Gina Osborne thought vegetables could not grow without soil. But at the Tower Gardens on the Sproul Landing Sun Deck, she does just that. The vertical gardens consist of 50 cylindrical towers, each covered in staggered rows of 44 pocket-like cavities that hold the plants' root systems, according to the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA website.
Every 15 minutes, water trickles and drip lines hum as they bathe around 2,200 plants in nutrient-filled water from tanks at the base of each tower. Each vegetable grown becomes part of a meal at Plateia, the restaurant at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center, said Joey Martin, the senior executive chef for UCLA Dining.
The short commute from "farm" to table means the vegetables are at least five days fresher than grocery store produce, said Philip Coffey, a farm tech at LA Urban Farms – which works with Tower Garden, the company that manufactures the setups.
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