Speaker 1: Hey there, I'm Mangasicul're a co host of Part Time Genius,
Speaker 1: one of the founders of Mental philoss and this is
Speaker 1: Humans Growing Stuff, a collaboration from My Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: your friends at Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make
Speaker 1: this the most human show about plants you'll ever listen to,
Speaker 1: and along the way, we'll share inspiring stories, tips and
Speaker 1: tricks to nurture your plant addiction, and just enough science
Speaker 1: to make you sound like an expert. We are on
Speaker 1: summer break right now, but because Molly and I cannot
Speaker 1: stop our plant addictions, we are bringing you some mini
Speaker 1: episodes to brighten up your feed and grow your plant curiosity.
Speaker 1: Throughout the summer, we'll be dropping incredible stories from growers,
Speaker 1: advice from experts, and we'll even have some fun conversations
Speaker 1: around fascinating plant facts. So for this bonus episode, we
Speaker 1: are sharing some of the most interesting and unusual places
Speaker 1: people have grown vegetable gardens, proving no matter where you are,
Speaker 1: you've got enough room for a garden, from tiny houses
Speaker 1: to difficult soil. We love hearing about the clever ways
Speaker 1: people have grown plants and seemingly ungrowable spaces, just personally
Speaker 1: I feel like it gives me even more motivation and
Speaker 1: no excuse for not keeping my plants alive and completely
Speaker 1: ordinary circumstances. So today we are sharing four unexpected places
Speaker 1: you can grow plants. Number one potholes. So we all
Speaker 1: know no one likes a pothole. But in Toronto, residents
Speaker 1: in the Summerhill area had been complaining about a giant
Speaker 1: pothole to city officials for like months, and when the
Speaker 1: complaints fell on deaf ears, they decided to take these
Speaker 1: matters into their own hands by launching a highly unusual protest.
Speaker 1: All these fed up locals planted protest tomatoes inside the
Speaker 1: road hazard to make a community garden of sorts, and
Speaker 1: as the tomatoes grew and found their way onto social
Speaker 1: media as things do, all these embarrassed city officials quickly
Speaker 1: addressed the issue and fixed up the pothole. Now, as
Speaker 1: for the tomato plants, they also got a happy ending
Speaker 1: because they were transferred to a local community garden where
Speaker 1: they're living out their lives above ground. Two make use
Speaker 1: of an abandoned train tunnel. So in New South Wales, Australia,
Speaker 1: Dr Noel Arnold has found a unique place to grow
Speaker 1: exotic mushrooms, and he uses an abandoned railway tunnel. He
Speaker 1: doesn't just produce a few mushrooms for home cooking, though.
Speaker 1: Dr Arnold actually manages to produce over one point five
Speaker 1: tons of mushrooms every week, every week, and apparently the
Speaker 1: tunnel's damp conditions create an unusually controlled environment for both
Speaker 1: temperature and humidity. Because mushrooms don't need light for photosynthesis,
Speaker 1: they are also not bothered by this lack of sunshine,
Speaker 1: So today Dr Arnold grows everything from shitaki and chestnut
Speaker 1: mushrooms to fluorescent pink and blue oyster mushrooms at his
Speaker 1: least sun exotic mushroom farm. The mushrooms are sold to
Speaker 1: restaurants across the country, but if you want to sample
Speaker 1: the wears in person, Dr Arnold gives tours of his
Speaker 1: mushroom farm twice a year, three on a ball gown.
Speaker 1: In two thousand twelve, Stevie Famulari launched a line of
Speaker 1: dresses known as Garden Parties, and her dresses use this
Speaker 1: felt like fabric that holds seeds and retains moisture in
Speaker 1: a unique way, such that the dresses actually grow flower
Speaker 1: and reseed themselves. It's literally like wearing your garden around,
Speaker 1: and they are renewable. As she told Syracuse dot Com,
Speaker 1: one of the opera gowns she designed has already died
Speaker 1: once and grown back. Instead of floral prints, each dress
Speaker 1: has over five thousand living blossoms, including poppies, violets, and
Speaker 1: baby sprouts. But the idea for the fashion line comes
Speaker 1: from an unusual place. Famulari actually came up with the
Speaker 1: idea when she first saw these landscape engineers studying geo
Speaker 1: textile erosion. They were spring down the road and trying
Speaker 1: to make seeds grow on a vertical surface without falling off.
Speaker 1: So after years of experimenting with that technology, she came
Speaker 1: up with this fabric that creates its own ecosystem. Of course,
Speaker 1: the dresses aren't just appealing to hobbyist gardeners. They've made
Speaker 1: waves in the fashion world too, and as one stylist noted,
Speaker 1: Familarity's opera gown is beautiful, but it's her stylish long
Speaker 1: coat that could actually work as a replacement for for
Speaker 1: in years to come. Plus, it supposedly smells like spring
Speaker 1: for under the sea, the ocean is home to a
Speaker 1: lot of vegetation like seaweed and kelp, But do you
Speaker 1: ever think about basil growing there. Nemo's Garden off the
Speaker 1: coast of Noi and northwestern Italy is using underwater pods
Speaker 1: to grow vegetables and herbs in the ocean. So this
Speaker 1: all started in two thousand twelve when Sergio Gamberini, who's
Speaker 1: a scuba diving professional and trade chemical engineer, was hanging
Speaker 1: out with some local farmers whose crops were suffering. It
Speaker 1: was all disastrous because of the cold weather, and so
Speaker 1: on a lark, he wondered if he could grow plants
Speaker 1: underwater where they wouldn't be subject to the same weather
Speaker 1: conditions or even things like pests. So after building this
Speaker 1: little plastic biosphere and watching basil plants sprout underwater in
Speaker 1: less than forty eight hours, Gambrini knew he was onto something.
Speaker 1: Today he has six greenhouses underwater where he maintains a
Speaker 1: farm of over seven hundred plants, including strawberries, lettuce, tomato, zucchini, peas,
Speaker 1: mint time and even alo vera. And for me, I
Speaker 1: just loved the idea that when I go blueberry picking
Speaker 1: with my kids, it will be underwater from now on.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's bonus episode. Check back here again
Speaker 1: for more bonus episodes this summer, and don't forget no
Speaker 1: matter what season it is or where you're at in
Speaker 1: your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources for you on
Speaker 1: the Miracle Grow website. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow.
Speaker 1: Our show was written and produced by Molly Sosha and
Speaker 1: need Mongy Chat. This episode was edited and engineered by
Speaker 1: Matt Stillo.