CSA with food from GrowHaus and partner organizations. They have fresh fruits, vegetables and other items. The program is open to anyone in the greater Denver area.
The Mercado de al Lado is the neighborhood market, offering fresh produce, meat and dairy products year round.
The pricing is unique, using a tiered pricing system so that everyone has the maximum access to the healthiest foods possible.
Those that qualify can buy food at cost or a small percentage above the production cost. This gives greater access to healthy and fresh food to those who really need it.
Those who can afford to pay slightly below retail up to full retail prices, bringing profits to the program and keeping it running.
The Cosechando Salud is a free food pantry and cooking class. It is supported by the profits of the distribution programs. It teaches cooking essentials while providing healthy food that was not sold at the markets, avoiding excess food waste.
The class space and common area are a permaculture design. It is a self-regulating edible ecosystem with figs, bananas and papayas. There are composting systems with worms, along with rabbits and chickens.
Growing bananas and papayas at a mile high in Denver’s climate is pretty impressive!
It is inspiring seeing the scope of the operations at GrowHaus, along with the number of programs and organizations they partner with.
A small group of dedicated individuals have accomplished much with a challenging environment in an isolated neighborhood.
They have created a working, local, sustainable healthy food system which lives up to its mission. In doing so, they have also created a model of how inclusive participation and open cooperation with other like-minded organizations can expand the positive impact.
We left with the realization that one person can make a difference, even if it is in one other person’s life. That difference, and the results, are worth it!
Cindy and I recently visited the kitchen garden at the Forest Highlands Meadow Clubhouse. Forest Highlands was established in 1987, with the original raised bed concrete forms poured shortly afterward.
We don’t know how long they were garden beds. They were filled in and covered with sod for a children’s play area and family picnic grounds.
In 2015 the kitchen staff uncovered half of the original concrete terraced raised beds. They kept the upper part in sod, using it as a reception area for weddings or parties with 4 large raised beds.
This kitchen garden is just south of Flagstaff, AZ in a very short season climate. Some years they have less than 60 days of growing time, while others are just over 70 days.
This limits what they can grow. Creative use of existing advantages helped them be successful in their first year. The result has been a surprising amount of fresh vegetables and herbs for the kitchen.
They grow unique and unavailable varieties showing the chef’s talents with heirloom flavors.
Let’s look at some of the techniques used to create a successful kitchen garden in a challenging climate!
This uphill shot shows the concrete forms of the original stepped landscape garden beds giving way to the remains of the sod used for the children’s play area and picnic area. Four raised beds grow vegetables needing a deeper soil and host a reception area.
The raised bed soil is rich and fertile while the terraced beds need improvement. Rains left standing water in the beds on the lower right which made growing difficult this season. The staff is planting our cover crop mix to help. The mix will open up the moderate clay soil and improve drainage, soil structure and fertility.
The terracing is harder to see from this angle, but the size of the raised beds is clearer. Each raised bed is about three feet deep, giving plenty of water drainage and depth for root crops.
The semi-intensive planting has gone well with a successful harvest considering it is the first full year of growing there.
The concrete retaining wall topped with solid fencing is at the far end of the garden, providing wind protection as well as shelter from hungry critters ranging from rabbits to deer.
Carrots, beets and radishes are growing in this raised bed. After harvest the bed is mulched with straw and left dormant until early spring. The mulch protects the soil from temperature extremes, allowing earthworms to be more active.
The raised beds are full of earthworm activity. If you create the proper environment the earthworms will appear!
This left side view shows how different the soils are just 10 feet apart from the right side. The growth is lush and full, unlike the right side beds holding water with struggling plants.
There may only be 2 – 3 weeks of growth for our Garden Cover Up Mix before the frosts kill them. This is enough time to establish a root system and mulch cover, starting improvement for the soil.
Next season they will interplant cover crops among the root vegetables. The cover crops go in once the vegetables are a month old so they don’t compete with each other. This gives more time for better soil improvement.
Cindy next to a long bed of pattypan squash. These summer squash are very cold sensitive and love warmth. This planting bed takes advantage of the concrete walls thermal mass, effectively moving this bed two or three zones south. It is unusual to see such vigorous and healthy growth in a colder climate.
This thermal mass technique has been used just outside Paris, France for over 300 years. Farmers grew extensive fruit tree and grape orchards in the cold climate of Paris.
Thick south-facing brick walls kept fruit trees and grape vines warm. Horticultural books showed why these orchards were so productive and grew such delicious fruits.
There are still remnants of these horticultural walls still standing outside of Paris today. Many of the current residents do not know why the walls are there, or what function they served!
When we looked in the bed, sure enough there was a large pattypan squash ready for harvest! This is about 2 – 3 weeks prior to the first expected frost.
The same concept is used for the tomatoes and basil, for different reasons.
This east facing retaining wall supports the pool and is not a traditional thermal wall. This growing spot is unique because the pool provides the moderating temperature. The pool has a lot of thermal mass, maintaining a steady temperature to the concrete.
In the summer, the wall absorbs warmth during the morning and gives shade during the hot afternoons. The water temperature is cooler than the air, so the wall’s effect is shading and cooling.
During cooler weather, the pool temperature is warmer than the air, warming the bed. The sun warms the bed during the first part of the day.
Up at the top of the herb garden section, the same technique is at work helping the snap peas have a good second season. They are climbing twine strings in front of the south-facing driveway retaining wall. The gardeners use this spot for an early planting of peas using the warmth as a jump-starter, transitioning to herbs later in the spring and back to peas in the fall.
Pretty clever to coax three plantings out of a 60 day growing season!
A different angle gives another look at the upper herb garden section. Notice the peas don’t extend past the warmth of the concrete retaining wall.
Some of the herbs are in pots, while others grow as annuals in the beds.
Notice the high fencing, which acts as walls for wind breaks and critter proofing. The garden is protected from chilling and drying winds and breezes, allowing more vigorous growth than if it were more exposed.
The hanging buckets are at the top right, seen in more detail at the top photo of the article. Individual herbs grow in each bucket, giving more fresh herb variety to the kitchen.
Now you see how simple techniques are used in creating a successful kitchen garden, no matter the size.
Take a close look at your garden to see if some of these approaches would work for you, or with a smaller container garden close to the house!
GrowHaus – Making Good Food Happen
GrowHaus is an indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in north Denver, CO. They live their motto of “Healthy food is a right, not a privilege.”
Forest Highlands Kitchen Garden
Discover how a kitchen garden works in a cold, challenging climate. This 29 year old garden was put back into growing vegetables for the kitchen in 2015.